Use MakeMusic Cloud to play, practice, and perform a diverse range of music titles. MakeMusic Cloud's assessment feature provides instant feedback to help you improve your skills as a musician.

To get started, open a title. This article will cover the different options available for playing and practicing music after opening a title. For information on how to complete an assignment, see this article instead.

See Finding and opening music (Students & Hobbyists) for instructions on locating repertoire.

Jump to:

• Navigating Music
• Playback Controls
• Vocal Titles Only: Listen To Arpeggio and Starting Pitch
• Adjust the Tempo and Count-Off
• Adjust the Volume
• Adjust the Amount Of Swing
• View Fingerings and Listen To Individual Notes
• Loop a Specific Region
• Control How the Music Is Displayed
• Transpose
• Tune Your Instrument
• Select Assessment Type
• Set the Assessment Tolerance
• Prepare To Record
• See and Listen To Your Performance
• Review, Save, Or Delete Previous Takes
• Adding Pieces To Favorites

Navigating Music

Once the title is open, the part/instrument can be changed by clicking on the Part Selection dialog box and selecting the desired part from the dropdown menu.

If the selected title has multiple movements, the movement can be changed by clicking on the Movement Selection dialog box and selecting the desired movement from the dropdown menu.

Alternatively, the movements can be cycled through by clicking the left and right buttons on either side of the Movement Selection dialog box.

Playback Controls

Select the play button to hear the music played back. 

Select the pause button to pause playback.  

When playback is stopped or paused, you can quickly return to the beginning of any piece by selecting the Rewind button.

Vocal Titles Only: Listen To Arpeggio and Starting Pitch

In vocal titles, before you begin practicing, select to hear an arpeggio in the key of the title and the starting pitch at the cursor position.

Adjust the Tempo and Count-Off

In the Controls panel, adjust the tempo by selecting + or - next to the BPM number, or type in the beats per minute. Next to the Count-off number, select + or - to adjust.

Adjust the Volume

In the Controls panel, use the tracks sliders to adjust the playback volume of the Accompaniment, My part, and Metronome at any time. To mute a track, select the speaker icon next to that track's slider. Select Subdivisions to hear the subdivision clicks of the metronome. 

If you are not hearing the audio count-off after adjusting the volume controls, follow the steps in this article.

Adjust the Amount Of Swing

To adjust the amount of swing, click Options, select Display, and choose the percentage of swing you would like from the Swing drop-down menu.

View Fingerings and Listen To Individual Notes

While practicing music, you can view the fingers and listen to individual notes. Select a single note and choose to see the fingering for the selected note.

Select a single note and choose to hear the selected note.

Loop a Specific Region

If you would like to loop a region, select the Loop tab and then select Set. The Start and Stop points appear on the barlines of the currently selected measure. Select and drag the start and stop point handles to adjust the region you are looping. Select the playback button to playback your looped region.

If you would like the loop to repeat without interruption, deselect Use count-off between loops. To automatically increase or decrease playback tempo of each loop, select + or - next to BPM (beats per minute). To disable looping, select Clear. 

Note that loops are not active while recording, only during playback.

If you need to create a loop across a page break, follow the steps in this article.
 

Control How the Music Is Displayed

Choose the Controls menu and select the Display tab to see your display options for the music. Select Color blind mode to enable color blind accessible visual assessment. See Understanding Visual Assessment for more information.

Select or deselect Highlight Measure to control whether the currently selected measure is highlighted or not. Use the Beat Cursor drop-down menu to change whether the playback cursor moves along each beat, flows evenly across a measure, moves by note, or is off.

Next to Zoom, use the or buttons to zoom in or out. Select the full-screen button to enable full-screen mode, and select the expand or collapse buttons to hide or reveal the right-hand Controls panel, respectively.

Transpose

Certain titles, such as Exercises and content created in Compose, provide the option of changing the key. If transposition is available for a title, you can click the Options menu, select Transpose, and choose the desired key from the dropdown menu.

Set the Assessment Tolerance

To change how MakeMusic Cloud will assess pitch and rhythm, choose Options and select the Display menu. Choose Easy Tolerance for beginning students or Lenient Tolerance to make the assessment more forgiving. Choose Average Tolerance to allow a medium assessment of pitch and rhythm. Choose Strict Tolerance to make the assessment more demanding.

Tune Your Instrument

To tune your instrument before playing, select  . 

The Click to start tuning! screen appears in a new web page tab. Click the microphone to continue.

In this window, the tuner, your instrument, the Concert Pitch of the note being played, the Transposed note (if you are playing a transposing instrument), and cents of the tuning pitch are displayed. Play your instrument or sing a pitch. The dial reacts to the pitch you are playing and shows if you are flat, in tune, or sharp. When you are finished, close the tuner page tab to return to your music.

In certain cases, the MakeMusic Cloud website may not be able to access your microphone through the Chrome browser. Click here for steps to change your settings in Chrome to ensure that your microphone will work properly.

Select Assessment Type

MakeMusic Cloud has separate modes for grading melodic performances and percussive performances. The assessment type is automatically selected depending on the part you’ve chosen or the settings assigned by the teacher, but if you’d like to change to the other assessment type, select the microphone icon.

For instruments and voice, choose Melodic through microphone, choose Select this mode and device and follow the prompts.

For unpitched percussion or clapping assessment, choose Percussive through microphone, choose Select this mode and device and follow the prompts.

MIDI options are grayed out unless you have a MIDI device connected.

Prepare To Record

When you're ready to record a take, select . Check to make sure that headphones are unplugged and that the volume is turned on before clicking Set up sound to proceed.

Follow the onscreen instructions. Make sure your speaker volume is loud enough so that your microphone picks up the test tone. Click Set up sound. 

If MakeMusic Cloud encounters a problem, follow the onscreen instructions to troubleshoot the issue or contact our Customer Support Team. 

When your microphone has been successfully calibrated, click Start Recording.

Once the calibration has finished, you will automatically hear a countoff and can begin recording. The playback cursor shows where you are in the music. If at any point you want to stop the recording, click the stop button.

Practice time is logged as soon as MakeMusic Cloud begins to record. You can view the amount of time you've spent on a given piece by viewing the Practice Analytics.

See and Listen To Your Performance

Green noteheads indicate that the correct pitch was played or sung. Red noteheads indicate incorrect pitch. Yellow notes indicate incorrect timing. 

If you'd like to listen to your recorded take, select the My takes button in the top right corner and then press the play button on the desired take. Click Submit once you find your best take.

If you want to hide your assessment, select the Options menu, choose Display, and deselect Show assessment.

Review, Download or Delete Previous Takes

If you'd like to review your recorded takes, select the My takes button in the top right corner and then press the play button on the desired take. Click Submit once you find your best take.

MakeMusic Cloud saves the five most recent takes in the drop-down menu under My Takes. Please note that the takes are not saved if you close your browser window. If you would like to save a take but aren’t ready to submit yet, click here for instructions on saving your best take and submitting it later.

Select the take in the dropdown menu to view your red and green note assessment for that take.

Optional: If you want to download the recording for personal use, click the three dots in the upper right hand corner of the take and choose Download to download the selected take as a WAV audio file. Note that this does not affect your submission. You will still need to submit the take with the Submit button within the Practice App to complete the assignment. 

Adding Pieces To Favorites

You can add pieces you have loaded in the Practice app directly to your Favorites playlist by clicking the Favorite button.