What's new
What has changed recently, what I'm looking at next, and — the useful part — what this site is never going to do.
- August 2026
Practice history
A weekly target, a running count of days, and a calendar of the last eight weeks. It counts a day once you have played for two minutes, and a rest day costs you nothing.
- August 2026
Four click sounds
The original click, plus a woodblock, a stick-on-rim and a softer one for late practice. Each keeps the same low/mid/high relationship, so the downbeat still reads as the downbeat.
- August 2026
The click got louder
It was too quiet to practise to on a phone speaker. Each click is now a fundamental, an octave partial and a short noise transient rather than a single sine, and the volume slider goes to 150%.
- August 2026
Sound on iPhone
The metronome could stay silent on iOS with no error at all — four separate causes, including the ring/silent switch and a resume that never settles. All four are fixed, and the metronome is now tested by measuring the sound it actually produces.
- August 2026
Every exercise page rewritten by hand
All 105 pages carry notes written for that exercise: what it does to the hands, where it goes wrong, and what to listen for. No two are the same, and a test enforces it.
- August 2026
A contact form, a privacy policy, and an about page
There was no way to tell me anything. Now there is one, and it does not need a mailbox on my side or an account on yours.
What I'm exploring
Not a plan, and not in any order. This is subject to change and is not a commitment, guarantee, obligation or promise to build any of it, or to build it by any particular time.
A speed and accuracy record
Your own best tempo on an exercise, and how cleanly you played it, kept on your device. Everything needed for this already exists.
A leaderboard, with MIDI input
Comparing speed and accuracy against other drummers, played in through an electronic kit. Being honest about this one: it needs accounts and a server, and StickTempo has neither by design. It would be a different kind of product, so treat this as a question I am still asking rather than something on its way.
More guides
The written pages get more use than I expected. There are obvious gaps — accents, dynamics, and what to do when a tempo stops improving.
Practising without a connection
The metronome does not need the network once the page has loaded, but the site does not currently survive being offline.
What this site won't do
Accounts
Your practice stays on your device. That is a trade — it cannot follow you to another phone — and I would rather make that trade than hold your data.
Reproducing the book
StickTempo gives you the sticking patterns to practise with. Stone's text, his fingering and grip notes, and the pages themselves belong in the book, and the book is worth owning.
Streaks you can lose
Practice history here counts weeks, not unbroken chains. Taking a day off is part of practising well, and most drummers pick up an injury at some point by not doing it.
Follow along with the feed, or tell me what you'd use — there's no mailing list to join.