Tempo Change for Play-Along Challenge: 5 Minutes (But Have Your Music Ready First)

Tempo change, time-stretch, and pitch shift are interrelated processes in digital audio editing.

The topic is big, but, for play-along and karaoke, a simple process is at your fingertips.

Once your music is at a tempo for comfortable play-along, you may:

  • study it closely to improve your rendition.
  • vary the speed of repetitious segments of music, to add interpretive value.
  • alter the mood of a song, to personalize or revitalize it.

Before you start the 5-minute process, you will need to have your music ready.

PREPARATION: Obtain audio files (and sheet music or lyrics, if desired).

  • Choose music.
    • Download MP3, or
    • Record music into Audacity
    • Locate sheet music, if desired.
    • Locate lyrics, if desired.
  • Check key/pitch of music:
    • Group short pieces according to key, for pitch correction, if needed.
    • Compare sheet music key to recording key.
    • Compare recording pitch to your tuning requirements.
    • Compare recording pitch to singer’s vocal range.

Change Tempo in Audacity for Karaoke or Play-Along

Here is the easiest, most intuitive way to change a song’s tempo in Audacity, so that you can:

  • play along on an instrument, at a comfortable tempo, or
  • sing along creating a different mood than that of the original recording.

This method comes to you by courtesy of Dennis Havlena.

In Audacity:

  1. Open the file
    • CLICK file, open
    • SELECT MP3 (A sound wave graph will appear.)
  2. Adjust volume
    • CLICK edit
    • SELECT All (to select the entire tune or shortest complete segment)
    • CLICK effect
    • SELECT Amplify
    • CLICK OK
  3. Adjust tempo
    • CLICK Effect
    • CLICK Change Tempo (not “Change Speed” which will also change pitch)
    • DRAG slider left
    • CLICK Preview
    • If tempo correct, CLICK OK
    • If OK was wrong, CLICK Edit, Undo
  4. Adjust pitch
    • SELECT All (or segment)
    • CLICK effect
    • click Change Pitch
    • IN Semitones (Half-Steps):
      • Type small number (1, -1, .5, -.5 etc.)
      • CLICK Preview
      • Repeat until desired pitch is found
    • CLICK OK
    • If not OK, CLICK Undo
  5. Save and export the file
    • CLICK File, Save
    • CLICK Export as MP3

If you have a collection of tunes, repeat the process for each tune.

Then, play along with your handheld MP3 player, or burn to a CD and play along with your stereo.

Karaoke/Play-Along Tempo Change Resources

TASCAM TRAINERS:

If at any point you would prefer to utilize audio equipment to change pitch or tempo for play-along or karaoke, TASCAM trainers perform tempo changes admirably.

SHEET MUSIC WITH CD:

Also available are Sheet Music with CD recordings which incorporate varied tempos for play-along.

DOWNLOADABLE SHEET MUSIC:

A wide variety of downloadable sheet music is available from Sheet Music Direct:

  • Enter an artist, composer, or music title
  • SELECT “Install Scorch” from the Sheet Music Direct Menu Bar
  • Enter an artist’s or composer’s name or music title
  • Select your instrument’s pitch range if a wind instrument

If you select music that contains notation, you will see sheet music and be able to hear the first few bars as you follow along with the score. So if your instrument is other than piano, you can always select a piano score to hear the full harmonic structure of the music.

Sheet Music is inexpensive and convenient to purchase from Sheet Music Direct.

You will find numerous public domain music resources on the internet. Sheet music printed before 1923 is available in the public domain and may be legally downloaded to your computer in .pdf or image format. The websites hosting these images may request a charge. This can be a reasonably good source of classical chamber music scores for play-along, as well as important American music such as early blues.