Beat Maker

Start with one instrument and one box per beat. Take turns choosing sounds. Add another instrument when the first pattern feels steady.

Try making a contrasting second measure, changing the pitch of a melody, or keeping one part steady while another changes. Older students can use four boxes per beat for more detailed rhythms.

The time signature sets how many beats fit in a measure. In 4/4, each measure has four quarter-note beats. In 3/4, it has three. In 6/8, it has six eighth-note counts; feel them in two groups of three. BPM always refers to quarter notes here, so each eighth-note count in 6/8 lasts half a quarter-note beat.

Use up to 32 measures, eight per page. The arrows change the visible measures. Playback and audio export include the entire beat. Turn on Note duration and select a filled note. Use Shorter or Longer to hold it across boxes or measures. Extension stops before the next note in that part; remove that next note first to hold farther. Drums remain individual hits. Wind, string, organ, and sine sounds sustain; piano and mallet sounds fade naturally. Changing the measure count hides extra measures without deleting them. Changing the time signature or box spacing keeps existing notes at their musical positions where possible; hidden notes return when you expand the grid again. Acoustic instruments use sampled sounds; drums and synth voices are electronic. Save a beat file to move it to another device, or download one full pass as WAV audio.