Practice workflows

This page covers four common practice workflows. Each assumes you've already opened a song and separated stems.

Learning a bass line

1. Mute the Bass stem — remove the original bass from the mix
2. Keep Drums, Vocals, and Other — you want the full band context
3. Set a 4-bar loop around the section you're learning
4. Drop tempo to 60-70% — slow enough to catch every note
5. Play along with the loop — note choices, timing, articulation
6. Bump tempo in 5% increments as each pass gets cleaner
7. Unmute the Bass stem occasionally to check your accuracy against the original

Transcribing a guitar solo

1. Mute all stems except Other — the solo is usually in the Other stem
2. Set a short loop — 2-4 bars around the solo phrase
3. Drop tempo to 50% — at half speed, fast runs become distinguishable notes
4. Transcribe 2-4 notes at a time — don't try to get the whole phrase in one pass
5. Play it back at 70% to verify — if it sounds wrong, it is wrong
6. Unmute the full mix at 100% — your transcription should fit the harmonic context

Creating a backing track for improv practice

1. Mute the stem matching your instrument — Bass for bassists, Other for guitarists, Drums for drummers
2. Set tempo — often at full speed for improv practice, or slower for learning changes
3. Optionally, loop the form — set a loop covering the full verse-chorus structure
4. Export the mix — choose Export and save as WAV or MP3
5. Load the exported track anywhere — phone, looper pedal, DAW, share with bandmates

Woodshedding a fast passage

1. Isolate the relevant stem — mute everything except the instrument you're learning from
2. Set a 1-2 bar loop around the fast passage
3. Drop to 50% tempo — learn the note sequence
4. Increase to 60%, 70%, 80% — only move up when the current tempo is clean
5. At 80%+, bring back the other stems — practice in full musical context
6. Record yourself (use the Recorder if available) and compare against the original stem