Groove IO user guide
Everything in the app, arranged the way Groove IO thinks about practice: structure (what to play next, and a record of what you played), skills (reading, the groove catalogue, writing your own), feedback (a microphone or an e-kit grading every take), the tools (songs, charts, loops, kits) and teaching. More room is given to the parts that take a minute to set up: calibrating a microphone, connecting an electronic kit over MIDI, getting a song in time with its chart, turning a PDF into a score, and moving grooves between Groove IO and your DAW.
Before you start
An account. Groove IO is in closed beta. If your teacher uses it, they will send you an invite link: open it, set a password, and you are in. Otherwise pick the plan you would want on the pricing page and ask for access on the page after it, saying what you play into (a microphone, or which electronic kit) and which browser you use; or email hello@groove-io.com with the same. Every plan is free during early access, and the plan you name is what gets switched on.
Signing in. The app lives at app.groove-io.com. An account created for you by an admin comes with a temporary password, and the first thing the app does is ask you to change it. Forgot password on the sign-in page sends a reset link to your email; if nothing arrives within a few minutes, check your spam folder, then write to support@groove-io.com.
A browser. Chrome or Edge gives you everything. Firefox works, and needs its MIDI site permission before it will read an electronic kit. Safari plays, scrolls, scores with a microphone and handles MIDI files, but cannot read a kit live, because it has no Web MIDI at all. The app is built for a laptop or desktop; it works on a tablet, and the song page folds its side panels away on a small screen. What a phone can and cannot do is under On a phone or tablet.
What is already there, and what you bring. From the first minute the app has the warm-up routines, the groove catalogue and its ladders, the lessons, Groove Studio and two recorded drum kits. What it does not have is music: Groove IO supplies no songs and no sheet music, so your song library is the PDFs you already own and the audio you play them against. For scoring you need either a microphone, which any laptop has, or an electronic kit with a USB or MIDI OUT socket.
On a phone or tablet
Groove IO is built for a laptop or desktop. A phone is the right device for part of it and the wrong one for the rest.
What works on a phone. Recording a take and sending it to your teacher: the Recordings page records video or audio in the browser, so a student can film at the kit and send it without leaving the app. Reading and replying to notes. The Learn lessons, the groove catalogue and the rudiments, played back at any tempo.
What needs a laptop.
- Scoring with an e-kit. No browser on an iPhone or iPad has Web MIDI, so nothing on those devices can read a kit live, whichever browser you install. Chrome on Android has it, but a module needs a USB connection a phone is not built for. Use a laptop or desktop with Chrome or Edge.
- Scoring with a microphone. Calibration plays clicks through the speakers and listens for them through the microphone. That is built and tested on laptops. On a phone it is not something we have tested, so the app does not promise it.
- Songs. A chart needs width to be read, and the song page’s drawers, loops and sync points are built for a mouse and a wide screen.
- Groove Studio. The editor is built for a mouse and a keyboard.
A tablet sits between the two. The song page folds its side panels away, playback and the lessons work, and a microphone take works as it does in Safari on a Mac. An e-kit does not: an iPad has no Web MIDI, whichever browser you install.
Getting started
The first time you sign in, unless a teacher invited you, Groove IO asks what brings you here: learning, practising, writing, or (for teachers) teaching. Your answer sets what Home leads with, which part of the sidebar is open, and whether a score or groove’s page shows its sharing and editing controls or keeps them behind More. Change it any time under Settings, or with Change beside the mode line on Home. You can skip it and answer later. Get started is still there for your profile and your sound, and nothing on it is required. About you is your profile: display name, a line about how you play, your kit, and how long you have been playing. Your sound asks whether you play into a microphone or an electronic kit, and does the setup for whichever you pick on the same page. Ready to play links to the three main places to start.
Get started can also be skipped: Skip for now takes you to Home and leaves the page as it is. A small ring on the Get started item at the top of the sidebar shows how far along you are, and clicking it brings you back to finish. Home shows the same ring on a card, and the Report tab keeps a Setup line whatever you do. Don’t show this again removes the sidebar item and the Home card; the page still works from the Report tab’s link.
Every plan can set up its sound, and your progress counts only the steps your plan can do. Calibration is remembered per device, so the ring on a new laptop starts short of full until you calibrate there (with an e-kit, until you run the timing check there).
A good first session needs no song. Run a warm-up: press play once and it counts you in and steps up the tempo by itself. Then open Challenges and press Practise on Start here — for a new account that is Hats alone at 70 bpm, the first rung of the First beats ladder — and record a take with your microphone or e-kit; you get a score, a tier, and a suggestion for what to play next. (Every plan gets three scored takes a week; Pro has no limit.) When you are ready for a song, add one and set it up so the chart scrolls in time with the recording.
Finding your way around
The sidebar on the left is four groups and an account block. Each group folds on its heading, the group holding the page you are on is always open, and Collapse sidebar shrinks the whole rail to icons. Your mode opens the group it needs and folds the others once; after that the groups stay how you leave them.
- Play is what you have: Home, Songs, Setlists and Favourites.
- Create is what you write: Groove Studio and Grooves.
- Practise is what you have played: the Practise hub, Warm-ups and Challenges.
- Learn is Learn and Recordings. Recordings opens on the Educator plan and for students on a teacher’s roster; on any other account it is shown locked.
Below the groups: From your teacher for students, with a count of anything not opened yet, Students for teachers, and for admins Users and Reported. At the bottom, Help opens a message to us. Settings is where you edit your profile, change your password and see your plan, and the entry under it is Upgrade or Manage billing depending on your plan and whether billing is switched on. Locked entries are never hidden: a page your plan does not include is shown with the plan that does, so you can see what is there.
Home starts with the journey card, which asks once what you want to do (learn grooves, practise a song, or write your own) and then shows one next step with a line saying why. Change the goal or hide the card whenever you like. Under it: Continue, the last things you played; Challenges, three suggestions with a Practise button each; Practice, your last seven days; and your songs and grooves.
Your profile
Your profile lives under Settings in the sidebar. It is where you say who you are: display name, bio, playing style, favourite drummers, favourite genres, your kit and years playing. The display name is what appears beside anything you publish or share, and in the sidebar in place of your email. Nobody else ever sees your email.
Show my profile on things I share is off by default. On, a share link shows your display name, playing style, years playing and bio. Off, it shows your display name only. Favourite drummers, genres and kit are never published. How others see you on the page shows exactly what a stranger gets.
Password is the next section down on the same page, then Your plan, which names the plan you are on.
Plans and upgrading
Free has five tracks, one setlist, three grooves of your own, Groove Studio for grooves, MIDI download and import, the Community catalogue, Challenges, the rudiments, both kits and Learn, three scored takes a week, and warm-ups with one routine of your own. Pro lifts the tracks, setlists and grooves to unlimited, lifts the routine allowance so you keep as many routines of your own as you like, and adds unlimited scored takes, the loop timeline, the score editor for whole songs, Learn this song and Your playing. Educator adds the roster, sharing and recordings. Studio is for schools and multi-teacher studios. The full comparison is on the pricing page.
During early access every plan is free and nothing is charged; email us to change plan. Once billing is on, Upgrade in the sidebar opens checkout, and Manage billing opens the portal where you change plan or cancel.