Frequently Asked Questions
Find help for Coach, Scores, Premium, imports, playlists, player controls, and Performance Analysis.
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Example questions:
- "How am I doing?"
- "What should I practice next?"
- "Show me jazz scores"
- "How do I change the metronome sound?"
- "Am I improving?"
- "What's a good warm-up?"
- "Find funk beats"
- "How do I create a playlist?"
- "How do I use PadView?"
Coach uses Apple Intelligence to review recent sessions, suggest scores, give tempo guidance, build playlists, find techniques, and help you use Drumr.
If you have practice history, Coach looks at your recent sessions to identify your most-practiced scores, cleanest results, tempo progress, and useful next steps. It uses recent tempo, accuracy, difficulty, the selected Scores category, and score family to choose connected recommendations. If you have no practice history, Coach uses your Quick Start choices about instruments, experience, and goals. A selected Scores category focuses those starter recommendations on that category. Before you complete Quick Start, and with no selected category, Coach starts with one kit score, one snare score, and one rudiment score.
Open Settings → Coach, then tap the Set Quick Start or Reset Quick Start button. Starting Quick Start clears the current Coach chat and asks about your instruments, experience, and practice goals.
Coach recommends scores for building speed and technique through repeated practice. Charts are for playing along with songs, so Coach does not use them to choose recommendations. Time spent practicing charts still counts toward your practice totals and rings.
The Home screen shows:
- Recent Activity: Practice rings showing your progress toward goals
- Recent Sessions: Your latest practice sessions, grouped by score
- Recent Scores: Scores you've recently practiced
- Recent Imports: Your recently imported scores (if any)
- Recent Playlists: Playlists you've recently opened
- Recommended for You: Personalized score suggestions based on your practice history
- Trending: Popular scores, weighted toward the categories you practice when you have recent sessions
- What's New: Recently added scores
- How To Videos: Short tutorials on the most important Drumr features.
No. You can download Drumr and start practicing right away. Sign in with Apple is available when you want to back up your progress and sync between devices. If you do not sign in, your progress stays tied to this device.
Tap Sign In in the top toolbar or open Settings → Account & Support → Account, then tap Sign In. Drumr uses Sign in with Apple to back up your settings, favorites, notes, practice sessions, filters, and playlists, and to keep them in sync across your devices.
Signing in doesn't back up or sync imported scores — they stay on the device where you imported them, so import the file again to use it on another device.
There are two ways to add your own scores:
- Compose a score in Notate and tap Open in Drumr.
- Open Scores, tap Imports, tap +, and pick a .drumr file, such as one shared with you.
If you made a score in Sibelius with Drumr's templates, convert its MusicXML to Notate MusicXML at drumr.app/imports, open that in Notate, and tap Open in Drumr.
Opening imported scores in Drumr is included with Premium.
The + button imports .drumr files. Scores you compose in Notate can be sent directly with Open in Drumr.
If you made a score in Sibelius with Drumr's templates, convert its MusicXML to Notate MusicXML at drumr.app/imports, open that in Notate, and tap Open in Drumr.
Notate has a separate editing subscription. The converter at drumr.app/imports is free; opening imported scores in Drumr requires Drumr Premium.
Scores opened from Notate and .drumr files added with the + button live in the Imports collection on the Scores tab. Tap Imports to browse, open, delete, or add more scores. Imports follows the Scores category you had selected, and recent imports can also appear on Home.
Imported scores stay on this device with the account that imported them, so everyone who signs in on a shared device sees only their own.
Collections group scores on the Scores tab into nine cards: All, Courses, Exercises, Favorites, Grooves & Fills, Songs, Playalongs, Imports, and New. Choose a category above the cards, then tap a card to browse those scores. Playalongs gathers scores you can play along with, whether they have a backing track or a matching part. Imports shows your imported scores in the selected category, regardless of the Proficiency filter.
The badge on the New collection shows how many recently added scores you haven't opened in New yet. Open Scores and tap New to mark the currently visible New scores as seen. When new scores are added later, the badge comes back for those scores.
Favorites is a card on the Scores tab. Open Scores and tap Favorites to see all the scores you've starred.
Tap the measures button (rectangle with lines) in the top toolbar. In Measure Controls you can turn on single measure mode to loop one measure, or use the slider and minus and plus buttons to adjust the range of measures to practice.
