16. Playing and practising

The speed trainer

The speed trainer brings a passage up to tempo as you earn it. Start slow, play it cleanly, and Stab raises the speed for you.

The speed trainer

Available on every platform.

With Listen

The speed trainer works with Listen, which scores every note:

1. Loop the passage (see Looping).
2. Slow it down with Slower (⌃-)Slower (Ctrl+Shift+-)Slower (Ctrl+Shift+- (⇧⌘- on a Mac)) until you can play it (see Speed).
3. Choose Listen (⌃⌥⌘L)Listen (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+L)Listen (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+L (⌥⇧⌘L on a Mac)), and turn on Speed Trainer: in the Practice band it’s an option shown while Listen is chosen.
4. Play. Each lap of the loop is a pass.

After two clean passes in a row (90 % or more), the speed goes up 5 %. A pass under 90 % starts the count again. It stops at full speed, 100 %: from there, you’re playing it as written.

The speed trainer works on the loop or the song, not inside a playlist: a playlist’s steps have speeds of their own.

Speed Steps: a playlist instead

Speed Steps playlists

Available on every platform.

Speed Steps playlists raise the speed in fixed steps instead, whatever mode you practise in. In the Editor, open the menu on a section, the loop or selected notes, and choose from its Practice submenu (it’s named after what you clicked):

• Speed Steps: 60 → 100 %: the passage at 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100 %, three times each; the last step goes round until you move on.
• Speed Steps: 80 → 120 %: from 80 to 120 %, three times each, to play it faster than written.

When the Playlist pane has no playlist yet, its Speed Steps: Loop button (Speed Steps: Song without a loop) makes the first kind over the loop or the whole song.

The playlist is turned on at once and shown in the Playlist pane, where you can change each step’s speed and times. Mark a step Until a Clean Pass to stay on it until you play it cleanly with Listen or Wait for Me. See Playlists and practice steps.

Either way, each pass and its speed are charted in Progress, so you can see the speed rise with the score.