About The Clickwork

Why we built it

Practice is where playing an instrument is actually learned, and it is also the part most people quietly give up on. Not because it is hard, but because it is invisible: you sit down, you play the same passage twenty times, and at the end of the week nothing looks different from the start of it.

The Clickwork exists to make that progress visible. Our goal is simple — help people practise their instrument and track their progress, so that learning becomes interesting and motivating instead of a chore you keep putting off.

It was built at Aura Music School in Jaipur, for real students and real teachers, out of a paper practice chart that worked well enough to be worth digitising.

What it does

You build a practice chart: one row per exercise, one column per day, and a set of tempos to work through. Tap a tempo and a metronome and countdown timer run together for that set. When the timer finishes, the set is marked done. Nothing to log by hand.

The tempo climbs on its own — a little between sets, a little between days — so this week you are playing faster than last week without having to decide when to push. Set a goal tempo and you can watch the gap close.

Everything you do feeds a practice history: daily streaks, a year-long heatmap, time practised, sets logged, and per-exercise tempo runs you can share as an image. Students can send a short video take to their teacher; teachers can assign exercises, leave remarks on a take, and see how their whole class is doing.

There is also a chromatic tuner and a small set of ear-training and notation games, because the ten minutes before you start playing should not be spent hunting for another app.

Who it is for

Music students of any instrument — guitar, piano, drums, violin, voice — who want their practice to add up to something, and who like seeing a streak they do not want to break.

Music teachers and schools who want to set practice, see whether it actually happened, and give feedback between lessons rather than only during them.

Questions people ask

Is it Clickwork or Clockwork?

Clickwork, with an i. The Clickwork is named for the click of a metronome — the sound practice actually runs on. The tagline is "practice, like clockwork", which is where the confusion comes from, but the app and the website are always The Clickwork at theclickwork.com.

What is The Clickwork?

The Clickwork is a music practice tracker for students and their teachers. You build a daily practice chart, run a built-in metronome and timer for each set, raise your tempo over time, and keep a record of every session so your progress is visible rather than guessed at.

Do I need a teacher to use it?

No. You can sign up on your own, build your own practice chart, and use the metronome, tuner, games and statistics without a teacher. Joining a teacher’s class adds assigned exercises, video feedback and unlimited exercises.

Which instruments does it work with?

Any of them. The Clickwork tracks practice rather than notes, so guitar, piano, drums, violin, flute, voice and everything else work the same way — you decide what an exercise is, and the app handles the tempo, the timing and the record.

How does the metronome and tempo work?

Each exercise has a starting tempo and two increments: how much the tempo rises between sets on the same day, and how much it rises from one day to the next. The metronome runs at the right tempo for the set you tapped, with an accented downbeat and optional subdivisions, alongside a countdown timer. You can also practise to a backing loop instead of clicks.

How does it track my progress?

Every completed set is recorded with its tempo and the time you actually spent. From that you get a daily streak, a practice heatmap, total time and sets for any period, per-exercise tempo runs, and personal records such as your best day and fastest tempo. You can share any of it as an image.

Does it cost anything?

You can start free. A free account keeps up to three of your own exercises along with the metronome, tuner, games and statistics. Students who join their teacher’s class get unlimited exercises and video feedback as part of their school’s subscription.

Do I need to install an app?

No. The Clickwork runs in the browser on a phone, tablet or computer, so there is nothing to download and it updates itself. Add it to your home screen and it behaves like an app.

What happens to the practice videos I send my teacher?

A take is stored privately and is visible only to you and your own teacher, who can watch it and leave a remark. It is never public, and you can delete your own takes at any time.

Who made The Clickwork?

It is built and run by Aura Music School in Jaipur, India, and used by their own students and teachers as well as players elsewhere.