Orchestral excerpts, learned from the recordings
An audition list is a set of short, hard passages you will play hundreds of times. SlowBird is built for exactly that: slow a recording down without changing its pitch, loop the bars that keep catching you, and save each excerpt as a named note, so the whole list is one click away. It was made for serious jazz study, and the work is the same: a jazz musician collects licks, an orchestral player collects the passages an audition turns on.
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How to practise an orchestral excerpt with a recording
- Bring in the recordings. Drop in an audio file, open a video, paste a link, or record whatever your computer is playing.
- Loop the passage. Drag across the waveform and the excerpt loops seamlessly, with no click at the join, as many times as you need.
- Slow it down. At 50% every note of a fast passage is audible, and the pitch does not move, so the intonation you hear slow is the intonation you play at tempo.
- Match your orchestra’s pitch. If the recording sits at a different A, adjust it by cents until it is in tune with your instrument. The tempo does not change.
- Creep back up to tempo. Nudge the speed up a few percent at a time, until the excerpt holds at 100%.
SlowBird plays the recording; it does not show the part or the score, so keep those on the stand.
Your audition list in the notes viewer
Save each excerpt as a note, named for the piece and the bars, and tag it however you think about it: the audition it is for, the composer, the technique. A note can carry several tags. The notes viewer puts every note in your library on one canvas as a card, arranged by tag, track, name or colour, and a click on a card plays the excerpt looped. It is how a jazz musician keeps a growing collection of licks, and it works the same way for a list of excerpts you return to every day.
Several recordings of one excerpt
Bring in two or three recordings of the same passage, save the excerpt as a note on each, and give them the same tag. Arranged by tag, they sit side by side, so you can move between interpretations of the same bars in a click.
Questions
How do I practise orchestral excerpts with a recording?
Loop just the excerpt, slow it down without changing its pitch, and bring it back up to tempo a few percent at a time. SlowBird does this on Mac and Windows: 25% to 200% speed in the original key, seamless loops, and every excerpt saved as a named note you can find again.
Can I keep my whole audition list in one place?
Yes. Save each excerpt as a note and tag it (the audition, the composer, the technique). The notes viewer shows every note in your library as a card, grouped by tag, and clicking a card plays the excerpt looped.
What if the recording is not at my orchestra’s pitch?
Adjust it by cents, up to 100 either way, until it is in tune with your instrument. The tempo does not change.
Free 7-day trial · macOS 14 or later · Windows 10 or later · £19.99 once, both platforms