Useful Software – Crescendo Music Loft

An Introduction to Vocal Pitch Monitor

Sandy Ervin — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 17:47:02 +0000

Google Play’s app Vocal Pitch Monitor can be a powerful tool if you know how to use it, but it can be VERY frustrating if you don’t.

I use this tool in my studio every day to help singers gain skill in intonation, and I would like to share an exercise I’ve developed that will help you learn how to use it effectively.

Even if you don’t study singing or consider yourself a singer, you might enjoy playing with this app and using this exercise. You might be pleasantly surprised by your results!

Download Vocal Pitch Monitor

I find it easiest to use this tool on a tablet (iPad or Android), but it also works on phones.

The app icon looks like this:

Configure the Settings

If you change a few settings, it will be more helpful. “Out of the box,” the default settings for the home screen look like this:

I don’t know about you, but I find those colors difficult to work with. So click on the little hamburger menu in the bottom right hand corner to call up the little menu, and click on “Settings”:

It should take you to a screen that looks like this:

What we’re going to do is change the colors for all those weird sounding names, “1st Tonic,” “Second Supertonic,” etc. They’re just fancy names for the pitches in any given major scale.

Click on the top gray box across from “1st Tonic,” and it should show you a screen like this:

You can experiment with different colors, but I recommend using cyan, so click the cyan box.

And then, continue changing the colors for all the scales tones EXCEPT for semitone. When you get to semitone, change it to teal.

Upon completion, you should get a screen that looks like this:

Now you’re ready to try my little exercise.

Find a Piano to Give Yourself Some Pitches

It’s most effective if you can get with a piano or a keyboard in person somewhere, but if that’s not possible, you can use an online one like this Pop-up Piano. Only thing is, you’ll really need to have two devices handy so you can operate both the keyboard and the Vocal Pitch Monitor at the same time.

Learn the Centering Tune

Vocal Pitch Monitor works best when you are just working with a very few notes, so I’m going to give you a five note phrase to start with. It’s C – D – E – D – C. On the Virtual Piano, middle C is notated with the red dot. If you don’t know what the names of the keys are on a piano, here’s how to find them. Notice the groups of two black keys and three black keys. Find a set of two black keys in the middle, and C – D – E are the white keys surrounding them like this:

Find them and play them in this order: C – D – E – D – C. Now try singing the pitches and using the letter names as words. It should sound something like this:

https://www.crescendomusicloft.com/wp-content/uploads/C-D-E-D-C.mp3

Practice Singing & Playing the Centering Tune In Really Slow Motion

Sing and play:

“C—————————“
“D—————————“
“E—————————“
“D—————————“
“C—————————“

Hold each note out for about two seconds.

Now Get With Vocal Pitch Monitor

Now you’re ready to get some feedback from Vocal Pitch Monitor. Set up your device somewhere close to the sound from the keyboard and play the notes in order while watching the VPM screen. It should look something like this:

It’s kind of hard to see, but you should get little yellow lines RIGHT ON TOP of the cyan colored lines. The reason for playing the pitches for yourself on the piano first is to help you get oriented on the VPM screen. You can see here that I played C4, D4, and E4. (See my Tutorial In Scientific Pitch Notation if you don’t know what these numbers mean.)

Male voices will find it better to use C3, D3, and E3! Find the C, D, E the octave below the ones in the middle of the keyboard.

Now trying singing the same three notes in the same octave and see how your yellow lines compare to the ones you played. Mine look like this when I sing “C, D, E, D, C” :

My voice has some vibrato to it, thus the wiggly lines. It’s hard to sing a complete straight tone, so you might find that yours is wiggly too. The goal would be that some of the yellow crosses the blue line that corresponds to the note you’re wanting to sing.

Kirsten Livingston sang the same exercise just now, and hers looks like this:

She sang hers connected together. Beautifully executed!

Now It’s Your Turn!

When you can orient yourself with a keyboard and the Vocal Pitch Monitor, now you’re ready to try some more difficult exercises. You will, however, have to know what the names of the pitches you are wanting to sing before Vocal Pitch Monitor can be helpful. Getting with a classically trained musician will help a great deal.

