Writing Music with Guitar and Drums
Turn the sounds in your head into real songs by locking guitar riffs to drum grooves. Master mental rhythm notation, craft functional chord progressions, and score full rhythm charts.
Like Duolingo, but for Writing Music with Guitar and Drums. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
24 levels across 4 sections, about 48 minutes end to end, roughly 10 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Mental Dictation and the Rhythm Grid, Locking Guitar and Drum Grooves, Harmony and Riff Construction, and Song Architecture and Charting. It assumes you already know the basics.
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Key ideas in Writing Music with Guitar and Drums
- A metronome or kick drum sets an unchanging core pulse called the tempo beat.
- Guitar strumming speeds shift between halves and sixteenths without altering the foot tap tempo.
- Decoupling your internal subdivision from your tapping foot prevents rhythmic rushing or dragging.
- Sixteenth notes divide each beat into four distinct syllables: 1, e, and, and a.
- Vocalizing subdivisions anchors accurate down-up-down-up picking on guitar before playing.
- Syllable counting builds physical groove precision on drums and guitar without looking at notation.
- A whole note sustains for four complete beats, letting a guitar chord ring across the measure.
- Half notes split the measure cleanly by lasting two beats each.
- Quarter notes occur on every single beat, matching the fundamental foot tap.
- Subdividing into sixteenths doubles note density within each beat without changing song tempo.
- Tempo measures the speed of the underlying beat in beats per minute, which stays constant.
- Fast notes create energetic surface texture over an unmoving, steady groove.
- Musical rests occupy exact, measured subdivisions rather than uncounted blank space.
- Maintaining physical motion or silent vocal counting through rests keeps rhythmic timing tight.
- Dropping the internal subdivision during rests causes musicians to come back in late or early.
- A steady foot tap anchors the quarter-note pulse so you can hear syncopated guitar strums land between beats
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Writing Music with Guitar and Drums the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
What happens to your tapping foot when your guitar switches from slow strums to super fast sixteenth notes?
Get it right to open this lesson and 23 more in the app.
Where Writing Music with Guitar and Drums takes you
- 1
Mental Dictation and the Rhythm Grid
- Subdividing the Beat in Your Head
- Transcribing Rhythms to the Page
- 2
Locking Guitar and Drum Grooves
- Aligning Bass Riffs with the Kick Drum
- Snare Accents, Syncopation, and the Pocket
- 3
Harmony and Riff Construction
- Writing Functional Chord Progressions
- Developing Riffs Over Harmonic Motion
- 4
Song Architecture and Charting
- Arranging Sections for Dynamic Flow
- Scoring Full Rhythm Charts
4 sections · 8 units · 24 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
Writing Music with Guitar and Drums is taught in the Explain Like I'm 5 style: no big words. promise.. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start Writing Music with Guitar and Drums today.
Download Tomo, search Writing Music with Guitar and Drums, and play your first lesson in under a minute.