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Rhythm & timing · Expert · 5 min

Dotted-Eighth Displacement

Hits every three sixteenths, so the accent walks across the beat for three bars.

How to play it
  1. Count sixteenths: 1-e-and-a. Hit on every third one.
  2. The hits land on 1, the 'a' of 1, the 'and' of 2, the 'e' of 3, then 4, and so on.
  3. After sixteen hits you arrive back on the downbeat. Tap your foot on the beat the whole time.

What the coach checks: Timing of each attack.

Goal90 BPM · 80% accuracy
Your bestNo result yet
Rating–

Rhythm player

Hear the rhythm

123

Tap any hit to hear it. Four clicks count you in.

100% is the goal tempo, 90 BPM. The speed presets climb from Learn to Goal about 10% at a time, and the practice slider below uses the same scale. Build a full ladder to your goal

Your practice room

Keep a steady pulse

Audio-attack timing feedback. This check does not identify chords or distinguish every background sound from a strum. Use a quiet room and visual beats.

This checkpoint needs 90 BPM or faster and the required accuracy. Slower Play attempts still produce practice scores.

Exercise map · 16 targets
  1. 1. BeatBar 1 · beat 1
  2. 2. AcrossBar 1 · beat 1.75
  3. 3. AcrossBar 1 · beat 2.5
  4. 4. AcrossBar 1 · beat 3.25
  5. 5. BeatBar 1 · beat 4
  6. 6. AcrossBar 1 · beat 4.75
  7. 7. AcrossBar 2 · beat 1.5
  8. 8. AcrossBar 2 · beat 2.25
  9. 9. BeatBar 2 · beat 3
  10. 10. AcrossBar 2 · beat 3.75
  11. 11. AcrossBar 2 · beat 4.5
  12. 12. AcrossBar 3 · beat 1.25
  13. 13. BeatBar 3 · beat 2
  14. 14. AcrossBar 3 · beat 2.75
  15. 15. AcrossBar 3 · beat 3.5
  16. 16. AcrossBar 3 · beat 4.25

Chord names and stroke directions are visual guidance. Rhythm scoring measures attack timing.

BeatTarget 1 of 16 · attack when the cue lights up

Keep counting through the spaces. Chord names and stroke directions are visual guides; only attack timing is measured.

Bar 1 of 4 · beat 1 of 4

1234

Tune first. Audio stays on this device.

Why this drill

A figure of three against a pulse of four drives many delay-based guitar parts and a lot of modern riffing. It only works if you keep the four underneath.

Common mistakes

  1. The hits become the beat

    Fix: Tap your foot on every beat and keep it there. Only every fourth hit lands with the foot: beat 1, then beat 4, then beat 3 of bar 2, then beat 2 of bar 3.

  2. Sliding into a straight eighth-note feel

    Fix: Count every sixteenth, 1-e-and-a, and hit on every third syllable. The space between hits is three sixteenths, not two. Stress every hit slightly and feel it as a cycle of three running against the four of the bar.

  3. Getting lost in bar 2 or 3

    Fix: Learn the landmarks. If the hits on beat 4 of bar 1, beat 3 of bar 2 and beat 2 of bar 3 line up with your foot, everything between them is spacing.

Tempo plan

100% is the goal tempo, 90 BPM. Each rung sits about 10% above the one before it, so every step up is one you can hold. The speed presets in the player above use the same rungs.

  1. Learn 68 BPM · 76%Tap along in the rhythm player and say the sixteenth count out loud.
  2. Build 74 BPM · 82%Play the hits on a muted string and check that each "Beat" cue lines up with your foot.
  3. Push 82 BPM · 91%Switch to Play · full check here. Two clean passes in a row earn the next rung.
  4. Goal 90 BPM · 100%Sixteen hits in three bars, so the next hit would arrive exactly on the following downbeat. A pass at 80% accuracy or better clears the drill.
  5. Stretch 99 BPM · 110%Run a few passes here, then return to the goal. Time above the goal makes the goal feel settled.

Build a full ladder to your goal with holds and back-off sessions, starting from the tempo you can play today.

Make it music

A dotted-eighth delay repeats each note three sixteenths later, the same distance this drill trains, so the echoes interlock with your picking. Playing the figure by hand builds the feel behind riffs that cross the bar line.

Variation

Turn the hits into a riff by alternating two notes, the open low E and G on string 6 fret 3. The two notes repeat every two hits while the hits take three bars to cycle back to the downbeat, so the three-against-four is easy to hear.

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