The following guidelines will also be helpful:

Find out what key you want to sing in and set VPM to that key. (Click up in the top left hand corner where it says “C Major” to change the key. NOTA BENE: if your screen is set to “nighttime” or “dark mode,” you won’t be able to see the names of the keys.)
Restrict the melody you are singing to just one phrase.
Sing the phrase really really extra slowly so VPM can gather enough data so you can see it.
Restrict the amount of time you are doing this to just a few minutes (I call it Two Minutes of Torture), otherwise, the entire experience will be frustrating, and you’ll never want to do it again. LOL!

Give it a go and let us know how you make out!

GarageBand 101 for Singers: Part 1

Sandy Ervin — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 14:07:01 +0000

GarageBand Can Be Fun

I’ve been having a lot of fun lately with many of my voice students making GarageBand recordings during lessons and special sessions. Over two Saturdays in the last month, a brave few came in and recorded video at the same time. Eowyn O’Hara agreed to let me share her lovely video, and I have a link to it at the end of this post.

Learning How to Use GarageBand Can Be Frustrating

GarageBand is free for anyone who owns an iPad, and it has a lot of cool features. The downside is that it’s taken me nine months of weekly recording to get a groove on with it. It just seems like it shouldn’t be that hard! Since I want my students to learn this skill so they can have fun too, I decided to make the most basic of tutorials possible. What I will outline here is how to import a karaoke track and record yourself singing along, which, by the way, IS REALLY FUN! I highly recommend giving it a go.

What You Will Need

an iPad
$2.05 to buy a karaoke track at Karaoke-Version.com or some way to download an accompaniment track onto your iPad
earbuds or headphones
a quiet place to record
patience

Skip to What You Need To Know

There are almost 60 steps here, but perhaps you already know some of this stuff, so I’ve broken it into the following five sections that you click to from here:

Get an accompaniment track onto your iPad (Step 1)
Import the track into GarageBand (Step 5)
Change default settings in GarageBand (Step 27)
Record your vocal track (Step 33)
Export the recording as an .m4a file that you can share (Step 46)

Obtain Accompaniment Track

Whatever accompaniment or karaoke track you want to use must reside on your iPad somewhere in order for you to import it into GarageBand.

Step 1: Create an Account at Karaoke-Version.com

Step 2: Buy Karaoke Track

Search for and buy the karaoke track you want to use.

Step 3: Click “My Files”

Step 4: Download files

Sometimes you have to click the “Download files manually” button.

Import Track Into GarageBand

Step Five: Open Garage Band

Step 7: Create a New Project

Or sometimes you get this option:

Step 8: Add Vocal Track

Step 9: Click + Icon to Add Bars

This is the dumbest default setting EVER! Unless you change this setting, you will only be able to record eight bars. I don’t know about you, but most of the things I need to record are longer than that.

Step 10: Click 8 Bars

Step 11: Slide Automatic to On Position

Step 12: Click + Again to Exit Menu

Step 13: Click Tracks View Icon

Step 14: Click Loop Browser Icon

Step 15: Click Files Tab

Step 16: Click to Browse Items

Step 17: Exit iCloud Drive

If your track is miraculously in iCloud drive, you can actually skip to step 24. If not exit iCloud Drive, and continue to Step 18.

Step 18: Click Browse

Step 19: Navigate to Karaoke Track Location

Since I can’t see or guess the file structure you have on your iPad, this part may be a little tricky.

If you are able to find your track, you can skip to Step 24.

If you’re sure the karaoke track has been downloaded to your iPad, but you do not see the location showing up here (AS I DIDN’T!) – continue to the next step.

Step 20: Click Three Dots for More Options

Step 21: Edit Sidebar

Step 22: Move Sliders

I store most of my karaoke tracks for students in Google Drive, but I only figured out how to find them upon writing this tutorial. YAY!

Step 23: Navigate to Karaoke Track Location

God be with you.

Step 24: Click Karaoke Track File & WAIT for Import

I’m not sure why, but on my iPad, it took a moment to import the track. In my impatience I would click again and again, and then several copies would end up importing (as you can see in the next screenshot), and sometimes the program would even crash and throw me out.

Step 25: Click & Drag File Onto New Track

This can be a little tricky, but be patient with yourself.

Step 26: Check Out Your Track in Track View

Congratulations!

Change Default Settings

Step 27: Click Settings Gear

Step 28: Change Tempo

Step 29: Click Metronome Count In

Step 30: Turn Off Metronome Count In

And click gear icon to exit.

Record your vocal track

Step 33: Plug In Your Headphones & Put Them On

Now the fun begins!

