Welcome to the tutorial for Tap Beat.
Students must hit either the up or down arrow to match the beat on the drum graphic on levels 1 and 2. From level 3 on, students will hear a series of tones and must indicate whether the last tone was higher/lower pitch or volume than the previous tone.
Skills trained:
Major: sensory-motor integration, sustained attention, selective attention
Minor: visual manipulation, divided attention, AP-discrimination, logic and reasoning, processing speed, working memory, VP-orientation
When you first click to begin any exercise, you will see the instruction screen. These instructions change for each level. There is a link to play an audio version of the instructions if needed.
Otherwise click OK to go to the next screen. On the next screen, click start to begin the exercise.
Below are the instructions for level 1.
Levels 1 and 2 train using a graphic with drum sticks beating a drum to different speeds. Level 1 has sound, level 2 does not. Hit the down arrow on the key board to match the beat of the red drumstick.
Speed 3 only shows one drum stick. Students have to imagine the other drumstick and its beat.
Levels 3-8 train with a completely different process than levels 1 and 2.
Music (notes) tones will be played and the student must determine if the 2nd tone was higher or lower than the first tone.
To practice learning the musical notes and better learn the difference in higher or lower tones, students can click on the following link to go to a tutorial.
Later rounds will use the same music note but will vary the volume and the student must determine if the 2nd tone was higher or lower in volume.
Level 3 will provide two tones to compare and then an input beat. On the input beat indicate if the 2nd tone was higher or lower.
A picture will be created as the student clicks on each answer. If the answer is correct, a part of the picture will be displayed. If the answer is incorrect or off beat, a gray square will be displayed.
If the answer is off beat, a message to that effect will be displayed. The answer must be input on the input beat.
On speed 1 only, an image will be displayed showing the correct answer on the input beat. This feedback is provided to help students who are not understanding the process. They can just observe the answer and listen until they get the feel of the process. Otherwise, ignore this feedback.
Levels 4 through 8 will present two tones to begin the process. Thereafter, they will only play one tone. The student must remember the last tone from the previous question to compare to the current tone.
So the process will be tone, tone then input beat, then tone, input, tone, input.