Practicing a Part Using Your MIDI Keyboard or MIDI Instrument

This topic describes how to use Composer to practice a section of a song if you have a MIDI keyboard or other MIDI input device, such as a MIDI guitar. You can play a part "live" through your MIDI keyboard or other input device. Composer will produce the instrument sound assigned to the part through your soundcard or external MIDI sound module.

If you do not have a MIDI keyboard or MIDI instrument, then see Practicing a Part While Singing or Playing a non-MIDI Instrument.

To practice a section of a song using a MIDI keyboard or MIDI instrument:

1.      Choose the Practice Setup command in the Perform menu to specify the section of the song you wish to practice, the number of times you wish the practice section to repeat, and the optional increase of tempo for each repeat of the practice loop. For detailed instructions, see Setting up Practice Loops.

2.      Double-click the solo track control button to change it from to . If the track controls are not visible, then set the Show Track Controls option in the View menu, or type "qstc" for Quick Show Track Controls. Note that the Show Track Controls option is not available in Page View.

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While holding down the 'R' key, click anywhere in the staff for the part you want to practice.

NOTE:
If the MIDI device for this track is one that has a built-in delay, the procedure described here will not work successfully. There will be a frustrating delay between the time you play a note on your MIDI keyboard or controller and the time you hear it played. You can review the delay for a MIDI output device in the Device Properties dialog. Instead of using the procedure described here, you should mute the track for the part you want to practice. Then you should use the "jam along" feature described in Playing Along with Your MIDI Instrument. Also, for the "play along sound", you should assign a MIDI device that does not have a delay.

3.      Composer displays a red arrow to the left of the part you will practice.

If you are practicing a part with two or more staves, such as the right- and left-hand staves for a keyboard part, then double-click the solo button of each part; or while holding down the 'R' key, click anywhere in each additional staff. For each staff you will be practicing, Composer will turn the solo track color to red and will display a red arrow to the left of the staff, as illustrated above.

4.      To unselect a staff, double-click the red solo button , or while holding down the 'R' key, click anywhere in the staff.

5.      If the track controls are visible, you might want to hide them while practicing, so that more of the screen will be used for the score. To do so, toggle the Show Track Controls option in the View menu.

6.      To begin the practice session, choose Start Practice in the Perform menu.

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Type ALT+SPACE.

Before each practice loop, Composer displays (in the status bar) the number of remaining practice loops, and a countdown in seconds to the start of the practice loop, such as the following:

As you play from your MIDI keyboard or other MIDI input device, the notes you play will be routed by Composer through the MIDI output device and channel assigned to the part you selected, or the first track if you selected more than one track. Also, Composer will use the instrument sound (MIDI patch) assigned to that track. Note that you can change the sound for the track, if desired.

To stop a practice session in progress:

1.      Choose the Stop Playback command from the Perform menu.

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2.      Hit the SPACE key.

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3.      Click the Stop button in the toolbar at the top of the window.

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4.      Toggle the Playback button in the toolbar at the top of the window.

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