Step 34: Click + To Add Second Vocal Track

Step 35: Choose Voice

Step 36: Turn On Monitoring

This is the fun part! If the microphone on your iPad is functioning properly, you should be able to hear yourself loud and clear in the headphones. In fact, it should sound a little weird. I’m not sure why Garageband makes you sound that way. I actually like how it sounds because it helps me sing better. Take heart, though. When you listen back to the track, you won’t sound so weird. You’ll sound like a slightly hipper version of yourself.

Step 37: Start Recording!

Step 38: Stop Recording

If you’re the 1% of the population that can get it in the first go, skip to step 46.

For the rest of you who went “Oh! Wait! What?” and missed the first go, guess what? We gotta delete this track and do it again.

Step 39: Click the Track View Icon

Step 40: Tap to Select Track You Just Recorded

Upon properly selecting, it’ll get little handles like you see in the next step.

Step 41: Tap Track Again to Bring Up Track Menu

Upon properly tapping, it’ll bring up the menu you see in the next step.

Step 42: Click to Delete

Step 43: Start & Stop Recording Again

Step 44: Repeat Steps 40-43

Until you have a recording that you’re happy with.

Step 45: Listen to Your Recording!

Share Your Song!

Step 46: Click the My Songs Icon.

Step 47: Click My Song Icon in Files App

Step 48: Rename Your Song

Step 49: Long Click Filename to Bring Up Menu

Step 50: Click Share Icon

Step 51: Click Song Icon

Step 52: Click Share

Step 53: Navigate to File Destination

Step 54: Wait for Song Export

Step 55: Navigate to Your Account

Step 56: Navigate to Destination Folder

Step 57: Click Upload

Very important! I’ve often gotten to the step before this and forgotten to hit upload.

Step 58: Wait for Upload

Step 59: Share Your Song!

Enjoy!

If I get positive feedback on this and can ever recover from having created this post, I may have the courage to create GarageBand 101 Part 2 which will explain how you can have fun editing as well as recording with different instruments.

And now for the lovely Eowyn O'Hara....

Soundtrap: How to Record a Vocal Track

Kirsten Livingston — Thu, 19 Nov 2020 17:18:36 +0000

Even before the pandemic, I was looking for a simple way to record and collaborate in a fun and casual way — especially vocals — and my nephew turned me on to Soundtrap. With a free Soundtrap account, you can work on up to five (5) projects at a time. I’ve started playing around with it and I’ve found that it’s perfect for my needs (remember — not professional, but fun, casual and rewarding). It can be used to collaborate and record multiple tracks. In last week’s post, I put out the idea of trying a virtual “round” collaboration and I’m pinning my hopes on Soundtrap.

You might want to sing along with a karaoke backing track in your ear while you record at the same time; Soundtrap is great for that. It’s easy to load a backing track into Soundtrap then record with it until it sounds right. You can easily delete the tracks you don’t like and re-record. I use Soundtrap for recording virtual choir pieces that I’m working on, learning new music, trying out new recordings, experimenting with vocal effects — there has indeed been some time wasted on funky vocal effects. Most important: you can record your voice with no effects at all — “clean,” you can apply one of the many pre-created effects or create your own. Lotsa flexibility.

There’s also a metronome feature that runs but doesn’t show up on your recording — love it!

Once your project is finished, you can export it to an mp3 file and add it to your music library just like any other piece of music.

Now you’re interested in exploring Soundtrap, so sign up for your free account. It’s a basic registration process. Don’t sign up for a paid account or a trial paid account. To begin, a free account is all you need! Once you have registered and have your signin information, let’s try a simple vocal recording exercise to get familiar with using Soundtrap on your iPhone.

And before you proceed, you’ll want to have a pair of wired earbuds for your phone, even if you’re just playing around with recording. It works so much better!

Today, I’m going through the basics of how to record one simple vocal track and navigating in and out of the program to accomplish this.

Open Soundtrap, you will see this screen

Choose Create New Project Button

You will be brought to the Select Template screen

For today, select “Blank”

You will be brought to a blank project:

I recommend turning your phone to the side for better viewing of your controls/menus

Press the “+” on the left side of the screen to Add New Track

You will be brought to the Add New Track screen

Select “Voice & microphones”

You will be brought to your project screen with your Voice/Microphone chosen:

Soundtrap automatically chooses a preset vocal effect — Note Mobile Mic Enhancer. In order to get the effect that you want — or remove effects, you need to select that “Voice” item on the left with the small microphone on it showing the preset you want to change.

