I've developed a free web app https://erhythm.org/ (disclosure: I'm the developer), it's a visual, interactive rhythm composer inspired by Godfried Toussaint's "The Geometry of Musical Rhythm". The core idea is simple: rhythm is represented as geometry. You place beats on a circle, the active beats connect to form a polygon, and you can immediately hear the pattern. Euclidean rhythms, polyrhythms, and world rhythms all become visually intuitive this way. As music educators or experienced musicians, do you think a geometry-based visual approach like this has real pedagogical value for beginners who haven't yet learned to read notation? Specifically I'm wondering:

Can seeing rhythm as a polygon on a circle help a pre-notation learner feel and internalize rhythm more naturally? Would you consider integrating something like this into early lessons? Are there risks or limitations to this approach compared to starting with traditional notation?

As a live example, here is a Bembé Afro-Cuban rhythm you can play and interact with directly:
Try it here — https://erhythm.org/composer/r/bembe-afro-cuban?utm_source=audiosex.pro

I'd appreciate honest, critical feedback from anyone with teaching or learning experience.

 

Are those our only 2 choices?

 

useful or cool is a strange choice.

i find it first of all boring - simply because there are already 50 or 60 sequencers which use the same visual representation.

and then there is always that inconsistency with circular interfaces for sequencer loops. on one hand it somehow looks cool. but on the other hand it is all but useful because it is really hard to read. (and it is also more complicated to implement.)

i´ve been giving up "circular" 20 years ago and only use left to right bars since then.
you´ll notice the difference mainly with multiple tracks. set up euclidian 7/18, 8/18 and 10/18 first circular and then do the same with columns...

it is much harder to notice equal or unequal distances between beats when they are lined up in a circle, same with finding matching beats between different tracks.

 

Hi @Erhythm, I think that if children or young people grow up with your system, they’ll master and use it.
Try reaching out to music teachers or youth centers—in short, really promote it!

Who even learns musical notation anymore?
My generation grew up with chord diagrams (for guitar and keyboard) and step sequencer templates.

 

Last edited: Jun 11, 2026 at 5:23 PM

It looks nice from a graphics angle, but because it is web-based, it lands at cool but probably not useful for production. For me, anyway. Learning purposes? I'm not sure.

If it was a MFX plugin pattern sequencer, with each drum "module" generating midi data and sending to multiple assignable midi channels, you would have a tool that would probably fit into some people's audio production workflow. There is a euclidian sequencer in UVI Falcon, but it is in a $200 or $300 synth platform (sales prices vary a lot). A separate MFX plugin pattern sequencer to maybe look at as an example is 510K Seqund.

 

Your application is really interesting Is it possible to export the results as MIDI files?

 

ill find it useful! to play my drums patterns, but idk... need more time to say something more deep.

 

I'll enjoy using that. Opening up my daw isn't always what i'm looking to do so web based apps come in handy. It's a tidy job you done. Cheers.

 

web based is not cool

 

Thank you @Lou Ulfark for your feedback, Yes you can export rhythm as MIDI and audio WAV file too.

 

A very interesting online tool, really, congratulations!

Just two possible updates you could consider:

1. working with sets of notes (that would be amazing!!!); and
2. the possibility of exporting the patterns as MIDI so we’re not limited to the quality of the samples you use!