Calibration and mic
Strumhold scores what your mic hears, so the mic matters more than any other setting. Calibration is how the app learns your setup. When scoring seems off, the answer is almost always on this page.
What calibration does
Before your first drill the app runs a short calibration: a count-in, then a handful of clicks you strum along to, then a few soft plucks. It takes about 15 seconds and measures two things:
- How long your setup takes to get a strum from the strings to the app. Every rig has some delay, and without measuring it the app would mark honest playing as late. Calibration finds yours so timing scores are fair.
- Whether your mic can pick out soft plucks from its own background noise. Chords are loud; single plucked notes in a scale are much quieter, and not every mic can hear them.
You can rerun it any time from Settings, under Mic & scoring. Recalibrate after anything about your setup changes, like a different mic or a move to a louder room.
The signal is too weak
If calibration says your signal is very weak, the app is barely hearing your guitar. The usual causes, in order:
- A headset is plugged in and its tiny mic is the one listening. Unplug it, or pick the built-in mic during calibration.
- The device is too far from the guitar. Closer helps more than louder playing.
- The mic itself is poor. Picking a different mic during calibration is the fix.
Chords score fine, scales don’t
Some mics hear strums clearly but can’t separate soft plucks from their own noise. Calibration checks for this and warns you: your setup is fine for chord practice, weak for scales. Nothing is blocked, and you can still run scale drills, but the app can’t score plucks the mic never heard. Switching to a different mic for scale practice, then recalibrating, is the only real fix.
Plucks stopped registering mid-practice
If a scale drill comes back as a wall of unheard plucks on a setup that used to work, something changed since calibration. Check that your input volume wasn’t turned down and that the mic you calibrated with is still the one connected, then recalibrate. The drill still counts either way; one bad take washes out of your numbers on the next good one.
The app can’t reach the mic at all
Scoring needs mic access, and the browser asks for it the first time. If you declined, or a drill reports no mic, open your browser’s site settings for strumhold.com and allow the microphone, then reload.