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Play along · Five-minute practice

Death metal practice.
Hold the pulse, not every hit.

Keep one simple rhythm going as the band moves from a blast beat to a breakdown, a quieter bridge and back. You do not need to match every drum hit.

Free in your browser. No account, microphone or MIDI controller needed.

Your starting band

180 BPM · E Phrygian · 4/4

Four editable sections. You bring the riff; this is generated accompaniment, not a song transcription or original recording.

Open the Death metal backing setup

Nothing plays on arrival. Choose Load practice setup, then Start playback.

Before you play

The demo starts at 180 quarter-note beats per minute in 4/4. Count 1, 2, 3, 4 over the busy drums. Half-time changes the feel, not the displayed BPM.

  • Start at a comfortable master volume. Loading chooses Recorded Acoustic drums and rhythm guitar; synth drums play if recordings are unavailable.
  • Loading replaces the current groove, but leaves saved scene slots and master volume untouched. Save any unsaved groove first if you want to keep it.
  • Need a slower pace? Load the setup, lower BPM in Tempo & Meter, then turn on Keep my tempo in the setup panel. Section buttons will use your current BPM. With it off, the next section restores 180 BPM. The preference resets to off on reload.
  • The same steps are available in Five-minute practice guide inside the app’s setup panel. Minute marks are a suggested pace, not an automatic timer. Mock Band does not advance sections or stop for you.

One rhythm. Five minutes. Four sections.

Use the named buttons in the practice setup panel, not the numbered Scenes slots. While playing, a section waits for the next bar. Choose once and keep counting through the change.

  1. 0–1 min

    Hear the pulse first

    Section: Blast drive

    Listen before playing. Count four evenly spaced beats per bar over Blast drive. Start with a single muted strum on beat 1; let the drums carry the faster movement. You can stay with muted rhythm for the whole exercise.

  2. 1–2 min

    Repeat a small idea

    Section: Blast drive

    Keep the same one-bar rhythm, or bring in a short original riff that fits the backing. Leave a gap before the next bar so you can hear whether your next attack lands with the band. This is a steadiness exercise, not a picking-speed test.

  3. 2–3 min

    Keep time through the breakdown

    Section: Half-time crush

    Choose Half-time crush. Keep counting four at the same pace as the drums become more spacious. Half-time changes the backbeat, not the BPM; do not halve your count to follow the slower backbeat.

  4. 3–4 min

    Let the bridge breathe

    Section: Riff bridge

    Choose Riff bridge. Repeat the same idea against the standard backbeat and quieter accompaniment. Play fewer notes if that makes the pulse easier to follow; you do not have to fill the spaces.

  5. 4–5 min

    Return over the fill

    Section: Blast + toms

    Choose Blast + toms. Return to your first rhythm while the band adds a snare-and-tom fill every four bars. Keep your part simple through the fill, find the next downbeat, then press Stop when you finish.

Make the next round yours

Choose a section first, then edit tempo, key or fills. Keep my tempo carries only your BPM across section changes. Other edits, including key, swing and fills, are replaced by the next section’s recipe.

Save an edited groove to a local scene slot you are happy to replace. Export scenes for a backup; local saves are not cloud storage.

Worth another session?

Did the backing help you keep the idea going, or get in the way? Try the same round another day before adding complexity.

Tell us what interrupted your practice

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Ready when you are.

Open the Death metal backing setup