Hi, Thanks for the feedback!
The game are evolving faster then the tutorial, so to clarify things:
The orange ring in the HUD displays a countdown timer that ticks down with each beat. When the rings becomes empty its game-over. Your speed and control scales with how filled the ring is.
You refill the ring by clearing gates (the red and blue things dropping from the sky) You simply have to pass between them from either direction.
Then there is the power-ups and power-downs. Power-ups have a chance of spawning upon clearing gates. They are rotating golden rings as a nod to Sonic:) And you collect them by running over them or striking with your ski-stick. Successfully collected power-ups refills the timer as well as give a permanent speed boost.
Power-downs on the other hand spawn if you fail to clear gates. They are black and should be avoided!
The music is used to determine when things spawn and when you intersect them. If you fall into the correct rhythm the game becomes easier. But there is still a lot of tuning needed on that part.