Set up for the kit
This page opens the metronome in 4/4 at 100 BPM with sixteenth-note clicks, the beat louder than the three in between, and the gap trainer on: two bars with the click, two bars silent. During the silent bars the beat circles keep flashing and the bar counter keeps running, so you can glance at the screen if you lose your place.
Exercises to try
- Singles on the grid: single strokes on a pad or snare with the sixteenths. In the silent bars, keep them even and listen for where the click comes back.
- Grooves through the gap: play a basic rock beat (kick 1 and 3, snare 2 and 4, eighth-note hats). If the click returns ahead of you, you were dragging; behind, rushing.
- Longer gaps: as your time settles, raise the silent bars to 4, then 8.
- Backbeat click: for a different feel, switch Clicks per beat to Beats and silence beats 1 and 3, so the click only plays 2 and 4.
- Building speed: turn on the speed trainer with small steps for fills and rudiments; it works together with the gap trainer.
Hearing the click over drums
An acoustic kit is loud: use in-ear or isolating headphones from a phone or laptop, and pick Beep or Woodblock under Sound for the sharpest attack. Wired headphones keep the click in time with the lights. For grooves with kick, snare and hats instead of a single click sound, build a pattern in the drum machine and play over it.