Tap the measures button (rectangle with lines) in the top toolbar to open Measure Controls. With single measure mode off:
- Use the range slider to drag start and end points
- Use the minus and plus buttons under Start and End to precisely set measure numbers
- Tap ↔ to reset to the full score or current section
Single measure mode is a Measure Controls setting that lets you practice one measure at a time repeatedly. When enabled, the range slider becomes a single-value slider to select which measure to loop.
Yes. Charts mix freely with other scores in any playlist. If your playlist contains one or more charts, the playlist card shows a chart indicator.
Open a playlist and tap + at the bottom to browse and add scores.
In the Playlists tab, tap + at the bottom of the screen. Enter a name for your playlist and tap Create.
In the Playlists tab, choose Custom, long-press a playlist (or right-click on Mac), and tap Delete. Confirm deletion in the alert that appears.
Open a custom playlist, long-press a score (or right-click on Mac), and tap Delete. The score is removed from the playlist; it remains available in Scores.
In the Playlists tab, choose Custom and tap Edit. Drag playlists into the order you want, then tap Done. In a grid, drag the cards. In a list, drag the handles on the right.
Open a custom playlist and tap Edit. Drag scores into the order you want, then tap Done. In a grid, drag the cards. In a list, drag the handles on the right.
From the Home screen, tap a score in Recent Sessions to see its practice history — or while viewing a score, tap the clipboard button in the bottom-right corner to open Notes & Sessions. Either way, you'll see a progress chart, a list of every session (tap one for its details), and a box to add your own notes about that score.
From the Home screen, tap a score in Recent Sessions to view its practice sessions — or while viewing a score, tap the clipboard button in the bottom-right corner. Long-press a session (or right-click on Mac) and tap Delete.
From the Home screen, tap a score in Recent Sessions to view its practice sessions — or while viewing a score, tap the clipboard button in the bottom-right corner. Tap a session to view details, then tap the share button in the top-right corner.
Yes. Tap the star on any chart to favorite it, just like other scores.
Yes. Many marching snare, tenors, and bassline scores have matching parts. Open one and switch to Playalong, then use the Snare, Tenors, and Bassline buttons in the top toolbar to turn each part on or off, even while it's playing. The metronome button in the same toolbar turns the metronome on or off.
Imported marching scores play along the same way. Score each part with its own instrument — Marching Snare, Marching Tenors, or Marching Bassline — and give every part exactly the same title. If you import the same part more than once, the most recent import plays.
From the Home screen, tap a score in Recent Sessions — or while viewing a score, tap the clipboard button in the bottom-right corner to open Notes & Sessions. Type your notes in the Notes box. You'll also see your practice history for that score.
Tap the tempo gauge to open Tempo Controls, then use the reps slider or the minus and plus buttons under Reps.
In Linear mode: Use the - and + buttons around the tempo gauge to decrease or increase tempo by 1 BPM. Tap the tempo gauge itself to open Tempo Controls for more options including a slider and minus and plus buttons. On scores whose tempos change automatically, the - and + buttons are hidden; tap the tempo gauge and adjust the base tempo in Tempo Controls.
In Increasing and Up-Down modes: Use the ◀ and ▶ buttons to jump to the previous or next tempo in your defined range.
While practicing one of Drumr's included scores, tap ★ at the bottom-right of the player, next to the clipboard button. A filled star means the score is favorited, an outlined star means it is not.
You can also favorite from a Scores collection: long-press a score (or right-click on Mac) and tap Favorite.
To see all your favorited scores in one place, open the Scores tab and tap the Favorites card.
Tap ↺ in the bottom toolbar to restart the score from the beginning of your selected measure range.
Use the display mode control in the player's top toolbar to choose notation, KitView for drum kit scores, PadView for rudiments scores, BasslineView for marching bassline scores, PieView for notated scores, or lesson video — depending on what's available for the score and your Player settings. To show or hide PieView in that control, use Settings → Player → Show PieView.
Open a score tagged Rudiments and choose PadView from the display mode control in the player's top toolbar. PadView is only available for rudiments scores. It shows a single practice pad with right-hand, left-hand, and unison hits in time with playback.
