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Improve Your Rhythm with the Clapping Music App

by | Nov 13, 2020 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

From classicalapps.com who brought us the fantastic Orchestra app comes the app version of Steve Reich’s Clapping Music. This app teaches you to play the 1970s composition by the famous minimalist composer. The composition is for two people clapping the same rhythmic pattern, one pattern is displaced one beat every 6-12 repetitions while the other remains constant. The app has the player simply tap on the bottom of the screen to trigger a clap sound. It uses a simple circle based notation to symbolize the rhythm patterns.

Clapping music app circle notation image
This app is an illustration of simplicity and multiple levels of feedback. The part of the screen you tap on features a circle which grows larger or smaller based on how accurate you are tapping the rhythm pattern. The smaller the circle the further ahead of the beat and the larger the further behind the beat.

The notation of circles descends one line at a time with each flashing to show you where you are in the pattern line. The circles continue to descend as you tap the rhythm correctly but begin to retreat upward the more mistakes you make growing ever red in color to signify that you are about to be kicked out of the level. If your tapping improves then the rhythms continue to descend

When finishing or failing a level you are given a percentage score of your rhythmic accuracy per pattern which can show you which rhythmic pattern you struggled or the point where perhaps your performance began to wane. The multiple levels of feedback make it one of the best apps I have seen for working on beat timing accuracy while performing simple rhythm patterns. The simple graphics suit the minimalist style of Reich’s composition. The simplicity of the graphics also prevent the player from being distracted from performance.

Clapping music rhythmic accuracy feedback

There are four levels to select from. Easy, Medium, Hard and Practice. Easy provides you with a metronome and is forgiving of mistakes. Medium takes the metronome away, slightly increases the tempo and is less forgiving of mistakes. Hard increases the tempo and is very unforgiving, it will kick you off the level quickly

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Willow Neilson

I’m a musician, composer, educator and learning designer focused on music education. I’m passionate about using games and technology to improve access to music education and to support differentiation in learning. 

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