Rhythm Sight Reading Trainer
Description
Sight reading rhythms can be very demanding, especially with syncopations and rests. This app gives you a solid basis for a good rhythmic feel.
By tapping the exercises separately from your instrument, you will develop rhythmic skills much faster.
FEATURES
Exercises in 2/2, 4/2, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 6/4, 7/4, 6/8, 7/8, 9/8 time.
Each exercise can be played by the device at different speeds so that you can hear how it should sound and get the right rhythmic feel. Rhythms are played with slight subaccents to emphasize note groups.
Practice mode: you can tap along while the device is playing the rhythm.
Test mode: you only hear the metronome and you are required to tap the rhythm.
In both practice and test mode you get visual/audio feedback of the rhythmic performance, e.g. a red colored note indicates your tap is too early, blue too late, green = on time.
Tap accuracy is measured in secs (as the deviation from the “perfect” tap) and the best time is stored for each exercise.
More than 200 fixed exercises; the more difficult ones include rests, ties, syncopations, duplets, triplets, quadruplets and swing eighths (on iPad 100 longer exercises, because two iPhone-exercises are combined into one due to the larger screen).
Thousands of random exercises. Forty difficulty levels, including a level for absolute beginners and a level to get experience with written music that violates the imaginary barline rule.
Option to add swing to every quarter note meter exercise.
Classical (but accurate) metronome with speed of 20 – 240 beats per minute with optional upbeat sound.
Sounds of the player, metronome and taps can be chosen from several percussive sounds.
Automatic countin.
Optional beat numbers in the staff and beat-counting voice function to clarify the relationship between the rhythm and the beat.
Use of the microphone for tapping as an alternative for the tap button. E.g. “tap” the rhythm with hand claps or finger-snaps.
Optional stereo sound. Hear your taps in the right ear and the metronome & player sounds in the left ear.
Progress reports for fixed and random exercises.
Mail functions: e.g. send your 100% score graph or progress reports.
Left handed tapping support.
Very low latency.
Landscape support, e.g. for optional longer random exercises.
Universal app (iPhone + iPad).
EXTRA CHALLENGES
Train yourself to hold tied notes and to play legato. Hear a longer note while holding the tap button.
Expert mode; a higher default tempo for the exercises plus more accuracy required in tapping. This mode has its own set of best times per exercise, making the completion of the exercises a whole new challenge.
Ear training function to help in rhythmic dictation. Listen to the rhythm and figure out how the written rhythm should look like.
Hand/mind coordination: tap the beat with left button and the rhythm with the right button.
Endurance and speeding up tests.
Pricing
| Plan | Price | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm Sight Reading Trainer | $2.99 | This app is designed for both iPhone and iPad. |
Reviews
I just started using Rhythm Sight Reading Trainer, a.k.a. ReadRhythm, with my 7th and 8th grade music students, and I am very excited for the possibilities. It is highly customizable. Students can practice rhythms with only whole notes, half notes and quarter notes all the way up through extremely complex rhythms. There is the option of playing the rhythms by tapping a little drum pad (you can customize the sounds) OR – and this I love – clapping or speaking the rhythm! (If you turn on the microphone). There is an endurance test where students see how many rhythms of a particular level they can do in a row, a speed test, an expert level, a flexible metronome… etc!
One of the best features is that the program allows students to send a variety of different reports directly to the teacher by email. All I have to do is have them input my email address once and then they can easily send reports by clicking a little mail icon.
A few downsides: because it has so many options, it takes a little bit of time to learn how to use it most effectively. Also, some of the advanced rhythms notate in a way that is actually not correct. I plan to steer my students away from these levels.
I’ve been using this for about a year and I love it. You separate time from melody, and focus only on reading the rhythms. it’s very effective and the best thing is that it’s really fun to play, very rewarding to find yourself reading complex rhythms.
The app design is very simple, therefore very effective enough. There are a lot of settings to change the way you practice. You can activate the microphone instead of tapping the screen for example, among other interesting stuff.
The settings interface could be improved, since it’s just a large list of settings it’s not much intuitive and comfortable. But the settings interface is less important, since you gonna spend much more time practicing than trying other settings.