Use ← and → in the bottom toolbar. With single measure mode off, scores with defined sections skip between sections; scores without sections skip by your selected measure range. With single measure mode on, scores without sections skip one measure at a time. In scores with sections, the arrows move one measure inside the current section, then jump to the previous or next section at the edge.
Tap the metronome button in the player's top toolbar. A filled metronome button indicates the metronome is active.
In Settings → Player, you can adjust:
- Metronome: Off, Low, Med., or High
- Drum kit metronome: Pick the metronome sound used for drum kit scores.
- Drumline metronome: Pick the metronome sound used for drumline scores.
The bottom toolbar contains:
- Skip backward button (←): Jump to the previous measure, section, or measure range
- Play/pause button (▶/⏸): Start or stop playback
- Tempo controls: - or ◀, tempo gauge button showing BPM, + or ▶. Tap the tempo gauge to open Tempo Controls where you can switch between Linear, Increasing, and Up-Down tempo modes, adjust tempo or tempo range, set repetitions, and configure tempo ramp for gradual speed increases.
- Restart button (↺): Restart from the beginning
- Skip forward button (→): Jump to the next measure, section, or measure range
The top toolbar contains:
- Display mode control: Choose notation, KitView, PadView, BasslineView, PieView, or lesson video (depends on the score and your Player settings)
- Sections button (numbered list): Open sections list (scores with defined sections)
- Measures button (rectangle with lines): Open Measure Controls
- Metronome button: Turn the metronome on or off
- Count-in button (⏱): Turn count-in on or off before playback
- Share button: Share the score (Drumr scores only)
The Favorite (★) and Notes & Sessions (clipboard) buttons are at the bottom-right of the player, next to the score title.
On the Scores tab, tap a collection (such as All), then open the Tags filter and select Chart under the Routines group. Your list will show only charts.
A chart is a song with slash notation and rhythmic figures, played along to a backing track — great for jamming, sight-reading, and playing a tune end-to-end. Charts appear alongside your other scores on the Scores tab, marked with a music-pages icon.
The count-in plays metronome clicks before the score starts to help you lock in to the tempo and get ready to practice. Turn it on or off with ⏱ in the top toolbar.
Yes. Install Drumr on your paired Apple Watch, then open a score in Practice or Playalong on your iPhone and leave Drumr onscreen. On your Watch, use Play, Pause, and Restart. In Practice, use Previous, Next, or Sections to choose a section, and use the separate lesson-video controls when a lesson video is shown. Opening Sections pauses score playback. Choose the score and mode on your iPhone.
Open the Metronome tab, choose your time signature, grouping, subdivision, and sound, then tap Play. Tap Stop to finish. Set your tempo with the slider or minus and plus buttons, tap the quarter-note pulse on the tempo number, or long-press the tempo to enter a BPM. Tempo supports 1-999 BPM, measured in quarter notes: two taps per second set 120 BPM. Opening Settings stops the metronome; press Play when you return to start it again. Your musical setup and display preferences sync with your account; playback only starts when you press Play. Notes from the earlier metronome scores remain in Settings → Metronome → Metronome score notes, and their past sessions remain in practice history. Existing favorites and playlist entries link to the new metronome and their notes and sessions.
Grouping divides the measure into counted groups. For example, 7/8 can use 2+2+3, 2+3+2, or 3+2+2. Accented beats start groups. Tap a bar or circle marker to cycle its beat through accented, normal, and silent; the Grouping value follows your accents. Silent beats keep their time, and the first beat always starts the measure. Counting restarts at 1 in each group, with up to 13 spoken beats per group.
Dotted-quarter pulse uses one main beat for every three eighth notes, giving four main beats in 12/8. Choose Subdivision 3 to hear the eighth notes between those beats; BPM still measures quarter notes.
Subdivision chooses how many evenly spaced clicks sound within each beat: 1, 2, 3, or 4. The bars and circle markers follow the main beats; subdivisions sound between them.
Follow the beat with pulsing bars, circles, and/or the screen. In Settings → Metronome, choose Bars, Circle, or Both under "Beat display:". Both keeps the two displays together; choosing one gives it more room. Turn "Screen pulse:" on for a full-screen visual pulse. At fast tempos, the screen pulses less often while the beat indicators keep following every beat.
