Playing practice files

If you’ve downloaded and used the practices files (at the bottom of the ‘Current repertoire’ page), there are a couple of challenges.

First off, you really need to use headphones or to find a music player for your preferred device (desktop, laptop, smartphone) with a balance control. Another advantage of headphones however, especially the over-the-ear variety, is that they work with many kinds of hearing aid.

Finding a music player with a balance control is difficult. I’ve only found two. On the smartphone I’ve found Poweramp, which isn’t free but only costs a few pounds. On the desktop, there is Audacity – which brings me to the second challenge.

When you are practising you really need the ability to put markers or labels on the track. You might want to practise, say, the middle section a few times on its own. Trying to do this with minutes and seconds in a regular music player is fiddly and irritating.

This is Audacity’s second advantage. You can add a label track in which, for example, you can put rehearsal marks. (And did I mention that Audacity has a balance control?)

Audacity is a free audio editor, that works fine as a music player for our purposes. If you’re the kind of person who enjoys beating a computer into submission – read on.

One important thing to note is that you are not editing the music track (the MP3) itself. You are creating an Audacity project that contains your music track and any edits you’ve done such as creating a label track. So, do hit save when you’ve added your labels; but do realize that you’re saving an Audacity project, and that that’s what you’ll want to open next time you want to use your labels.

So, you are playing your track and you reach, say, a rehearsal mark. Press X to stop the playback head and move the cursor to that place. Then press control-b. On an Apple I think that’s ⌘-b (command-b). The label track will appear with an empty label at the stop point. Just type ‘A’, or whatever you like – a bar number as an alternative to a rehearsal letter perhaps. Then hit return (enter).

To go back and forth between labels press alt-← (alt-leftArrow) or alt-→ (alt-rightArrow). (On an Apple I think that’s the option key with left or right arrow key.)

And save the project if you’ve added or changed labels.