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
• 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
• 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, 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 Tracks tab, adjust the tempo by selecting + or - next to the Tempo number, or type in the beats per minute. Next to the Count-off number, select + or - to adjust.

 

 

 

Adjust the Volume

 

In the Tracks tab, 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

 

In Tracks tab, adjust the swing level for My Part playback and for assessment. 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 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.

 

 

Set the Assessment Tolerance

 

To change how MakeMusic Cloud will assess pitch and rhythm, choose the Assessment tab and select the Tolerance drop-down 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

 

When you're ready to record a take, select . The Select assessment type dialog box appears.

 

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

 

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

 

 

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.

 

 

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 take, click the recording playback button .

 

 

If you want to hide your assessment, select the Assessment menu and deselect Show Assessment.

 

 

Review, Download or Delete Previous Takes

 

To review your recorded takes, select the My Takes menu. Select the Choose a take drop-down menu. 

 

 

This drop-down menu displays your five Most Recent takes as well as your five Best Scores. Select the desired take under the Takes drop-down menu to see your assessment for that take onscreen. Click the Download  button to download the selected take as a WAV audio file. Click the Delete  button to delete the selected take.

 

Adding Pieces To Favorites

 

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