Shorter than you think

Choose a phrase of two to four seconds, a bar or half a bar. Mark its start with Set A and its end with Set B, and the loop begins. A short loop gives your ear the same few notes again and again, which is how you learn to hear them.

Slow it until the notes separate

At full speed a phrase is a gesture; at 60 % it is a row of notes. Press − beside Speed until you can sing the notes back one by one. Because the pitch does not change, the notes you hear are the real ones, and you can check each against your instrument.

Find the notes, then widen the loop

  1. Sing the phrase back until you can do it without the recording.
  2. Find its first note on your instrument.
  3. Find the rest one at a time, checking each against the loop.
  4. When the phrase is right, move the end point later and add the next phrase.

If the song is in an awkward key

Sometimes the recording is in a key your instrument makes difficult, or your voice cannot reach. Change the key for learning and write down the shift; you can transpose back when you play with others. The Key control moves the recording in whole semitones only.

Come back to it

Close the tab at the end of the session. When you open the video again, the loop points and the speed return after a click on the icon, so the next session starts at the phrase where you stopped.