You can learn a lot from a drummer. The best grooves of all time are meticulously constructed – and understanding them means understanding a lot about rhythm and form. So these are objects worth study. What your Web browser can do is make that study easier – even if you’ve never touched a drum kit.
That comes at the right time, too. Thanks to the power of the computer and electronic music hardware, we’ve all of us become composers or expanded our compositional horizons. We may not imagine that we’re composing drum parts when we mess about with drum machines or edit patterns, but of course that’s precisely what we’re doing.
And even apart from that, music study is fun.
Funklet proves just how much fun that can be with an interactive tool at hand, in the new Web audio-powered browser tool. You can both hear and visualize drum parts from your favorite tunes (like Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition”). Apart from that, you can even try modifying those patterns, editing individual steps. (There are other features, too, like adjustable reverb). And the Funklet curators have not only chosen some nice examples, but also included commentary, anecdotes, videos, and the like.
If you want to create your own pattern from scratch, too, this is also an in-browser drum machine:
http://machine.funklet.com/funklet.html
It’s a clever creation, the product of Jack Stratton and
Rob Stenson – the latter not only a coder but also apparently able to play the fretless clawhammer banjo. (If you prefer making music outside the browser, see also their compression plug-in for the Mac).
Check it out here:
http://funklet.com/
An alternative drum machine is available, too (same content, different sounds):
http://maestro.funklet.com/
Good times. Found other tools for learning more about rhythm? (Hey, paper books welcome, too!) Let us know in comments.