2  Your First Project (iOS)

In this tutorial you’re going to download a live concert recording, create a Capo project, and get a feel for the interface.

Step 1: Download the Song

We’re going to start off by downloading a live recording of Something Like Olivia played by John Mayer1, live at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 20, 2022:

  1. Long-press this link to reveal a menu of actions.
  2. Choose ‘Download Linked File’, and wait for the download to complete.

Step 2: Create the Project

  1. Launch Capo.
  2. At the bottom of the document picker, tap the Browse tab.
  3. If you’re not in the Capo folder, tap the Browse tab again, choose iCloud Drive from the Locations list, and tap the Capo folder.
  4. Tap on ‘Create Document’
  5. Choose ‘Locate audio file…’
  6. Tap the Browse tab at the bottom twice, choose iCloud Drive, and then locate the Downloads folder.
  7. Locate the jm2022-02-20t06.mp3 file that you downloaded, and tap it.

After a few seconds, you should see your project, and processing will complete shortly thereafter.

Step 3: Play, and then stop the song

  1. Tap the play button that appears near the bottom right of your screen, and the song will begin playing
  2. After a few seconds, tap the same button to stop playback

Step 4: Change the playback speed

Look at the control strip selector that appears to the left of the time display. It should read ‘SPEED’, with some page indicator dots shown below.

Note

If it doesn’t (e.g., if it says ‘MARKERS’, ‘REGIONS’, or anything else), then long-press on the control strip selector to reveal a menu. Select ‘SPEED’ from that menu. You can also tap the selector repeatedly to cycle between the different control strips at the bottom of the screen.

Now, start the song playing, and do the following:

  1. Drag the slider to the left, and notice how playback slows down
  2. Drag to the right, and notice how it speeds up again.
Tip

One of the indicators on the slider appears brighter than the rest of them, approximately 3/4 of the way across the top. If you tap on it, the speed resets to 100%. Tapping the other indicators will jump to the preset values of 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%, and 150%, respectively.

Step 5: Move around the song

While the song is playing, swipe your finger left or right across the waveform to scroll around. The playhead will stay locked to the center of the screen, no matter where you are scrolling, and Capo will scrub through the song’s audio as you move around.

Note

When you stop scrolling, playback will resume wherever you land. But if you keep your finger on the screen, playback will continue “frozen” at the point in time where you hold the playhead.

Step 6: Place a marker before the solo

If you haven’t already done so, stop the song. Then, move the playhead to bar 28, on the fourth beat.

Long-press the control strip selector to reveal the menu, and choose ‘MARKERS’. Then, tap the ‘Add Marker’ button to place a marker at the playhead position. You’ll notice an orange “pin” appears on the timeline to mark where you’re at.

Now start playing the song, and stop it after a few seconds so that the playhead has moved away from the marker.

Finally, tap the left arrow in the MARKERS control strip to jump back to the marker location. This is how you will mark and move between key points in the song you’re working on.

Step 7: Use the Transcription Playhead

When you’re working to learn a solo like this, you’ll want to keep repeating the first few notes until you can remember them and find them on the instrument. But it gets tedious to keep jumping back to the marker. So we’re going to use the Transcription Playhead to cut back on all this jumping around. If the playhead isn’t already there, navigate back to the marker.

Long-press the control strip selector to reveal the menu, and choose ‘PLAYBACK’. Then, tap the ‘Transcription Playhead’ button to toggle it on—the button will turn blue. You’ll notice that the playhead has now changed from blue to pink.

Now tap the play button to start playing the song again. Press pause to stop, and play again to start. Repeat this a few times, and notice how playback always starts from the position of the Transcription Playhead.

Step 8: You’re done! What now?

Now you know the basics of using Capo to learn from the recording by ear. You learned how to:

  • Create a project from an audio file
  • Use the basic playback controls
  • Change the playback speed
  • Navigate the recording
  • Place markers, and
  • Use the transcription playhead

With these tools, you can continue learning this solo to practice these skills. Try placing markers at each of the 12 distinct phrases in this solo: 28.4 (i.e., bar 28, beat 4), 29.4, 30.2, 31.3, 32.2, 33.1, 34.2, 35.3, 36.3, 37.3, 38.4, and 39.3.

When you need to take a break, you can tap on the folder icon at the top left of the screen to save your project so that it’s ready for you to return in another session.

  1. Regardless of what you think about him, John Mayer knows his way around a guitar. And if you happen to like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, or BB King, you’ll surely recognize their influence on his playing.↩︎