Practice tools | Owners’ guide

01

Choose your part.

First, make a little space for yourself in the music. Switching on the tools and choosing your part are two separate steps.

Recorded Concerting screen: Switch Practice tools on — Switch Practice tools on
Follow these steps
Practice tools is off.
Switch Practice tools on to reveal the practice settings.

Actual practice player showing selected part, 75 percent speed, loop control and highlighted part — Find it on your screen
Your practice controls in Now Playing
Select a control to highlight it.

Open Settings → Practice and switch on Practice tools.
Start a piece, then use Practise… to choose the player you will play. On a phone, open Now Playing first.
Turn your phone sideways to read the music. On a tablet or computer, your selected player’s bar opens automatically.

Your choice is remembered

Concerting remembers your practice part for each piece. A keyboardist’s grouped staves belong to one player.

Return to listening

Choose the blank Practise… option again to clear your practice part, or switch off Practice tools in Settings. Your usual listening arrangement is kept.

Selecting your part brings in the practice tempo and the My part plays setting. Initially these are 75% and Off, so it is normal for your selected line to become silent.

02

A guide, or a space for you.

In Settings → Practice, My part plays decides how much help you hear. Your music bar stays active even when the app leaves the sound of your part to you.

Recorded Concerting screen: Choose how much of your part to hear — Choose how much of your part to hear
Follow these steps
Off leaves your line for you to play.
Quiet plays your part softly beneath you.
Normal plays your part at its usual level.
Solo lets you hear your chosen part on its own.
Return to Off when you are ready to supply the line yourself.

Choose what helps you

My part plays

One control, four ways to hear your chosen part. The ensemble means the other players.

Listening balance · illustration

Off

Your partSilent

EnsemblePlaying

The ensemble plays around you; you supply your own line. This is the initial setting.

Try this whenYou are ready to carry the line yourself.

Quiet

Your partSoft guide

EnsemblePlaying

Your line plays softly beneath you, like a reassuring guide.

Try this whenYou want a little help staying with your part.

Normal

Your partUsual level

EnsemblePlaying

Your line plays at its usual level with everyone else.

Try this whenYou want to hear how the whole arrangement fits together.

Solo

Your partUsual level

EnsembleSilent

Hear just your chosen player so you can learn the shape of the line.

Try this whenYou want to listen closely before playing along.

Watch the four choices in action

Listen. Join in. Take the part.Illustration · no audio

Solo: hear only your chosen line to learn its shape.

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Where to find these Practice settings

Actual Practice settings showing My part plays, Metronome, Count-in, Loop repeats and Speed up each loop — Find it on your screen
Find your practice settings
Select a control to highlight it.

If Solo is silent, check that the part has not also been muted in its instrument picker, and that the main speaker control is on. Practice level is separate from those mutes.

03

Find a comfortable pace.

Once you choose a practice part, the player’s speed control becomes a practice percentage. Take your time: the right pace is one that lets you play the phrase comfortably.

Recorded Concerting screen: Choose a comfortable practice tempo — Choose a comfortable practice tempo
Follow these steps
With a part selected, open the percentage list.
Choose a practice pace, such as 60%.
60% gives the phrase more time.
100% returns to the written practice tempo.

50%–100%

Choose in 5% steps. 50% is half the written tempo; 100% is the piece’s full tempo. The initial practice pace is 75%.

Separate from listening

Practice tempo does not overwrite the listening speed saved with a Mix. Clear your practice part to return to the normal 0.8×–2× listening choices.

04

Give a phrase another turn.

Use Loop to stay with a small passage. Mark the two ends where you want them: the app uses those exact positions, without snapping them to a beat or bar.

Recorded Concerting screen: Mark a passage and release the loop — Mark a passage and release the loop
Follow these steps
Press Loop at the first end of your passage.
A… means the first end is marked. Move to the other end.
Press A… to mark the other end.
A–B shows that the loop is set. Press again to clear it.
Loop returns to its unmarked state.

At one end of the passage, press Loop. The control changes to A….
Move to the other end and press again. A–B is now active; the ends can be marked in either order.
Press a third time to release the loop. Choosing another piece also clears it.

Loop repeats

Choose ∞, 3, 5 or 10 in Settings → Practice. These are total passes: with 3, you hear the passage three times, then the music continues beyond B.

Speed up each loop

Choose Off, +2% or +5%. Each return adds 2 or 5 percentage points of the written tempo, up to 100%.

Count-in at the return

With Count-in enabled and score timing available, you get preparation before each return to the passage.

For this practice session

Loop points are not saved into a Mix. Mark them again when you return to the piece.

A phrase, three comfortable passesIllustration · no audio

Press Loop at the first end. The control changes to A….

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05

Know when to come in.

A few quiet cues can make a long rest much less daunting. Choose a practice part first. These tools use the timing in the score; imported MIDI does not provide that score grid.

Choose what helps you

Metronome

Choose when you would like a click. These examples show a rest followed by the notes in your part.

When the click plays · illustration

Off

Your rest

Your notes

No click. Choose this when the ensemble already gives you the pulse you need.

My rests

Your rest

Your notes

The click helps while your part has no sounding note, then stops as your line comes in.

Always

Your rest

Your notes

A click follows the piece throughout. The first beat has a stronger, higher sound.

Count-in

On by default. Prepares you when starting or resuming, seeking and returning to a loop. Usually one bar; two when a bar has fewer than three beats.

The long-rest countdown starts for rests of at least two bars in your selected engraved pitched part. Percussion uses its own bar and does not show this countdown.

06

Read the notes you expect.

Practice tools add bar numbers, available dynamics and crescendo or diminuendo marks. Your selected line is labelled “your part”. For transposing instruments, Written for helps the notes match the instrument in your hands.

