1  Your First Project (macOS)

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. Click this link to open the concert recording page in your browser.
  2. Under “DOWNLOAD OPTIONS”, click on the “VBR MP3” link.
  3. Hold the ⌥ (option) key, and click the “Something Like Olivia” link.
Warning

If you are using a different browser than Safari, this might not work. Instead, try to right-click the “Something Like Olivia” link, and choose the “Download” item in the context menu.

Step 2: Create the Project

If it’s not already running, launch Capo. Then:

  1. Choose File > Open… from the main menu.
  2. Navigate to your Downloads folder by clicking in the sidebar. Or, press ⇧⌘G, type ~/Downloads, and press return.
  3. Select the jm2022-02-20t06.mp3 file.
  4. Click ‘Open’.

Capo will begin processing, and about a second or two later it should complete the beat and chord detection.

Step 3: Play, and then stop the song

You can start playing the song by doing one of the following:

  • Click the play button that appears in the toolbar
  • Press space on your keyboard

To stop playing, you do the same thing: press the play button or spacebar.

Step 4: Change the playback speed

Start the song playing again if you stopped it, and then:

  1. To the right of the play button, click the tempo button (it should say “101.5”) and a popover will appear.
  2. Drag the slider to the left to slow the playback.
  3. Drag the slider to the right to speed it up.
Tip

You can also press the ↑ or ↓ key to speed or slow the song by 25% at a time, or ⇧↑/⇧↓ to change the speed in 1% increments.

Step 5: Move around the song

While the song is playing, click in the numbered timeline area above the waveform. That will move the playhead to the spot where you clicked and continue playing.

Press the ← or → key to move the playhead backwards or forwards by one bar. Now press ⇧←/⇧→ to move one beat at a time.

Step 6: Place a marker before the solo

Stop the song, and move the playhead to bar 28, on the fourth beat using the keyboard shortcuts.

Press the m key to place a marker at the playhead. 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, press ⌥← and notice that the playhead has jumped back to the marker.

Tip

In Capo, keyboard shortcuts help you work quickly, but you’ll also find the marker controls in the toolbar at the top of the window if you prefer to use the mouse or trackpad. Just look for the button with a little pin icon on it to place a marker, and use the left/right arrows on either side to navigate between them.

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, even with the ⌥← shortcut key. So we’re going to use the Transcription Playhead to cut back on all this jumping around.

Click the button in the toolbar that appears to the right of the position indicator, or press ⌘T on your keyboard. You’ll notice that the playhead changed from blue to pink.

If the playhead isn’t already there, navigate back to the marker. Then, press space to start playing the song again. Press space to stop, and space again to start. Repeat this a few times, and notice how it always starts playback 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 save your progress by choosing File > Save… from the main menu.

Tip

We recommend saving your projects in the Capo iCloud folder if you also use Capo on your iPhone or iPad.

  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.↩︎