How it works
This random rhythm generator writes two bars at once: a bar of 4/4 built from four beats, and a bar of 6/8 built from two. Each beat is one rhythm cell, drawn from 17 cells for simple time and 12 for compound time, and every cell comes with a line on how to count it. Lock beats, re-roll the rest, or print 12 rhythms.
Read the full guide
Read the bar one beat at a time
Two bars are on the page when it opens, and New rhythm or the space bar writes two more. The upright lines separate the beats, so "two eighths | quarter note | quarter rest | four sixteenths" is one bar of 4/4 with a different cell on each beat. Any beat can be kept while the others change. Ignore whichever bar you do not need today.
Count it before you clap it
In 4/4 the beat is a quarter note that splits in two, then in four. Count every sixteenth as "1 e & a, 2 e & a" and clap only where the cell has a note. Two eighths land on 1 and &. A dotted eighth and sixteenth lands on 1 and a. In 6/8 the beat is a dotted quarter that splits in three, counted "1 & a, 2 & a". The full lists below the tool give the counting line for all 29 cells, sorted into three levels.
Practise with a steady pulse
Set your own metronome to about 60 beats a minute, count the bar aloud once, then clap it four times in a row without stopping. The 30-second timer is for sight-reading drills: a new bar, half a minute, move on. For 3/4 read only the first three beats of the 4/4 bar, and for 2/4 the first two. Guitarists can strum the bar on muted strings, and drummers can play it on the snare.
- Lock beat 1 as a quarter note while you learn. A bar that starts with a plain, solid beat is much easier to place against the click.
- If a bar beats you, halve the tempo before you change the bar. Counting the sixteenths out loud stops you rushing.
- Turn a bar into a riff: lock all four beats, then play the rhythm on one note, then on two, then across a whole scale.
- Teachers can print 12 rhythms and have each pair of students clap one bar while the class listens for the beat with the rest in it.
- Keep the bars with a rest on beat 1 or an off-beat start. They feel awkward at first, and that is the reading practice that pays off.
Questions and answers
How many different rhythms can it make?
The 4/4 bar has four beats with 17 cells to choose from on each, which is 17 x 17 x 17 x 17, or 83,521 bars. The 6/8 bar has two beats and 12 cells, which is 144 bars. One press picks one of each, so there are 12,027,024 pairs. One of those 4/4 bars is four quarter rests: a bar of silence, which still has to be counted.
Does it play the rhythm out loud?
No. The page names the rhythm and you make the sound. For reading practice that is the useful way round, because hearing a rhythm first lets you copy it by ear without reading anything. Use any metronome for the pulse, and check yourself against the counting line for each cell in the lists below the tool.
What do "1 e & a" and "1 & a" mean?
They are counting syllables. In 4/4, the number falls on the beat, "&" falls halfway through it, and "e" and "a" mark the two sixteenths in between, so a full beat of sixteenths is "1 e & a". In 6/8 each beat holds three eighths, counted "1 & a". A triplet squeezes three even notes into a beat that normally splits in two, and is counted "1-trip-let".
What are the three levels in the lists?
Level 1 in simple time is the quarter note, two eighths and the quarter rest, enough for a first lesson. Level 2 adds sixteenth notes and eighth rests, including the off-beat eighth of ska and reggae. Level 3 has dotted notes, the syncopated sixteenth, eighth, sixteenth figure, the eighth-note triplet and cells that start with a sixteenth rest. The 6/8 list is graded the same way, ending with the dotted siciliana figure.
Why are 4/4 and 6/8 kept in separate lists?
Because the beat divides differently. 4/4 is simple time: each beat is a quarter note that splits into two eighths. 6/8 is compound time: each beat is a dotted quarter that splits into three eighths. A cell written for one kind of beat does not fit the other, so each bar draws from its own list.