Recorded Concerting screen: Read a clarinet part in written pitch — Read a clarinet part in written pitch
Follow these steps
Open your selected player’s instrument tile.
Choose clarinet for the part you will play.
Written for now offers versions of clarinet.
Choose Concert pitch to compare the notation.
The selected bar is now written at concert pitch.
Choose B♭ clarinet again for that instrument’s written part.

Set the line’s playback instrument to the instrument you will use, then choose that player in Practise….
If the instrument transposes, use Written for below the practice controls to choose its version.
Read your selected engraved bar in that instrument’s written pitch. The music still sounds at concert pitch; the other players’ bars stay in concert pitch.

Clarinet & trumpet

Clarinet offers B♭, A, E♭ or Concert pitch. Trumpet offers B♭, C, D, E♭ or Concert pitch.

Horn & saxophone

French horn offers F or Concert pitch. The saxophone choice is B♭ tenor saxophone or Concert pitch.

Octave-transposing instruments

Guitars, double bass and bass guitars read an octave above their sound; piccolo reads an octave below. Concert pitch is also available.

Comfortable reading

Taller music bars is available on tablet and computer. Note spacing and Fast notes are under Display for everyone; they do not require Practice tools.

A clarinet line, written for youIllustration · no audio

In concert pitch, this example sounds C. The other ensemble bars stay in concert pitch.

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Written for changes notation, not the sound or the saved Mix. The choice is remembered for that instrument family. It applies to engraved notation, not the plain staff of a MIDI import. Printed bar numbers can differ from the clock’s played-bar count after repeats. Marks appear where the score supplies them; there is no manual clef, note-name or fingering switch.

07

Take the rhythm part.

Percussion keeps its own way of showing the music. One untuned instrument uses a one-line bar. When several are followed, a kit bar gives the instruments their own lines and a pictogram legend.

Recorded Concerting screen: Choose a percussion part to practise — Choose a percussion part to practise
Follow these steps
Open Practise… for this percussion piece.
Perc 1 is selected as your practice player.
In the shared kit, your own line stays prominent while the other part is lighter.

Choose the percussion player in Practise…. You can exchange its sound for another untuned percussion instrument in its picker.
On a phone, turn sideways: untuned percussion is grouped automatically. On a tablet or computer, follow two or more percussion players to see the shared kit bar.
Your practice part stays prominent while the other kit lines become lighter. Use the same Off, Quiet, Normal and Solo choices to decide what you hear.

Follow the passage

Where the score provides timing and notation, bar numbers, dynamics and loop highlights help you place each entry.

Keep instrument families in mind

Untuned percussion changes within its own instrument bank. Timpani and mallet instruments are pitched and stay with the melodic choices.

08

Get comfortable before you play.

These settings solve two different things: Concert pitch tunes the ensemble, while Headphone delay lines up the moving notes with the sound you hear.

Recorded Concerting screen: Choose a tuning reference — Choose a tuning reference
Follow these steps
Choose 442 Hz when that is the pitch your group uses.
Press Play A to hear the selected tuning note.
Play A sounds the reference note. This GIF has no audio.
Return to 440 Hz for the usual reference.

Concert pitch

In Settings → Practice, choose A = 440, 441 or 442 Hz. The initial value is 440. This tuning applies while Practice tools are switched on.

Play A

Sounds a short reference A at your chosen frequency. You can use it before starting a piece and tune your instrument by ear.

Headphone delay

If Bluetooth audio arrives after a note crosses the line, try 200 ms and adjust. The setting moves the visual bars behind the clock; it does not delay the audio.

Delay choices

Off; 50–250 ms in 25 ms steps; then 300, 350, 400 or 500 ms. This correction applies while Practice tools are on.

Taller music bars

On tablet and computer, switch this on for larger print and more room for dynamics. Phones already use the full sideways screen. The taller layout can remain when Practice tools is switched off.

Play A is a reference tone. Concerting does not listen to a microphone, judge your playing or award a score.

09

Bring your lesson with you.

My Music lets you practise pieces from your own files. MusicXML is the best starting point when you want to read the written score as well as hear the notes.

With Practice tools on, open Settings → Practice → My Music, or the My Music tab. Choose Import music….
Select one or more MusicXML or MIDI files. Export one of those formats from your notation program first if needed.
Read the import notice: it tells you what was understood or left out. Then play the piece, choose your part and practise as usual.

MusicXML

Accepts .musicxml, .xml and compressed .mxl. It can preserve written note values, keys, clefs and printed dynamics.

MIDI

Accepts .mid, .midi, .kar and .rmi. It carries performance notes rather than an engraved score. You can choose your part, slow it, change its level and loop a passage.

What MIDI cannot supply

MIDI imports have no engraved score or score beat grid here, so they do not supply the metronome, count-in, printed dynamics, score bar numbers, rest countdown or Written for notation.

On this device

Imported music stays on your device and can join a local Mix. It is not uploaded, and My Music entries are omitted when you share or export a Mix.

Replace or remove

Importing the identical file replaces its existing entry; a changed file appears alongside it. Use Remove on a My Music row to delete that piece from the device.

Keep listening

Files already imported still play with Practice tools switched off. Switch the tools back on to import more.

PDF scores and MP3 recordings are not music imports. Some files contain unsupported notation or incomplete information; the import notice is your best guide to what this particular file can do.

Your place inthe ensemble.

Choose your part.

See the clicks, step by step.

Switch Practice tools on

Your practice controls in Now Playing

Choose your part

Practice tempo

Loop

Your choice is remembered

Return to listening

A guide, or a space for you.