Weeks 1-2 · rhythm · Tier 1 · 80 bpm
Tap with the click. When it stops, keep it going.
The rule
pass ≤ 120 ms median drift
8 beats with the click (left half, solid ticks), 8silent beats keeping the pulse alive (right half, dashed). Hits inside the ±120 ms band count. The wobble drift on the silent half is the actual failure mode — the internal clock loses calibration without the click’s correction.
Hear it first
Before you tap, listen to the structure at 80 bpm — 8 audible clicks, then 8 beats of silence. The silence is the test.
What’s happening.A pulse is the regular beat your body anchors to — heartbeat, footstep, the regular ticks under a song. Most untrained timing wanders 60–150 ms per beat (perceptible as “dragging” or “rushing”). This drill clamps your attention onto a click for 8 beats, then removes the click and asks you to keep tapping at exactly the same rate for 8 more — scoring how far each tap drifts from where the metronome would have been.
Why the tap. Tapping converts your internal pulse into an externally measurable signal we can grade in milliseconds. The 8-clicked / 8-silent structure tests two distinct skills: synchronization (matching the click) and tempo maintenance (sustaining without it). Both rely on the same internal-clock circuit, but the silent half tells you whether the pulse is in your body or just in your ears. The 120 ms target lands near the lower edge of typical trained-musician timing.
Why this is the foundation.Every rhythm task downstream — staccato in tempo, four-beat entry, melisma timing, phrase entry on the right beat — collapses if the underlying pulse isn’t there. Pulse-clap is the rhythm-side equivalent of SOVT-sustain for pitch: get it steady here, build everything else on top.
Session ahead
4 trials · 4 count-in → 8 clicked → 8 silent. Hit 13/16 per trial. Today’s tempos: 80 · 80 · 90 · 80 bpm.