You will be brought to your presets screen

Scroll through options in the far right column to find the preset that you like. I have selected “Clean” which does not add effects to the vocal recording. Once you’ve made your selection, you’ll be returned to your project window (now with the correct vocal effect showing):

Choose Start Recording and you will see the following countdown leading up to when the recording begins:

You can start to speak or sing any time after the recording begins

You can watch time elapse in purple across the top of your screen

When you are finished recording, select Stop

It’s going to be helpful to turn your phone to the side again:

This portrait view allows you to see the track that you have recorded.

To bring your cursor back to the beginning, select the left arrow at the top left of your screen (just to the right of the red recording dot). That’s your rewind button.

To listen to your recording, once you’ve brought your cursor to the beginning of your track, choose the play button — the right arrow to the right of the rewind button.

If you are satisfied with your recording, select Save

Now your project will be saved so you can continue working on it in Soundtrap later.

If you want to delete your track, tap on the track itself twice

Select Delete and your track will be deleted. You may begin recording again.

After saving, you will return to your Opening or Home screen!

This is the first step of recording one vocal line into Soundtrap. Stay tuned for loading karaoke tracks, how to collaborate virtually, recording more than one track, using the metronome and more!

Why You Need a Collaborative Playlist

Abigail Connolly — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 13:58:54 +0000

Spotify Hosts Collaborative Playlists

I adore Spotify, they make me feel known and suggest heavily curated music that I like most of the time. They also have a collaborative playlist setting! I could NOT find a solid answer if Apple Music has a similar feature, I hope it does. If it doesn’t, yet another reason to switch to Spotify. Get with the program, I guess!

Choose Your Collaborators VERY Wisely

Who wants to listen to crappy music? I certainly don’t. Consider it an honor if we have a shared playlist (*cough* Brendan *cough*). I have pretty specific standards to what I spend my time listening to and will be pretty honest if someone recommends something I don’t like.

Everyone Can Listen on Their Own Time

The playlist is such a fun and different way to communicate. I should also note, you don’t need to use it as a means of subliminal communication, it can just be about the music. I am so much more comfortable adding songs to a playlist rather than bombarding friends with links to songs (although I still do that). With a collaborative playlist everyone can listen on their own time and there are a lot less unmet expectations. If a song is really good, you can choose to let them know rather than feeling required to respond.

It’s a Great Way to Flirt

My partner and I started a playlist long before we started dating. It was a great way of occasionally flirting for two people who either don’t flirt or are really bad at it while at the same time sharing really good music. We’re currently in a long distance relationship, and it is so comforting and fun to listen through the phases of our relationship and to continue adding stuff. Wow! What a cheesy sentence.

Application Process Needed

Maybe I’ll come up with an application process to have a collaborative playlist with me, maybe.

I’ll finish this post with an album recommendation that I think would be widely appreciated. Josh Pyke, Live with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Christopher Dragon. Incredible lyrics and vocals from Josh combined with the beautiful SSO. I’ve listened to it for the past four years and have yet to get tired of it.

Have a lovely week!

Let’s Sing Rounds Together!

Kirsten Livingston — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 16:54:26 +0000

I’ve always loved to sing in groups. It’s fantastic for those of us who are self conscious because it gives us a level of anonymity. This brings me to one of the simplest ways to get a group to sound good very quickly — teach songs that can be sung in rounds. When I was younger, we learned a lot of these at my camp — funny rounds, haunting rounds — and you could hear counselors and kids singing around the campfire, on the trail, on the river, pretty much anywhere. But, the days of camp ended, and my round-singing became a memory.

Babies also give us permission to sing. So, when my friend and I had our babies, we often sang as we walked. It was a perfect time to pull those rounds out of our memories and play while we walked. The babies were very patient with us. Those boys are now eighteen, and our rounds are a little rusty. I miss the fun of knowing something like “Dona Nobis Pacem” really well, singing it beautifully, and then two minutes later completely flubbing and having to sit down because I’m laughing so hard. My other favorite when the boys were little was “Don’t Throw Your Trash in My Back Yard,” which was silly, quick and particularly difficult to get right twice in a row.

Of course, COVID has made it impossible to get together with a group to sing rounds. However, if you have two people who are musically inclined in your primary family group, you can easily put together a few rounds for fun!

