Drum Kit

Drum Kit is a virtual drum kit and drumming game you play right in your browser. Hit ten drums and cymbals with your keyboard, a mouse or several fingers, build loops in the Beat Maker, then work through twelve Drum Lessons that score your timing. Every sound is synthesized live by your browser, so there is nothing to download. It’s a free drum game online for laptops, Chromebooks, tablets and phones.

How to play

• Free Play: tap or click any drum on the drawn kit: crash, ride, hi-hat, two toms, snare, kick and floor tom, plus pads for the open hi-hat and a hand clap. A hit near the center of a drum plays a little louder than one at the edge. Press Pads for ten big buttons instead.
• Keyboard: Q crash, W open hi-hat, E and R toms, T ride, A clap, S snare, D closed hi-hat, F floor tom, and Space or X for the kick.
• Several at once: press two keys together, or play with several fingers on a touch screen. Each finger triggers its own drum, and the play area won’t scroll the page.
• Hi-hat choke: as on a real kit, the closed hi-hat cuts off an open hi-hat that is still ringing.

Beat Maker

The Beat Maker is a 16-step drum machine. Each row is a drum and each step is a sixteenth note, so a row is one bar of 4/4.

• Program a beat: tap a step to turn it on or off. Hold it for a moment, or Shift-click it, to make it a louder accent.
• Tempo and swing: set 50 to 200 BPM and 0 to 100% swing. Swing pushes every second sixteenth note later, up to a full triplet shuffle.
• Presets: start from a Rock, Funk, Hip-hop, Bossa nova or Four on the floor groove and change it however you like.
• Save and load: pick slot 1 to 4 and press Save, then Load to bring the beat back. Your current beat is kept between visits too.
• Record live: switch on Rec while the loop plays, and every drum you hit is added to the nearest step.

Press Play loop in Free Play to jam over your beat on the kit. On a phone, the grid shows eight steps at a time, with buttons to flip between the halves.

Drum Lessons

Twelve lessons build up from a steady kick to a full rock beat, open hi-hats, sixteenth notes, a tom fill, a syncopated kick and a swing groove. Each pass unlocks the next level.

• Listen, then play: the lesson plays the pattern for one bar with a click on every beat. Then play it two or four times as the line sweeps across the notes.
• Timing feedback: within 35 milliseconds is On time (100 points), within 80 ms is Early or Late (70), and further off is Too early or Too late (35). Each hit shows how many milliseconds off it was.
• Misses and extras: a note you skip is a Miss, and hitting a lesson drum when no note is due costs 25 points.
• Stars: 60% of the maximum score earns one star and unlocks the next level, 80% earns two and 93% earns three.

Guide plays the pattern quietly during your turn, and Offset adjusts for speakers or headphones that add a delay. Stars, best scores and settings are saved in your browser.

Tips

• Count out loud. The lesson grid reads 1 e & a, 2 e & a. Saying it with the click makes sixteenth notes easier to place.
• Build a beat in layers. Get the hi-hat steady first, then add the snare, then the kick.
• Practice slowly. Program a lesson pattern into the Beat Maker at a low tempo and play along in Free Play.

FAQ

Is Drum Kit free?

Yes. It’s free with no account and no install, and the sounds are generated by your browser, so it loads fast.

Can I play it on a phone or tablet?

Yes. Tap the drums or pads with several fingers at once. If you hear nothing, check that silent mode is off.

Can I save my beats?

Yes. The Beat Maker has four save slots stored in your browser. Clearing site data removes them.

Why do my hits feel late in the lessons?

Your audio device probably plays sound a little after the game schedules it, which is common with Bluetooth headphones. Raise the Offset 5 ms at a time until On time hits feel right.

Want melody as well as rhythm? Try our Virtual Piano, which teaches songs note by note, or test your memory for patterns with Simon.