In Settings → Metronome, tap "Reset Metronome" and confirm. Opening Settings stops playback. After you confirm Reset, the setup returns to 4/4, 100 BPM, Cowbell, one click per beat, and the default accents. Your display and general app preferences stay the same.
No. The standalone metronome does not record practice sessions or run Performance Analysis, and it has no count-in. Use a score in the score player for those features.
When Mic is selected as the performance source, a "Calibrate and test" option appears. Use AirPods or Apple wired headphones for mic-based Performance Analysis. This screen lets you:
- Verify headphones are connected (required to prevent the mic from picking up app audio)
- Calibrate timing to account for microphone/headphone latency
- See when your current headphones were last calibrated
- Review and remove calibrations for devices you no longer use
- Test hit detection by hitting your practice pad (a green dot flashes when detected)
Calibration is saved per device. When you switch headphones, Drumr automatically uses the saved calibration for that pair — no need to recalibrate every time you swap. If you connect uncalibrated headphones while a score is open, Drumr disables Performance Analysis for that session and shows a "Calibration Needed" notice so your results aren't skewed.
Use AirPods or Apple wired headphones. Third-party headphones, earbuds, USB-C audio devices, and adapter-based headphone routes are not supported because iOS can expose their microphone and output routing differently.
In Settings → Appearance, under "Theme:", choose Light, Dark, or System. System follows your device's appearance setting.
In Settings → Player, use the "Drum kit:" picker to choose your preferred kit sound.
On the Metronome tab, use Sound to choose Beeps, Counting, Cowbell, Kick & Snare, Tambourine, or Woodblocks. Cowbell is free; the other sounds are included with Premium. Cowbell and Kick & Snare follow the drum kit you choose in Settings → Player.
For the click that accompanies a score, use "Drum kit metronome:" or "Drumline metronome:" in Settings → Player.
Use your device's volume buttons for the standalone metronome.
For the click that accompanies a score, use "Metronome:" in Settings → Player to choose Off, Low, Med., or High.
In Settings → Performance Analysis, set "Source:" to E-Drums (electronic drums via MIDI), Mic (microphone), or Off. Enabling analysis disables instrument layers. Choosing Mic turns video recording off; E-Drums can be used with video recording. Both E-Drums and Mic require a one-time timing calibration for each setup before analysis runs.
In Settings → Player, turn "Video recording mode:" on. This enables screen recording during practice. It disables instrument layers and mic-based Performance Analysis if they were enabled. E-Drums Performance Analysis can stay on while recording.
Turn "Play in background:" on in Settings → General to keep scores and the standalone metronome playing when you switch apps or lock the screen. Playback stays stopped after an interruption until you press Play again.
Turn "Keep screen on:" on in Settings → General to prevent the screen from dimming or turning off while using the score player or metronome.
Use your device's volume buttons to adjust overall volume. You can also turn "Volume boost:" on in Settings → Player to boost speaker volume for scores and the standalone metronome when practicing at a distance. The boost is disabled when headphones are connected. The click that accompanies a score has a separate volume adjustment in Settings → Player.
To mute all drums: In Settings → Player, turn "Mute drum sounds:" on.
To mute specific instruments (drum kit scores only): In Settings → Player, enable "Show instrument layers:". Then in the player (landscape), tap the instrument buttons (kick, snare, cymbals, toms) to turn each one on or off.
In Settings → Playlists, tap "Curated Playlists". You can show or hide all playlists in a category, or show or hide individual playlists.
In Settings → Player, turn "Show PieView:" on or off. When it is on, PieView appears in the player's display mode control for scores that support it. When it is off, PieView is hidden from that control.
In Settings → Player, use "Show TimeCursor:" to choose Off, On, or Rests only. Rests only hides the TimeCursor while the snap cursor is on a note, then shows it through rests.
In Settings → Performance Analysis, set "Source:" to E-Drums, then tap "Calibrate and test". Hit any pad and a green circle lights up and displays the MIDI note number detected. This screen also calibrates your e-drums timing — see "How do I calibrate my e-drums?"
In Settings → Performance Analysis, set "Source:" to E-Drums, then tap "Calibrate and test". With your kit connected, tap "Calibrate" and hit your snare in time with the click. Drumr measures the timing of your rig — your audio output (AirPods, Apple wired headphones, or speakers) together with your MIDI connection (USB-C or a MIDI adapter) — and stores it so your hits are scored accurately.
