The teacher taps a four-beat rhythm; you tap it straight back. Ten rounds, then a grade
Call and response โ where rhythm games come from
One player taps a phrase, the other answers with the same phrase. That is call and response, and it is the oldest rhythm game there is โ jazz trading fours, West African drumming, the crowd echoing a rapper all use it. You absorb the beat while listening and reproduce it on your turn, which is far closer to real musical timing than tapping along to a metronome.
One round, step by step
- Press START. A 3-2-1-GO count-in runs, then a "ROUND 1/10" banner slides past. Turn your sound on โ you need to hear the teacher.
- Listen! โ the teacher on the left taps a rhythm across four beats (a little over two seconds). The eight slots under the stage are eighth-note positions; the ones the teacher plays light up blue and a white outline tracks the current slot.
- Readyโฆ โ a 4-3-2-1 count runs for four beats. The hi-hat keeps ticking, so use this to replay the pattern in your head.
- Your turn! โ for the next four beats, tap anywhere on the screen or press the space bar. Each slot shows PERFECT (green), OK (yellow) or MISS (pink) as you go.
- A 1.7-second rest, then the next round. After round ten, "FINISH!" leads to the result screen with your Perfect count, OK count, Miss count and grade; with at least one Perfect you can post the score under a nickname.
How hits are judged
| PERFECT | Within ยฑ45ms of the beat โ indistinguishable from dead-on to the ear |
|---|---|
| OK | Within ยฑ100ms โ slightly pushed or dragged |
| MISS | Further out, a note you skipped, or a tap where there was no note |
Your grade is the share of notes hit Perfect: 90%+ is SUPERB, 70%+ GOOD, 45%+ OK. Later rounds mix in eighth notes and rests, so it is normal for Perfects to thin out toward the end.
Patterns by round
| Rounds 1โ2 | Quarter notes only โ three or four of the four on-beats |
|---|---|
| Rounds 3โ5 | Eighth notes start to appear; four notes per round |
| Rounds 6โ8 | Syncopated shapes that skip the first beat or start off the beat; four or five notes |
| Rounds 9โ10 | Dense patterns using five or six of the eight slots |
The tempo stays at 96 BPM from start to finish: a quarter note is 0.625 s, an eighth 0.3125 s. Each difficulty tier has four prepared patterns and one is drawn at random, so two games at the same round rarely sound alike. The leaderboard counts only the number of Perfects across the ten rounds; an OK is not a Perfect for the grade either.
How to get better at it
Tap along in your head while listening. You do not need to move a finger โ silently playing the pattern is what makes it stick. On your turn, do not wait for the beat; anticipate it. Reacting to a sound puts you 150ms late before you have moved. On patterns with rests, counting the gaps matters more than the hits โ that is where most people add or drop a note.
Frequently asked questions
What happens if I tap where there is no note?
A MISS is added and your combo breaks. That MISS also joins the total note count, so the Perfect ratio behind your grade falls with it. Tapping a slot you have already hit does the same. An extra tap therefore costs more than a missing one.
Does the combo affect my score?
No. The combo in the top-right corner only shows how many PERFECTs and OKs you have landed in a row; it appears from 3 and turns orange at 10. Records and rankings look at the Perfect count alone.
Can I tap along while the teacher plays?
Yes. Taps during the listen phase or the count sound your drum but are not judged โ and playing along is a good way to fix the pattern in your body. Judging happens only during the four beats under the "Your turn!" bubble.
Is the space bar more accurate than tapping the screen?
Both use the exact moment of the press, so there is little difference. Some touch screens do report taps a few tens of milliseconds late; if you keep landing on OK rather than PERFECT, try hitting a touch earlier than feels natural.
Bluetooth earphones will wreck your score
Bluetooth adds 100โ200ms of latency, so every sound reaches you late. The game judges against when the beat should have sounded, which means on Bluetooth all your taps read as late. Use wired earphones or the device speaker.
Related tools
- Perfect Pitch Test โ after rhythm, pitch: name a single note with no reference
- Reaction Time Test โ see in milliseconds why reacting to a sound is always late
- Time Perception Test โ stop the clock at N seconds without looking, your internal metronome
- Taiyaki Tycoon โ another timing game, with flipping instead of tapping