Tutorial: Playing the Song

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Tutorial: Playing the Song

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If your computer has a soundcard, it is likely that Notation Player will be able to immediately play through your computer's soundcard to the speakers. Notation Player requires that the soundcard support MIDI, which is a certain computer music standard that almost all of today's soundcards support.

prcarrow To play back the currently opened song:

B816Choose the Start Playback command from the Perform menu.

-- OR --

B816Hit the SPACE key.

-- OR --

B816Click the Play toolbarbuttonplay button in the toolbar at the top of the window.

A vertical blue cursor moves along in the score as the song plays, to indicate the current playback position. The currently playing notes are highlighted in a bright pink color.

playermozart40playback
 

TIP:  Do you hear the music playing? If so, then Notation Player will not need any assistance from you in setting up the MIDI sound device.
 
If you do not hear the song play, then follow the instructions in Quick MIDI Device Setup. If after using the Quick MIDI Device Setup option you still do not hear sound, then read about What To Do If You Do Not Hear Sound.

 
prcarrow  To quickly advance forward through the song during playback:

1.Click the Fast Forward toolbarbuttonnextpage button once to increase the playback speed by a factor of five.
2.Click the button a second time to resume the original playback speed.

prcarrow To stop playback:

B816Choose the Stop Playback command from the Perform menu.

-- OR --

B816Hit the SPACE key.

-- OR --

B816Click the Stop toolbarbuttonstop button.

-- OR --

B816Toggle the Playback toolbarbuttonplay button in the toolbar at the top of the window.

 

 

You have now completed Notation Player's Quick Start Tutorial.

You will probably be able to discover most of the other features in Notation Player by simply trying out menu commands and buttons. If you are not sure what a menu or button does, remember that you can hold (hover) the mouse over the menu command name or button, and Notation Player will display a brief tip that explains the purpose of the command or button. Also, you do not have to worry that you might make a mistake. Using the Undo command in the Edit menu, you can undo any recent mistakes you might have made.