Calibration is required: e-drums Performance Analysis is blocked with a "Calibration needed" notice until you calibrate the current rig once. Each output-and-connection combination is saved separately and selected automatically, so switching rigs just needs a one-time calibration for each. Calibrate the same way you practice — the same AirPods, Apple wired headphones, or speaker and the same cable.
Instrument layers let you choose whether you hear kick, snare, cymbals, and/or toms on drum kit scores while practicing. The notation stays visible. Turn "Show instrument layers:" on in Settings → Player. Enabling this disables mute drum sounds, Performance Analysis, and video recording.
When performance analysis is enabled, "Show timing markers:" displays visual feedback on the notation showing whether your hits were early, on time, or late.
In Settings → Privacy & Terms, "Share app activity" controls usage reporting only — which screens and features get used. Turn it off and that reporting stops for this device. Crash reports are sent separately: they contain no personal information, are not linked to your account, and are used only to find and fix crashes. Video playback quality reports, such as how quickly a lesson video starts and whether it stalls, are also sent separately. This setting does not affect notifications.
"Show up next:" controls how the Up Next recommendation appears on the Scores tab — Off, 6 seconds (auto-dismisses), or Until tapped/dismissed. When shown, it recommends what to practice next based on your recent sessions.
In Settings → Performance Analysis, set "Source:" to E-Drums, then open "Module:" for the list of currently supported modules.
Under "Source:", choose one of three options:
- E-Drums: Connect electronic drums via MIDI to detect your hits. Can be used with video recording.
- Mic: Use the device microphone to detect hits from a practice pad. Requires AirPods or Apple wired headphones and turns video recording off.
- Off: No performance analysis
Say things like:
- "Hey Siri, find paradiddles in Drumr"
- "Hey Siri, open courses in Drumr"
- "Hey Siri, play disco in Drumr"
- "Hey Siri, practice independence drills in Drumr"
Each phrase starts with find, open, play, or practice, names a category or collection, and ends with "in Drumr". Siri opens the matching Scores view.
Yes. Open a score in Practice or Playalong, then say "Hey Siri, play", "Hey Siri, pause", or "Hey Siri, stop". It also works from the lock screen, AirPods, and Apple Watch.
With "... in Drumr", these are Scores search phrases: "Hey Siri, play disco in Drumr" or "Hey Siri, open independence drills in Drumr". Bare "Hey Siri, play" is different: after a score is open, it controls playback.
In Settings → Account & Support, tap Contact Support to send an email to the Drumr team.
Increasing mode (↗) gradually increases the tempo over multiple repetitions. You set:
- Slowest tempo (starting tempo)
- Fastest tempo (ending tempo)
- Number of reps
- Tempo ramp (how many BPM to increase after each set of reps)
The tempo increases by the ramp amount after completing each set of reps until it reaches the fastest tempo. If the ramp doesn't land exactly on the fastest tempo, it tops out at the last step below it — Tempo Controls shows the actual range.
Linear mode (→) plays the score at a constant tempo. You set one tempo and it stays the same throughout all repetitions. Use the slider and minus and plus buttons to set your tempo, and set how many reps to play.
On scores whose tempos change automatically during playback, the tempo you set is the base tempo; the score's automatic changes still apply.
Up-Down mode (↑↓) increases the tempo from slowest to fastest after each set of reps by the tempo ramp, then back down the same way. It uses the same settings as Increasing mode: slowest tempo, fastest tempo, reps, and tempo ramp.
Tap the Reverse button after the tempo starts climbing to head back down early from your current tempo. Available for scores and imports without automatic tempo changes.
Tempo ramp (available in Increasing and Up-Down modes) controls how many BPM the tempo changes after completing each set of reps.
Tap the tempo gauge in the bottom toolbar to open Tempo Controls. You can:
- Switch between Linear, Increasing, and Up-Down tempo modes
- Set exact tempo values with sliders and minus and plus buttons
- Set the number of repetitions (reps)
- In Increasing and Up-Down modes: Set a tempo range and ramp (how much tempo changes after each set of reps)
Reps (repetitions) controls how many times the score loops before stopping. In Linear mode it is the total number of loops; in Increasing and Up-Down modes it is the number of loops at each tempo.