Groove Trainer

How to use it

Pick a groove. The six presets come straight out of Pete's lesson on practising with a metronome — the basic rock pattern with the kick on 1 and 3, funk with its semiquaver (sixteenth-note) hats, a swung jazz ride to walk under, bossa, reggae's One Drop and a four-on-the-floor dance pulse. Each one arrives at a sensible tempo with the right amount of swing.

Make it yours. Tap any step to add or remove a hit, and drag the tempo and swing wherever you like. Tap a drum's name to silence that row — which is where the lesson's exercises live: lock one note to the kick alone, play off the snare, follow the hats. The Tom row starts empty on every groove on purpose: drop a little figure into the end of the bar, then answer it on the bass.

Test your inner clock. Turn on the rhythm trainer and the band keeps dropping out: some bars play, some bars are silence while the grid keeps sweeping. Hold your line through the gap and listen for the truth when the drums return. It's the same trainer as the metronome's — except now it's a whole kit leaving you alone with your time.

Press play — or hit the space bar. On a phone the screen stays awake while it's running, so it won't doze off mid-practice.

The thinking behind this tool — inner clocks, gap training, why drummers keep better time than the rest of us — lives in Pete's lesson on developing timing.

This is NOT a full drum machine, nor is it intended to be. Just one adjustable bar with 5 very rudimentary percussion sounds to help get you in the groove.