Free · no microphone · about two minutes
Rhythm test
Listen to a bar, then tap it back on the screen. Eight rounds, the last one without the click. You get a score for timing and for steadiness, and you hear your own taps against the beat.
Turn the sound up. Taps, not a microphone, so a quiet room isn't needed. Wired headphones or the phone's speaker work best; Bluetooth headphones play late, and the first round measures that. On an iPhone the silent switch mutes the clicks.
Round 1 of 8 · Warm-up
Tap on every click
Your score
–/100
Your taps, played back over the last rhythm.
the rhythm's notesyour tapsa note you missed
- Timing
- Steadiness
- What your phone adds
What this measures
Timing is how close your taps land to the notes of a rhythm you just heard: six rounds, from plain beats to off-beats and fast notes. A hit within about 30 milliseconds sounds tight; from about 60 most listeners start to hear it as early or late. Steadiness is whether you keep the beat when the click stops: how even your taps are, and whether you speed up or slow down. Speeding up a little is the most common thing to do.
It's a quick look at one evening's taps, not a verdict on your musicality. Rhythm is practice more than talent, and a first go at tapping on glass costs points; take it twice.
Your phone is part of the test, so we measure it
A phone plays a click a little late and notices a tap a little late. The speaker's delay is usually 10 to 40 milliseconds, Bluetooth headphones add 150 or more, a touch screen 20 to 50. The first round asks you to tap on the click and measures how far behind it your taps land on this phone; that amount is taken off every tap after it, and the result says how much it was. What's left is your timing, not your phone's.
Questions
Is this a test for drummers?
For anyone. The rhythms are one bar long and simple; the last ones have off-beats and a few fast notes. Drummers tend to score high on steadiness, which is the part that takes years.
Why taps and not clapping?
A microphone adds its own delay, and it differs from phone to phone and is worse over Bluetooth. A tap on the screen arrives faster and the same way every time, and it works in a quiet office.
What happens to my rhythm?
Nothing leaves your phone. The door at the end opens Brumm with the rhythm you tapped as a line of notes inside a club track, where you can hum a melody over it. No account, no upload.
Nothing you tap is kept or sent. How the site counts visits.