I’m interested in a virtual group collaboration using the app Soundtrap. I’ve posted some examples of my own round singing below (it’s just me all by my lonesome using Soundtrap — please be kind). Let me know if you’d like to join me what round(s) you like to sing (kirsten@crescendomusicloft.com). For information on how to use Soundtrap, see my post in next week’s Clef Notes.

Here’s a quick list of rounds that I know. I hope this list will inspire your own!

“Dona Nobis Pacem”
“Rose, Rose” | “Hey, Ho Nobody Home”
“Call John the Boatman”
“Ah Poor Bird”
“Don’t Throw Your Trash In My Back Yard”
“My Dame Has a Lame Tame Crane”
“Frere Jacques”

Rose, Rose | Ah Poor Bird

https://www.crescendomusicloft.com/wp-content/uploads/Rose_Ah-Poor-Bird-Plain-2.mp3

Call John the Boatman

https://www.crescendomusicloft.com/wp-content/uploads/Call-John-the-Boatman.mp3

Introducing the Amazing Slow Downer App by Roni Music

Ted Ervin — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 18:27:30 +0000

Reader’s note: This post is geared towards students of Crescendo Music System but others will find it useful as well.

The Amazing Slow Downer (ASD) app is a great tool for the practicing musician. Here are of some of the cool things you can do with it:

Speed up or slow down a song on the fly without changing pitch;
Change the pitch of a song on the fly without changing the tempo; and,
Select and repeat a song section.

ASD also connects with Spotify and Apple Music so you can play and adjust music from those services.

OK Ted, you’ve convinced me. Where can I get this Amazing app (see what I did there)?

I am so glad you asked! Here you go:

Google Play Store

Apple App Store

OK, now that you’ve gotten the app, open it up. On Apple devices the interface should look something like this:

On Android devices it should look something like this:

Loading a Song to Play

There are several methods of loading a song, depending on where the song file resides.

From Streaming Services

For streaming services like Spotify, you may need to login to your account, depending on whether you have an Android or iOS device.

On Android devices, you need only be logged into your Spotify account through the Spotify app. ASD should automatically connect to it.

On an iOS device, you must log into your account and grant access the first time you want to use ASD with Spotify. Tapping on Spotify in the main menu will bring up a login screen:

Type in your credentials and Login. A screen may pop up where you give ASD access to your Spotify account. Click on “Agree.” That’s it. You can now use ASD with any songs in your Spotify library.

From an Android device, access your Spotify songs by tapping on the “Lists” icon in the upper right-hand side of your screen. This will bring you to another window. Tapping on “My Spotify Playlists” loads your Spotify library. Navigate to the song you want to load and tap on it. That should bring up the ASD player with all the controls you need to adjust the speed and pitch, and to loop your song.

From an iOS device, access your Spotify songs by tapping on the “Lists” icon in the upper right-hand side of your screen. This will bring you to another window. Tapping on “Spotify” loads your Spotify library. Navigate to the song you want to load and tap on it. That should bring up the ASD player with all the controls you need to adjust the speed and pitch, and to loop your song.

From Your Apple Music Library

If you have music in your Apple library, you can access and play it on your iOS device by first tapping on “Import Song,” and then tapping on “Apple Music.” This should bring up your music library. Navigate to the song your want to play and tap on it. It should now be in your ASD library.

Songs Already on Your Device

If you’ve previously downloaded songs to your device you need only navigate to it in ASD and tap on it to add it to your library.

From the Main Menu on an Android device, tap on “Songs.” This should bring up a file browser that allows you to navigate to the folders on your device that contain music files. Once you’ve found your song, simply tap on it and ASD will import it into its library.

From the Main Menu on an iOS device, tap on “Import Songs” at the bottom of the screen. This will bring up the iOS version of a file browser. Locate your song and tap on it. ASD will import it into its library.

Adjusting the Speed

To slow down or speed up the song, simply tap on the slider button on the line that says “Speed.” Sliding the button to the left will slow down the speed, sliding it to the right increases the speed. The ” –%” indicator on the right-hand side of the screen displays the percentage of change.

On Android devices:

On iOS devices:

Adjusting the Pitch

To increase or decrease the song’s pitch, simply tap on the slider button on the line that says “Pitch.” Sliding the button to the left decreases the pitch, sliding it to the right increases the pitch. The ” -.–%” indicator on the right-hand side of the screen displays how many semitones (aka half tones) the pitch has been changed. The overall amount of change is + and – one octave.

