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Drum Map
Map the pitches. Plan the changes.
A free timpani setup puzzle. Give every required pitch a practical home, then work out how to reach the next one in the time the music allows.
Four drums, and the ranges they overlap on.
Why timpanists need it
A part does not arrive with a setup
Before you can play a timpani part you have to decide which drum takes which pitch, and then whether every tuning change the music asks for is physically possible in the bars available. That decision is usually made once, under time pressure, with no way to test it. Drum Map is that decision, made into a puzzle you can get wrong safely.
The four practical ranges overlap on purpose. The overlap is the whole problem: it is what makes a setup a choice rather than a table lookup, and it is why an opening that works can still strand you eight bars later.
How a puzzle works
Set the drums, then plan the change
Every required opening pitch gets a drum. Choose a pitch, then choose its drum. A drum shows a conflict until you repair it, and unassigned pitches are announced as a running list rather than left as empty slots to spot.
With the opening setup fixed, work out the tuning changes the part demands — and whether the rests actually give you room to make them.
Check setup tests stage one on its own. Check complete plan tests the whole thing. Back to setup returns you to stage one, and Reset puzzle clears the board.
What you work through
Six puzzles, in order
The introduction — give every opening pitch a practical home.
Pitches that more than one drum could take, and why the choice matters later.
Pitches sitting at the extremes of a drum's practical range.
A change with almost no time in which to make it.
A change that has to happen exactly where it will be heard.
Planning around an entrance that arrives after the change.
The answer nobody teaches
“This setup is impossible” is an answer
One of the buttons on the board declares the puzzle unsolvable — and sometimes that is the correct response. Learning that a part as written cannot be covered by four drums is a real timpani skill, and the honest next step is an extra drum, a re-voicing, or a conversation with the conductor.
Most practice tools only let you be right or not-yet-right. This one lets you be right by refusing.
Best for
Where it earns its place
- Advanced high-school and college timpanists
- Students meeting setup and pedalling decisions for the first time
- Directors assigning independent percussion work
- Phones, tablets, Chromebooks, and classroom displays
How it fits the app family
Drum Map is the timpani one
The other instrument apps live on the keyboard — staff reading, scales, and the geography of the bars. Drum Map is the only one about timpani, and the only one where the answer is a plan rather than a note.
Timpani setup and pedal-change planning, in six authored puzzles.
You are hereStaff-note reading and note-to-bar geography on keyboard percussion.
Open Mallet Map →Building major scales on the bars, one degree at a time.
Open Scale Trail →Honest boundary
What “valid” means here
A valid plan satisfies this authored puzzle — not every musical answer. The ranges overlap on purpose, and a setup Drum Map rejects may still be defensible in a real hall. A setup it accepts is not automatically the one a section leader would choose.
Drum Map also scores decisions only. It does not listen to you play, and it does not grade tone, stroke, tuning by ear, or live performance.
Private by design
No account, no backend
Progress is saved in your browser and nothing is uploaded anywhere. Reset local progress clears it. Every pitch, drum and puzzle is a labelled button, click and keyboard controls use the same path, focus stays visible, and the app honours the system reduced-motion preference.
Six setups, and one of them may not work.
Assign the pitches, plan the changes, and find out. Free, no account, nothing to install. The guide walks through all six puzzles, including the ones with no valid answer.