Coming soon · iOS

A calmer way to sit down at your drums.

Learn grooves from real notation. Keep time with a metronome worth its own tab. Capture the beat you just tapped on your knees. Drum Buddha is a practice room that stays out of your way.

no streaks. no scores. just the groove.

Coming soon toApp Store
 iPhone · iPad · Apple Watch

Free when it lands. No account, ever.

9:26
Saturday Afternoon
Hey,
Gabe.
G
what's it gonna be today?
Learn
Learn a groove
Capture
Capture idea
Practice
Practice tools
Play
Just jam
Recent grooves
The Money Beat
Essentials · 4/4
Half-Time Shuffle
Funk · 92
One Drop
Reggae · 76
Home
Grooves
Ideas
Pulse
Search
Manifesto

Learn a groove. Tap out an idea. Sit down and play.

just the grooves and the time you spend with them.
What's inside

Built around how you actually practice.

Nothing tracks you. Nothing nags you. Everything stays on your device.

Grooves

197 patterns, in real notation.

A bundled catalog of original grooves across 17 styles — rock, funk, jazz, Latin, Afro-Cuban, hip-hop, reggae and more — every one written in standard drum notation. Mute or solo any voice to isolate a limb: kick alone, then add the snare, then the hats. Slow it down, loop it, record a take against it, or open the grid editor and build your own.

44
Pulse

A metronome worth its own tab.

Big, tappable BPM. Odd meters and subdivisions. Gap click to test your own time, a tempo ramp with no fail state, and a silent visual pulse for late-night practice-pad work.

Jam

A band that waits for you.

Flip the script: here you're the drummer, so bass and keys vamp and wait for your count-in. Pick a style and a key, set the tempo, then record yourself over the top.

Practice

The 40 rudiments, drilled.

All 40 PAS rudiments with notation, sticking and playback at your pace — the drummer's answer to a chord library. Plus a fills shelf, limb-independence drills, loops, and quiet practice routines.

R L R R
Ideas

Catch the beat before it's gone.

Voice memos and notes for the beat you just tapped on your knees. Trim, slow it down, revisit. Deleted takes are recoverable for 30 days.

197 grooves · 40 rudiments

Made for the in-between moments.

The practice-pad ten minutes. The basement kit at 11pm. The beat you tapped out on your knees on the bus.

10:08
Tab 2 · Library
Grooves
The Money Beat
Essentials · 4/4
Half-Time Shuffle
Funk · 92
Four on the Floor
Disco · 120
Boom Bap
Hip-Hop · 88
Bossa Nova
Latin · 132
Home
Grooves
Ideas
Pulse
Search
8:14
Pulse
Keep time
100
BPM
30300
TAP
Start
Time sig
2/4
3/4
4/4
5/4
6/8
7/8
Subdivision
♩
♪
3
♬
Home
Grooves
Ideas
Pulse
Search
11:50
Jam
Rec
Rock
Funk
Jazz
Blues
Ballad
Your band
Edit
Bass Root
Keys Piano
Click Off
you're the drums.
96
BPM · Rock
TAP
Band key
Change
C
D
E
F
G
A
C minor
maj
min
Beyond the phone

On your wrist, when your hands are full.

The tools you reach for most — the metronome, quick launches, a running session on your Lock Screen — one glance away.

Apple Watch

A metronome on your wrist.

Spin the Crown to set the tempo. Feel every beat as a haptic tap — genuinely made for drummers, no need to look down.

Home-screen widget

One tap to what you reach for.

Jump straight into Pulse, your grooves, or a jam — right from the home screen, no digging through the app.

Live Activities

Right on your Lock Screen.

A running metronome, take, or practice session shows up on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island — so the count keeps going while you do.

Local-first by design

Nothing leaves your phone.

No accounts. No syncing to "the cloud." No data sold or shared. Your grooves, your ideas, your takes — all yours, on your device.

  • No accounts, ever. Open the app and you're already in.
  • No telemetry by default. We don't know how often you play, or what you play. Anonymous analytics run only if you opt in.
  • No internet required. Works in the basement, on the porch, off-grid.
  • Your takes stay on your device. Mic audio never leaves. Export to share — never automatic.
YOUR DATASTAYS HERE
Pricing

Free, with a tip jar.

Every feature, unlocked from day one. No subscription. No paywall. No ads tracking you between sessions.

$0Every feature · forever
if the app helps your practice, you can chip in — right in the app
$0.99
Thanks!
$4.99
Supporter
$9.99
Keep it flowing
no pressure. no paywall. just optional.
Prefer the web? There's a tip jar here too →
Four palettes

Pick the room you're playing in.

The app ships with four themes. Try them right here — your selection follows you down the page.

A note from the maker

I built Drum Buddha for the version of me who sits down at the kit at 11pm, plays for forty minutes, and forgets what he was working on by Tuesday. It's a place to put the practice. Quietly. Without anyone counting.

— see you in there
Frequently asked

Questions, gently answered.

When will it ship?+
On iOS, coming soon. It's built and in final testing — the last steps are this website and the App Store review. Check back here, or drop a line to hello@drum-buddha.com and I'll let you know when it lands.
How much will it cost?+
Nothing — every feature is free, forever. See the Pricing section for details on the optional tip jar. No subscription, no paywall, no ads.
What's in the groove library?+
197 original patterns: 151 grooves across 17 styles (rock, funk, jazz, Latin, Afro-Cuban, blues, soul, R&B, hip-hop, reggae, disco, punk, metal, pop, country, world and the essentials), 30 fills, and 16 coordination drills — plus all 40 PAS rudiments in Practice. Every voice can be muted or soloed, so you can isolate a limb, and there's a grid editor for building your own.
Does it read real drum notation?+
Yes — standard drum notation from day one, drawn by a custom renderer. The grid editor is the writing surface; notation is the reading surface, and you can flip between them on any groove. It's one of the few drum apps that shows real notation instead of falling gems or a grid alone.
Does it work without an internet connection?+
Completely. The groove catalog, rudiments, drum kits and jam band are all bundled and run on-device. No cloud, no streaming, no account. The only things that ever touch the network are optional: leaving a tip, and anonymous analytics if you've opted in.
Does it work on iPad?+
Yes — Drum Buddha is a universal app. It runs on iPhone and iPad, with a layout that opens up on the bigger screen. Everything is portrait-first, except Jam, which rotates to landscape so you can play hands-free.
Why no streaks or goals?+
Because the moment practice becomes a game you can lose, you stop. Drum Buddha is built around showing up, not winning — no scores, no grading, no leaderboards. The library remembers what you've sat with; that's all the tracking you need.
Is there an Apple Watch app or a widget?+
Both. The Apple Watch app is a haptic metronome with tap tempo and Digital Crown control — the click becomes a tap on your wrist. A home-screen widget puts Pulse, Grooves, and Jam one tap away, and Live Activities keep a running session on your Lock Screen. See the Beyond the phone section above.
Is it part of a family of apps?+
It is. Drum Buddha is the newest in the Buddha family — same calm, local-first idea, a different instrument each time. If you play strings, meet the sister apps: Ukulele Buddha and Guitar Buddha.