App guide
Eight Time
See the rhythm. Say the count. Eight Time reads one meter — 3/8, where the eighth note is the beat — and builds the connection between written notation and spoken counting, one whole bar at a time.
- Build
2026-09-02.1- Open the app
- eight-time.backwerdrhythmshop.com
- Account or install
- None
- Cost
- Free forever
What this app does
Eight Time shows you a bar of 3/8 and asks what you would say out loud to count it. The rule it teaches is the same single rule its sibling Count It repeats in every screen: you count the notes that sound. The subdivision guide keeps time underneath every rhythm, but your answer names only the positions where a note begins — rests stay silent.
What makes this app its own is the beat. In 3/8 the eighth note is the beat, each beat splits into two sixteenth positions, and a beat is counted 1 & rather than 1 e & a. A bar of eighth notes beams across the whole measure — the way engraved 3/8 actually prints — with the secondary beam broken at each beat.
Where it came from
One trainer, split in half. 3/8 lived inside Count It for a short stretch in August 2026. The eighth-note beat brought its own rhythms, its own engraving rules, and a whole-bars-only question size, so it earned an app of its own. The split kept every promise a posted link made: a 3/8 assignment link written for Count It runs here unchanged and generates the identical questions — same rhythms, same order, same seed.
What you can practice
- Reading a beat that is an eighth note, not a quarter
- Counting 1 & positions inside each of three beats
- Keeping the silent positions silent
- Reading a whole-bar beam without losing where the beats begin
- Telling 3/8 from 3/4 by the bottom number, not by how the page looks
The four rhythms
An eighth-note beat divides in two, so its whole vocabulary is four rhythms — and all four are always in play. There is no level ladder here; an assignment link can narrow the pool, and nothing else does.
| Rhythm | What sounds | The count |
|---|---|---|
| Eighth note | The whole beat | 1 |
| Two sixteenths | Both halves of the beat | 1 & |
| Sixteenth, then rest | The first half only | 1 |
| Rest, then sixteenth | The second half only | & |
The two modes
| Mode | What it is |
|---|---|
| Practice | Explore without a score. Work through whole-measure examples at your own pace, revealing the count when you are ready. |
| Challenge | A five-question challenge. You pick the correct count from options and get feedback on each. |
How to use it
- Every question is a whole measure — three eighth-note beats. A single 3/8 beat is a third of a bar, and the app refuses to draw a third of a bar, so there is no question-size control to set.
- Decide whether to show the subdivision guide — the complete count (1 & 2 & 3 &) printed under the bar.
- Read the rhythm and say the count out loud.
- Only then press Reveal the count and compare.
Say it first. The button is called “Reveal the count” rather than “Show the answer” for a reason — reading a count you have already been shown teaches you almost nothing. Commit out loud, then check.
Controls and accessibility
Eight Time supports keyboard operation with visible focus (keys 1–4 answer the challenge), honors the system reduced-motion preference, and lays out for phones, tablets and classroom displays. A “Skip to the trainer” link is the first thing in the tab order, so keyboard and screen-reader users can bypass the introduction.
Privacy
Eight Time has no account and no backend. Any settings stay in this browser’s local storage and do not leave the device.
Assign it
A teacher pins a round in the URL and posts the link: the rhythms, the subdivision-guide policy, the question count, the pass mark and a seed. Every student who opens it gets the same questions under the same conditions — no accounts, no sign-in, and nothing about them stored — and the result card reports the conditions, which rhythms were missed, and a verification code beside the score.
The three 3/8 steps of Rhythms in Three — the six-step teaching sequence on Count It’s side of the family — open here, with the same rhythms and seeds the meter carried before the split.
Help and feedback
- Report a problem: support@backwerdrhythmshop.com
- Request a feature: feedback@backwerdrhythmshop.com
Include the app name, the build in the footer, the page URL, your browser, what you expected and what happened. The app’s Report a problem link opens an email draft with the app name, build, page URL, and browser details already included.
Three beats. Two positions each.
The whole vocabulary of an eighth-note beat, one honest bar at a time.