Practicing a Part While Singing or Playing a non-MIDI Instrument

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This topic describes how to use Composer to practice a section of a song if you want to practice singing or playing with an acoustical instrument while reading notes from the screen. If you have a MIDI keyboard or other MIDI input device such as a MIDI guitar that you wish to use, then see Practicing a Part Using Your MIDI Keyboard or MIDI Instrument.

To practice a section of a song while singing or playing your instrument:

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.	You can optionally mute the sound of the part you will be practicing so that your singing or instrument playing will replace the sound of the part played back by Composer.

To mute the part, click the play/mute staff control button to change it from to . If the staff controls are not visible, turn on the Show Staff Controls option in the View menu, or type "qssc" for "Quick Show Staff Controls".

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While holding down the 'S' (staff) key, click somewhere in the staff. Composer will display a pop-up menu. Choose the Mute Staff command in the pop-up menu.

3.	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:

To stop a practice session in progress:

1.	Hit the SPACE key.

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

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

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4.	If you have enabled Composer's Pitch-to-Command feature, while holding down the "trigger key" on your music keyboard, play the first F# above Middle C. See Controlling Composer From Your Music Keyboard.