Drumbook Online

Jurrian Snoek is a drum teacher and saw daily how his students struggled to practise between lessons. Sheet music on paper, videos on YouTube, play-along tracks somewhere else. All separate from each other, nothing coordinated.

His idea was as simple as it was ambitious: one platform where sheet music, video and play-along tracks come together. Where a teacher can invite and guide his own students. And where a student can practise independently at any time of the day.

The challenge for PixelDeluxe: build a platform that is technically complex enough to support all this, but at the same time so simple that a student without technical knowledge can start using it immediately.

We built Drumbook Online as a full-fledged SaaS application on Craft CMS with Vue.js for the interactive functionalities.

The teacher portal is completely free for teachers. They create an account, invite their students and integrate the digital methodology into their own teaching method. Through the portal, teachers manage their students and keep track of who uses what.

The subscription model is simple: one subscription, selectable per month, per half year or per year. Payments are made via Stripe, including automatic renewals and subscription management.

The platform combines sheet music, video and audio into one cohesive learning experience. As the music plays, a cursor runs along through the sheet music so the student always knows where he is. At the same time, he can switch between multiple camera angles and see exactly how a technique is performed from the angle that helps him the most. If he wants to practise more slowly, he slows down the tempo without changing the pitch. If he wants to remove the drum part from the mix and just play along with the band, he plays the music with a click track.

All these functionalities work together as one. The student does not notice any separate parts, he simply experiences a platform that works.

The most difficult part of this project was seamlessly merging different technologies into one coherent user experience. The student does not notice where one system ends and another begins. Everything feels like one platform.

In addition, the platform had to work on any device. A student practising at home on an iPad, a teacher teaching on a laptop, a student quickly looking something up on their phone. Responsive was not an afterthought here but a hard requirement.

Craft CMS as the basis for content management and user management. Vue.js for the interactive video player and sheet music display. Tailwind CSS for front-end styling. Stripe for subscription management, monthly and annual payments and automatic renewals. Fully responsive on desktop, tablet and mobile.

Drumbook Online is a fully-fledged SaaS learning platform that has been actively used by drummers and drum teachers in the Netherlands since 2022. Teachers digitise their lessons within their own methodology. Students practise at home using the same tools they know from the lesson.

The platform grows steadily and is continuously developed based on feedback from teachers and students.

This project is special for PixelDeluxe because our owner Martijn also plays drums himself. He understands from his own experience how difficult it is to practise at home without proper guidance. That personal involvement influenced the development, not only technically but also in the choices we made about user experience and functionalities.

You build the best products when you understand the target group. And sometimes you are that target group yourself.