Rhythm Tap

Practise reading and tapping a two-bar rhythm in 4/4, 2/4, 3/4, 5/4, 7/4 or 6/8 time

A two-bar rhythm appears on the staff below. Click "New rhythm" to generate one and study it for as long as you like, then click "Play pattern" for a count-in followed by the pattern itself — the button becomes your tap button the moment playback starts, so just tap it (or press spacebar) in time with each note. Switch on "You trigger the notes" to hear your own tap produce the sound in real time. You can click "Play pattern" and try the same rhythm again as many times as you like — it only changes when you click "New rhythm".

In 4/4, 2/4 and 3/4, "Include half & whole notes and rests", "Include eighths" and "Include dotted notes" can each be switched on or off independently — a full bar as a single note or rest always uses a dotted half in 3/4, since that's the only valid way to notate three beats as one symbol. 5/4 is felt as two smaller groups — 3+2 or 2+3, chosen at random each time — and 7/4 likewise as 4+3 or 3+4, each following the same rules as the smaller time signatures they're built from.

In 6/8, the eighth note is the underlying pulse: each bar is felt as two groups of three. With "Include eighths" off, each group is a plain dotted quarter — the only valid way to notate an undivided three-eighth span, the compound-time equivalent of a plain quarter note in 4/4. Switching "Include eighths" on allows groups to break down into quarter+eighth, eighth+quarter or three individual (beamed) eighths, and it's only in that mode that the dotted-notes toggle has any effect — deciding whether a plain dotted quarter can still turn up as one of the possible outcomes alongside the subdivided ones.

Note: eighth notes only get joined by a beam when they fall within the same beat (or, in 6/8, the same three-eighth group). Tempo is adjustable from 50 to 140 BPM in steps of 5.

Grand staff showing a two-bar rhythm pattern