Rhythm Math

A line of note values joined by plus and minus signs, and you answer how many beats it comes to. A half note plus a quarter note is three. A whole note minus a pair of eighth notes is three as well, which is the sort of thing you only really learn by doing it.

Five levels. Level 1 is quarter notes alone, level 2 adds halves and wholes, level 3 adds eighth-note pairs, level 4 adds the dotted values, and level 5 adds eighth-note triplets and sixteenth-note pairs. The levels are cumulative, so a level 5 problem may draw on anything below it.

Every answer is a whole number of beats. A dotted quarter or a lone pair of sixteenths only ever turns up in a line where something else resolves it, so the arithmetic is real without ever asking for a fraction.

Practice mode shows one problem at a time and marks it the moment you answer, revealing the total when you miss. Game mode is ten problems against the clock, one at a time, with the score and the time at the end — and a perfect round earns a certificate to print. Either mode goes full screen for a classroom projector, and the number buttons mean nobody needs a keyboard.

There is a worksheet generator too: pick how many problems and which level, and it prints a page you can hand out, or three slips divided by cut lines for a quick bellringer quiz.