How to play The Rhyme Game
The Rhyme Game shows you rhyme words in time with a beat. A bouncing ball marks every beat; when it reaches a word, that's where your rhyme lands. You fill in the rest of the bar with whatever comes to mind.
Once you've got the basics, thefreestyle guides have 5-minute drills you can play along with.
The basics in one minute
- Tap Play. The gold Play button on the home screen opens Customize Your Game.
- Pick your words. Choose a word list, the pool of rhyme words the game will give you. Beginner-friendly lists use short, common words; harder lists get more specific.
- Pick a scheme. Choose which lines rhyme with each other (AABB, ABAB, AAAA…) and how many of the rhyme words you want to see.
- Pick a beat. Choose one from the Beat Library and set how long you want to go: 8, 16, 32 or 64 bars, or the full beat.
- Rap. Words scroll up with the music. Follow the ball, say something that leads into each word, and land the rhyme on the beat.
When the session ends you get a Game Review showing how long you went, how many bars you rapped and your current day streak. Hit Replay for the same words, or replay with new ones.
Reading the grid
The gameplay screen shows five bars at a time. Each bar is one line of your verse, four beats long, and the bouncing ball hops across them in time with the music. The rhyme words sit at the end of each bar, on the fourth beat, which is where rhymes naturally fall in most rap.
Words that rhyme with each other share a color, so you can see the rhyme scheme at a glance: every A line is one color, every B line another.
Your job is the three beats before each word. Say anything that sets up the rhyme: a thought, a joke, a story. It doesn't have to be clever at first. It just has to arrive on time. For why rhymes belong on beat four, seethree rules of freestyle flow.
Fill modes: how much help you get
Fill mode decides how many of the rhyme slots show a word. It's the main way to make the game easier or harder.
| Fill mode | What you see | What it trains |
|---|---|---|
| All Words | Every rhyme word is shown | Flow and timing. The easiest place to start. |
| First Only | The first word of each rhyme pair; you find the rhyme | Thinking of rhymes on the spot |
| Last Only | Only the word you're rhyming into | Setup and punchline: writing toward a target |
| No Words | A blank grid. Pure freestyle on the scheme. | Everything, unassisted |
Rhyme schemes
The scheme sets which bars rhyme with each other. Letters stand for rhyme sounds: lines with the same letter rhyme.
| Scheme | Pattern | Feel |
|---|---|---|
| AABB | Lines 1 & 2 rhyme, then 3 & 4 | The default. Classic couplets. |
| ABAB | Lines 1 & 3 rhyme, 2 & 4 rhyme | You hold a rhyme in your head across a line |
| AAAA | All four lines share one rhyme | Hard. You need four rhymes for the same sound. |
| No Rhymes | Scheme switched off | Flow practice with no rhyme prompts |
New to schemes? Read Rhyme schemes explained: AABB, ABAB and AAAA.
A difficulty ladder
Fill mode and scheme combine into a natural progression. Move up a rung when the current one feels easy.
- Beginner: All Words + AABB
- Intermediate: First Only + AABB
- Advanced: Last Only + AABB
- Expert: Last Only + AAAA
After that, try No Words and freestyle straight onto the scheme with no prompts at all.
Last Only is how you practicesetup and punchline, the technique behind Harry Mack's freestyles.
Game modes
- Classic (Single Beat): one beat, a set number of bars, then a review screen. This is the main mode.
- Endless (Endless Playlist): the beats keep coming, one after another. Rap as long as you like.
- Tap Mode: rap along to any music you hear, like the song in your car, a track playing in a store or a friend's beat. Tap along to its rhythm (or type in a BPM) and the game plays along with it.
Beat options
Under the beat card's advanced settings you can skip a beat's intro, run the ball at half or double speed, and turn on Auto Half-Time, which halves the ball's pace on very fast beats so they stay rappable.
Additional tools in the game
- Rhyme Dictionary: look up rhymes for any word. Tap a word on the grid or the review screen to look it up directly.
- Random Word Generator: random prompts for practicing away from a beat.
- Beat Library: browse and sort beats by name, artist, BPM or genre, or use Pick Your Vibe to browse by mood.
Streaks
Rap at least 8 bars in a day and that day counts toward your streak. Stats track your current and longest streak, a 28-day calendar, total bars, games played and your most-played beats. Eight bars takes under a minute, which makes it an easy daily habit to keep.
Troubleshooting
- Ball out of sync with the music? Audio delay varies by device and headphones, Bluetooth especially. Go to Settings →Correct Audio Lag / Ball Sync to calibrate it.
- Playing with kids or in a classroom? Settings →Content Filter hides profanity and other mature words from word lists.
- Music keeps playing after you close the app? Turn off Background Audio Playback in Settings.
More answers on the FAQ.