How to Play Beatdle

Beatdle is a daily music puzzle that challenges you to recreate a drum beat by ear. Each day, a new rhythmic pattern is generated for all players worldwide. Your goal is to listen carefully and place the correct drum hits on a sequencer grid, using color-coded feedback to guide your guesses. Think of it as Wordle, but instead of letters and words, you are working with kicks, snares, and hi-hats.

Understanding the Sequencer Grid

The sequencer grid is the heart of Beatdle. It consists of three rows and sixteen columns, forming a 3 by 16 grid of cells that represent one bar of music at 120 beats per minute in sixteenth-note resolution.

Top row (Kick Drum) — The bass drum, providing the low-frequency foundation of the beat. Kicks typically land on strong beats like beats 1 and 3.
Middle row (Snare Drum) — The snare provides the sharp, cracking sound that usually falls on backbeats (beats 2 and 4).
Bottom row (Hi-Hat) — The hi-hat adds rhythmic texture and subdivision, often playing on eighth notes or sixteenth notes to drive the groove forward.

The sixteen columns represent sixteen evenly spaced time divisions within a single bar. Columns are grouped into sets of four, corresponding to the four quarter-note beats in a bar. This visual grouping helps you identify downbeats and subdivisions at a glance.

To place a drum hit, simply tap or click a cell to toggle it on (shown in blue). Tap again to remove it. There is a global limit on how many hits you can place across all rows combined — you must match the total number of hits in the target beat. This prevents guessing by simply filling in every cell.

Listening to the Beat

Before placing any cells, press the play button to hear the target beat. The beat loops continuously so you can listen as many times as you need during that playback session. However, once you stop playback, you cannot listen again until after you submit your current guess. This once-per-guess listening rule is a core part of the challenge — it forces you to develop your musical memory and internalize the rhythm before editing your grid.

While the beat is playing, you can also toggle cells on the grid. The sequencer updates in real time, letting you hear your edits as they happen alongside the target beat. This is a powerful technique: place a hit, listen to whether it lines up, and adjust before stopping.

The Feedback System

After submitting a guess, each cell in your grid receives color-coded feedback, similar to the letter colors in Wordle. The feedback is calculated independently for each instrument row:

Green — Correct. You placed a hit in the exact right position. This cell is locked into your next guess automatically.
Yellow — Misplaced. The target beat does have a hit for this instrument, but not at this step. You need to move it to a different column.
Gray — Absent. There is no hit at this position for this instrument, and all actual hits have been accounted for by green or yellow feedback elsewhere.

Because feedback is computed per row, the kick feedback never influences the snare or hi-hat, and vice versa. Each instrument is its own independent mini-puzzle.

Locked Cells and Progressive Solving

When a cell is marked green, it carries forward into your next guess as a locked cell, displayed in a muted green. Locked cells cannot be toggled off. This means each guess builds on your previous correct placements, progressively narrowing the puzzle and reducing the number of cells you need to figure out. By your later attempts, you may have most of the beat already solved, needing only to place the remaining few hits.

Attempts and Winning

You have six attempts to match the target beat exactly. If all cells across all three rows are green after a submission, you win. If you use all six attempts without a perfect match, the game ends and the correct beat is revealed. Either way, you can share your results as an emoji grid with friends and on social media.

Strategy Tips

Start with the kick drum. The kick is usually the most prominent and easiest to identify. Listen for the deep, thumping bass hits. Most musical beats place kicks on strong beats (positions 1, 5, 9, and 13 in the grid, which correspond to the four quarter notes). Start there and adjust based on feedback.
Listen for backbeats. Snares almost always land on beats 2 and 4 (positions 5 and 13 in zero-indexed terms, or columns 5 and 13 in the grid). If you hear a sharp crack on those beats, place snare hits there first.
Use hi-hats to find the subdivision. Hi-hats often play a steady pattern — every other column for eighth notes, or every column for sixteenth notes. Determine the density first, then listen for any gaps or accents.
Use yellow feedback strategically. A yellow cell tells you a hit exists but is in the wrong column. Try shifting it to nearby positions on your next guess. If the beat has a swing feel, the hit might be one step to the right of where you expect.
Edit while listening. Take advantage of the live-editing feature. While the sequencer is playing, toggle cells on and off to hear whether your placement sounds correct before committing to a guess.
Memorize before stopping playback. Since you only get one listening session per guess, make the most of it. Focus on one instrument at a time: first the kick pattern, then the snare, then the hi-hat. Repeat the loop until each layer is burned into your memory.
Count with the grid groupings. The visual groupings of four columns correspond to quarter-note beats. Use this structure to count along: "1 e and a, 2 e and a" and so on. This makes it much easier to identify where hits fall.

Common Questions

Can I preview my own grid before submitting? Yes. Press play at any time to hear your current grid arrangement. The sequencer will loop your pattern so you can evaluate it before submitting.

Why can't I place more hits? There is a global note limit equal to the total number of hits across all instruments in the target beat. Once you have placed that many hits across all three rows combined, no more cells can be toggled on. This is an anti-cheating measure that prevents you from simply selecting every cell. You must be intentional about where you place each hit.

Is the beat the same for everyone? Yes. Every player gets the same daily beat, generated deterministically from the current date. This means you can fairly compare scores and guess distributions with friends.

Ready to play? Start today's Beatdle