Groove Sergeant

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Groove Sergeant was my first foray into building web apps.

It's a coordination practice tool that keeps track of your accuracy as you drum, like Rock Band. Connect a midi instrument or use your computer keyboard to play along with a sequenced groove. Your performance is evaluated after each loop and plotted onto a graph that will eventually represent your learning curve.

I created this app because, while learning to play the drums, I noticed myself struggling to learn some patterns while breezing through others. By examining my progress I hoped to understand which of my limbs I was having trouble gaining independence with and use that information to focus my practice time. I found that seeing my progress on a scoreboard encouraged me to persevere and learn tricky patterns that I had previously given up on.

Try for yourself by selecting a groove and practicing it at a gradually increasing tempo. You'll be surprised to see the rate at which your coordination improves. For additional practice, create a new groove for an exercise out of Marvin Dahlgren's Four-Way Coordination.

A screenshot of the Groove Sergeant practice interface