Apps I’ve built for drummers

I teach drums. Beam and Shuffle both started as something I needed for my lessons. I kept using them, they kept being useful, so here they are!

Beam — Drum notation, fast.

Beam is a tool for writing drum transcriptions and worksheets. You add notes in a step grid and it turns them into properly engraved notation. It can also play the notation back using real sampled drums.

I now use it in all of my lessons. I can make a worksheet during the lesson and the student sees it update live on a second screen in the room. At the end I share it with them or their parent, as a link or a PDF. I wrote more about why I made it.

It's free to use, no sign-up. Paid plans add unlimited charts, PDF export, and extra features for gigging and teaching.

beamdrums.com →

The Beam editor showing a drum transcription, with the step grid open below the notation

Shuffle — Practice randomiser and metronome

Practising things in a random order makes them stick better than working through the same list of exercises in the same order every practice session. There's good research behind that, and it's why I made Shuffle.

You give it the exercises you want to work on and it serves them up, either a set number of reps of each in turn, or in a completely random order.

The web app is free, no sign-up. An iOS app is on the way.

shuffleclick.com →

Shuffle running a practice session, showing exercise 3

I'm still working on both apps. Playback in Beam was something people asked for, so if you have any feedback, please let me know!