I made a website to help organize your drum practice, and would appreciate feedback on it

drumr-io

New Member
Hi all,

I just launched a free website, made in my spare time as a hobby, and would really appreciate any feedback from you: whether you think it is something that you might use, or if there are ways to make it work better for you.

Here is the link: https://drumr.io. There's a demo mode if you want to see what it's like without having to sign in.

In a nut-shell, the site lets you build your own practice routines and will guide you through them. You'll notate your own exercises (grooves/fills, RL patterns, or YouTube videos) and categorize them by focus area (e.g. rudiments, independence, double bass, backing tracks, etc.). Then you can set up timed practice routines based on the focus areas. The site is meant to be used at your kit with headphones, or in front of your practice pad.

A little background: I started learning drums about 6 months ago, and I was a bit overwhelmed with how much there is to learn and practice as I followed Drumeo's method and supplemented with other content from Youtube. At first I used a spreadsheet to keep track of all the rudiments and what tempo I was playing each one at, but it became a bit unwieldy. As a software developer, I saw an opportunity for a fun side-project. I envisioned a site where I could have all my exercises in 1 place regardless of where I learned them (e.g. Drumeo, YouTube, a private teacher, a method book, etc.), keep track of my tempo for each, and "automate" my practices so I can just sit down and practice in a really organized and efficient way. This is what I've tried to accomplish with drumr.io.

It's just a hobby site but something I'd be committed to improving and maintaining if others found it useful. Personally I enjoy using it, but I'm a bit biased! If you have any thoughts (including critical ones!), please share.
 
Last edited:
A little background: I started learning drums about 6 months ago, and I was a bit overwhelmed with how much there is to learn and practice as I followed Drumeo's method and supplemented with other content from Youtube.
That's the problem. You are new and dont know what you need. This is why lots of us constantly scream "get a teacher" at the clouds. Teachers can guide you and you wont be overwhelmed.

I'm a bit concerned at the idea of someone who admittedly is overwhelmed and a bit lost creating a roadmap for others to follow. If you dont know, how can you possibly guide others?
 
I'm a bit concerned at the idea of someone who admittedly is overwhelmed and a bit lost creating a roadmap for others to follow. If you dont know, how can you possibly guide others?
Sorry if I wasn't clear, but the site doesn't provide you a roadmap at all. You make your own roadmap. It's basically just a way to add exercises (you notate them yourselves) and build routines out of them. The site has absolutely zero opinion as to what specifically you practice. If you view the demo, you'll just be seeing an example of what you could set up. But when you log in to your own account, it's a completely blank slate. Think of it as a platform or framework for practicing, but you do all the "learning" elsewhere.
 
Sorry if I wasn't clear, but the site doesn't provide you a roadmap at all. You make your own roadmap. It's basically just a way to add exercises (you notate them yourselves) and build routines out of them. The site has absolutely zero opinion as to what specifically you practice. If you view the demo, you'll just be seeing an example of what you could set up. But when you log in to your own account, it's a completely blank slate. Think of it as a platform or framework for practicing, but you do all the "learning" elsewhere.
Oh I see. Yes I misunderstood. I thought you were saying it tells you what to practice. A way to organize and track what you practice is a great idea. Some folks already keep logs/journals of their progress. No reason it cant be digital as well.
 
I am a percussion instructor/band director at a high school and some middle schools, and I might experiment with using this with my kids to see if it would help them organize their practice routine, and also help me keep track of what they are doing...
 
Oh I see. Yes I misunderstood. I thought you were saying it tells you what to practice. A way to organize and track what you practice is a great idea. Some folks already keep logs/journals of their progress. No reason it cant be digital as well.
Right on; a digital log/journal is a good way to frame it. And your question was good feedback that I should consider how to ensure the purpose of the app is more clear. Thanks for chiming in.
 
I am a percussion instructor/band director at a high school and some middle schools, and I might experiment with using this with my kids to see if it would help them organize their practice routine, and also help me keep track of what they are doing...
Awesome! This is definitely a type of use-case that I had in mind and where I can see it adding some value. As you play and experiment with the app, don't hesitate to reach out through email if you have any questions/suggestions or things you encounter which make you feel like it wouldn't quite work for your needs. I'm at [email protected] (which you can also find in the site's footer).
 
This might be better than the spreadsheet I'm using. But I'm a bean counter so, mmm.... spreadsheets.
 
Wow, I see you put some serious time, effort and thoughts in it!

I love the idea of the (y) (n)for every session and that you can log the speed at which you practice, you have an integrated metronome, and even you can create your own notations!

Personally, I don't know if I would use it for all my practice, but at least for e.g. keeping truck of my rudiments and the Wilcoxon solos progression!

It would be nice to being able to upload a pdf or a picture instead of manually creating notation, but then I suspect you run into storage & copyright concerns.

And thinking about teacher-student interaction, I think it would be useful for the teacher to create an exercise/routine and then share it (via link? QR code? Sending to website account?) with student(s).

Of course I can imagine already some other improvements like at the metronome (e.g. having different subdivision options) or for the notation (e.g. I think now it can only be in 4/4), but what you put up is already very very very impressive! 😍
 
Ghede, thanks a lot for your detailed feedback! Some thoughts on your comments...
Personally, I don't know if I would use it for all my practice, but at least for e.g. keeping truck of my rudiments and the Wilcoxon solos progression!
Good point. Right now the app is tailored for more "bite-size" things to practice, basically anything that's between, say, 1 and 8 measures and something you'd play on repeat. Rudiments being a prime example, as you mentioned. A lot of stuff I learn on Drumeo or Youtube fits the bill as well, such as warm-up exercises, grooves and fills that demonstrate specific techniques or stickings, etc. I also added support for embedding Youtube videos because a big part of my practice is improvising to backing tracks. But when I'm learning entire songs I spend my time in Drumeo with their transcription. So I do think the app might work well for a portion of someone's practice, but probably not all of it.
It would be nice to being able to upload a pdf or a picture instead of manually creating notation, but then I suspect you run into storage & copyright concerns.
I would consider that. Since anything you upload would be for "personal" consumption on the site (not broadcast to other users) that might help mitigate the copyright concern, but I'd have to investigate that more. In general I did wonder if people would find notating their own exercises tedious, but I don't see a great way around that except making the notation editor as easy as possible and maybe offering alternatives like you suggested for when you have a pdf, screenshot, etc. that would be easier to upload rather than manually notate.
And thinking about teacher-student interaction, I think it would be useful for the teacher to create an exercise/routine and then share it (via link? QR code? Sending to website account?) with student(s).
This is absolutely something in the back of my mind as a logical step to take with the app. With the right implementation it could be a great tool for teachers and students. My gut is that "linking" the student/teacher accounts might be the smoothest approach (i.e. the teacher could share exercises or routines directly into the student account). This is probably a little ways down the road if I can get some adoption of the app first, but we'll see!
Of course I can imagine already some other improvements like at the metronome (e.g. having different subdivision options) or for the notation (e.g. I think now it can only be in 4/4), but what you put up is already very very very impressive! 😍
Thanks so much for the kind words 😁 Oh and I will probably add the subdivisions to the metronome! If you ever have any other suggestions or thoughts please feel free to reach out anytime to the contact info in the footer. I'm looking forward to making improvements that help gain user adoption.
 
Back
Top