Virtual Drums
Virtual drums you can play with your keys, mouse or fingers, plus a 16-step beat maker with preset grooves and swing.
Tap the pads (several at once on a touch screen) or press the keys shown on them. Space is the kick.
Click a square to add or remove a hit. Enter plays and stops. Your beat is saved in this browser.
How to play the virtual drums
These virtual drums give you a 10-piece drum kit online that you play with your fingers, mouse or computer keys, plus a 16-step drum machine where you click in a beat, pick a preset groove, set the tempo and swing, and loop it. The kit has kick, snare, closed and open hi-hat, three toms, crash, ride and a hand clap. Tap or click a pad to hit it. On a phone or tablet you can hit several pads at once with different fingers, so a kick and a crash land together.
On a computer the letter on each pad is its key. The bottom row of the kit sits under your left hand: A open hi-hat, S closed hi-hat, D snare, F clap, and the Space bar (or B) is the kick. The row above holds Q crash, W E R high, mid and low toms, and T ride. The keys follow their position, so on an AZERTY or QWERTZ keyboard use the keys in the same places. Playing the closed hi-hat cuts off a ringing open hi-hat, as on a real kit.
A beat maker online: program the drum machine
Below the kit is a beat maker: one row per drum and 16 steps across, which is one bar of 16th notes. Click a square to add a hit and click it again to remove it. Press Play (or Enter) and the bar loops. Set the tempo with BPM (40 to 240) and pick a starting groove from Pattern: rock, pop, hip-hop, four on the floor, half-time, a tom groove, or a plain quarter-note count. Clear empties the grid. Your beat, tempo and swing are saved in this browser, so they are there when you come back. Click a drum's name to hear it.
The numbers above the grid are the beats: steps 1, 5, 9 and 13 fall on beats 1, 2, 3 and 4. Drummers count the steps as 1 e and a, 2 e and a, and so on.
Build a basic rock beat, step by step
- Press Clear and set the BPM to about 100.
- Hi-hat: add the closed hi-hat on every other step (1, 3, 5 and so on). These are the 8th notes.
- Snare: add it on steps 5 and 13. That is the backbeat on beats 2 and 4.
- Kick: add it on steps 1 and 9, beats 1 and 3. Then add step 11 for a little push before beat 4.
- Press Play. For a fill, put the toms on the last four steps and a crash on step 1.
Now try moving one kick at a time and listen to how the feel changes. That is most of what separates one style of beat from another.
What swing does
With Swing at 50% the 16th notes are even (straight). Raising it delays every second 16th note, so each pair becomes long and short. At about 67% the pair splits like a triplet, the lilting feel of a shuffle. Values in between give a lighter lean. Try the hip-hop pattern at 50% and then at 60% to hear the difference.
Use it as a metronome with drum beats
A groove can be easier to lock in with than a metronome click. Pick a pattern, set it to the tempo of what you are practising, and play along. If you do not know the tempo of a song, find it on the tap tempo page first, or read it from an audio file with the BPM finder. For accents, odd time signatures, a speed trainer or a practice timer, use the metronome.
About the sounds
Every drum is synthesised in your browser when the page first needs it: the kick is a sine wave that sweeps down in pitch, the snare mixes a short tone with filtered noise, and the hi-hats and cymbals use a cluster of square waves and noise through high filters. Nothing is downloaded and nothing you play leaves your device.
More for timing: Metronome · Tap Tempo · BPM Finder · Rhythm Trainer
Questions
Can I play the online drums with my keyboard?
Yes. Each pad shows its key: A S D F for open hat, closed hat, snare and clap, Q W E R T for crash, toms and ride, and Space or B for the kick.
Can I hit two drums at the same time?
Yes. On a touch screen use two or more fingers; on a computer press two keys together, for example Space and S for kick and hi-hat.
Is this a drum machine?
The beat maker under the kit is a 16-step drum machine online: program a bar, set the tempo and swing, and it loops until you stop it.
Can I save my beat?
Your last beat, tempo and swing are kept in this browser automatically. They are not uploaded anywhere, so they will not appear on another device.
Is there a delay when I hit a pad?
The sounds are rendered once and then played straight from memory when you touch the pad. If you still hear a delay with wireless headphones, try the built-in speaker or wired headphones.