Rudimentalist

Practice rudiments with a metronome that listens back. Per-hit accuracy in milliseconds, on-time / near-miss / missed — read the screen, fix the hand. More coming soon.

Rudimentalist is a practice tool for drummers working through the PAS rudiments — singles, doubles, paradiddles, and paradiddle-diddles. Set a tempo, tap start, and play. The app listens through your microphone, scores every hit against the metronome, and tells you exactly where the timing slipped — to the millisecond.

No recordings. No accounts. No uploads. Audio is analysed on-device in real time and discarded immediately.

WHAT YOU GET

• 18 of the Percussive Arts Society's 40 rudiments — singles, doubles, paradiddles, and paradiddle-diddles — organised by family. Flam and

drag rudiments, plus the buzz roll, are coming in a future update. • Live per-hit timing feedback in milliseconds, with on-time / near-miss / missed colours so you can read the screen and fix the hand without breaking tempo. • A drift label that tells you whether you are consistently rushing or dragging, plus a running session accuracy percentage. • Adjustable tempo and session length so you can drill a phrase or run an exercise end-to-end. • A session results screen that summarises accuracy and drift across the patterns you played.

LATENCY CALIBRATION

Every device and every audio route — built-in mic, AirPods, wired headphones — has its own latency. A 30-second calibration measures yours and applies it automatically, so the score reflects your playing, not your hardware. Re-run it whenever you switch outputs.

PRIVACY BY DESIGN

The microphone is the only sensor used, and the audio never leaves the device. No analytics SDK, no crash-reporting upload, no network permission requested. The app works fully offline.

WHO IT IS FOR

• Drummers who want to know whether they are actually on the click, not just close to it.
• Students working through a method book or a teacher's rudiment list.
• Returning players rebuilding consistency.
• Anyone who has ever wondered "am I rushing?" and wanted a real answer.

ABOUT THE DEVELOPER

Built by a drummer and app developer with a long-running passion for learning, playing, and teaching drumming. Rudimentalist is a one-person project — no company, no team. If you have feedback or run into issues, the support link below reaches me directly.

REQUIREMENTS

• A microphone — built-in is fine; an external mic gives sharper detection on a kit.
• Quiet-ish surroundings or a practice pad for clearest hit detection.
• iPhone or iPad on iOS 17 or later.