So if you want to hear Jerry Garcia sound like Dolly Parton, increase the pitch by 7 semitones. If you want to hear Norah Jones sound like Sam Smith, decrease the pitch by 4 semitones.

On Android devices:

On iOS devices:

Selecting and Repeating Song Sections

Being able to loop sections of a song, while also changing the pitch and/or speed, are the most powerful tools ASD has to offer. You can work on difficult passages or riffs without having to continually rewind or locate where they begin and end.

There are two methods of enabling looping. The easier method is to select the starting and ending points of the section you want to repeat. Try it out by playing a song. To mark the beginning of a loop tap on the following icon:

On Android devices:

On iOS devices:

Note the slider starting next to that icon. You can adjust the starting point by tapping on it and sliding the marker to the left or right, depending on whether you want to move the beginning mark closer to the beginning or ending of the song.

On Android devices:

On iOS devices:

To mark the end of the loop simply tap on this icon:

On Android devices:

On iOS devices:

Again, you can adjust the end point by tapping on the slider next to that icon. And remember, you can still change the pitch and/or speed while in loop mode.

On Andriod devices:

On iOS devices:

To exit Looping, just tap on the following icon:

On Android devices:

On iOS devices:

ASD remembers the loop setting for each song you load. So, if you want to restart the last loop you set, just turn the Looping function back on by tapping on the same icon you used to turn looping off.

Phew, you did it. You made it all the way through this scintillating yet turgid blog post. I hope you didn’t need to take a nap somewhere along the way.

But if you’re tired, that’s okay.

It’s a good kind of tired.

Maybe a brisk walk or some jumping jacks will perk you up.

Me? It’s beer-thirty.

Feel free to leave comments or questions below!

How To Use the ProMetronome App by EUMLab

Ted Ervin — Sat, 03 Oct 2020 21:05:25 +0000

Help! This Metronome App Thing Is Confusing!

Note to readers: This post is geared towards Level 1 Students of Crescendo Music System but others should find it useful as well.

Don’t worry. Just breathe. We’re here to help.

By now you should have downloaded and installed the free version of the Pro Metronome from either the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store on your phone or tablet. But just in case you haven’t, get them here: Apple App Store Google Play Store Go ahead and open the app. You should see something like this: At this point you only really need to set the following:

The time signature;
The tempo;
The audio click sound;
Starting and stopping the metronome.

Setting the Time Signature

You can access the time signature settings via two methods: 1. By tapping on T.S. near the top of the screen, or 2. By tapping on the bottom left of the screen where it shows the current time signature setting. After you do either of those a pop-up window appears. To set the beats per measure (the top number of the time signature) tap on the ‘–’ or ‘+’ button below where is says ‘BEAT’ until you arrive at the correct number. For instance, if the music or chart shows that the time signature is 3/4, tap on the + or – until the display shows a ‘3’ as the top (or left) number.

To set the type of note that receives one beat (the bottom number of the time signature) tap on the – or + below where is says ‘NOTE’ until you arrive at the correct number. Right now, as a Level 1 Student, you will only be dealing with time signatures where a quarter note gets one beat (with a 4 on the bottom). Once you’ve set the time signature, you can close the pop-up window by tapping away from it.

Setting the Tempo

There are two ways of setting the tempo. You can either: 1. Tap where it says ‘Tempo’ near the top of the screen. A window will pop up and you can manually enter the tempo by using the keypad. Once you’ve entered the correct tempo just tap on ‘SET”. 2. Tap and hold your finger down on the virtual wheel in the middle of the screen. ‘Spin’ the wheel with your finger while keeping an eye on the number in the ‘TEMPO’ section near the top left of the screen. Spinning the wheel clockwise increases the tempo. Counter-clockwise decreases the tempo. Once you’ve set your tempo just take your finger off the screen.

Setting up the audio click sound

You should set up the click sound so that each beat is audible, with the first beat of each measure being accented. There are two ways of doing this but I will only show you one for now, because it is easy. There are several rectangles below where the app displays the tempo and time signature; each rectangle represents one beat. Each of these rectangles is subdivided into 3 parts. Tap on the first large rectangle (the farthest left) until the 3 smaller rectangles within are filled in with a pinkish purple color. Then, tap the other rectangles until only the bottom third is pinkish purple. It should end up look something like these examples:

Starting & stopping the metronome

The start and stop button is in the middle of the virtual wheel. All you need to do is press it. Easy Peasy.

Now go out there and do the voodoo that you do so well!