Practice/woodshed (increasing) Tempo --

No combination of choices makes any difference in playback. You set the numbers, hit OK, and voila -- nothing.

Check out this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFDORaC04Mc

Cheers

Here's the answer, for those who don't have an hour to waste on the "documentation" and another on the video:

Highlight a loop and then play the loop.

Eight words, by my count.

True however you don't have the ability to increase the speed by a certain factor, which is the purpose of woodshed feature as shown by the video (10 min or so).

I too use your suggestion most times.
Cheers.

I didn't view the video, but I tested this function quite a bit in beta testing. My memory is that BIAB plays the whole chorus then repeats at the higher tempo you have set.

It may well work for a loop within the song; didn't try that.

The goal, of course, is to get a particular song under your fingers (to use a horn player term) and then keep increasing the tempo to push yourself a little each time. It's really a very cool feature for practicing something difficult.

The video (2:52) does show you that you can select "x" number of bars (if you wish) or the whole song in woodshedding.

I didn't view the video either, but I use woodshed all the time. My take on it is simply this: it allows one to practice a particular chart or series of bars in a chart at ever increasing speed. I usually highlight the section I want to practice, go into woodshed and select the appropriate increment and upper limit. I then hit F10 to play the highlighted section. I hope that helps.

Bob

Not in my version (Windows 2014).

In my version, the first dialog box says "Woodshed tempo by (default = 0) . . . "

1. Is "woodshed" being used as a verb that replaces "increase"?
2. Why is there a default?
3. Why is the default zero?
4. Where is the minimum tempo set?
5. Where is the maximum tempo set?
6. Where is the number of steps set?

Tom,

You said ...



When I looked up "Woodshed" in the 'Index' of the Help dialogue, it took me to this.



I have never used this feature but this is how I interpret the help information ...

1. The original tempo is the song's tempo. This was set when you created the song.

2. The "Woodshed tempo by" is how much you want to increase the tempo each time the song returns for another play through the loop. If you want the tempo to jump by 5 beats per minute (bpm) with each loop, you'd put "5" in this box. If it's set to "0" there'll be no change in tempo with each loop.

3. The "Maximum total tempo change" is how much you want to to change by (e.g. if your song's start tempo is 120 and you want it to end up playing at 180, you'd put 60 in this box since that's the difference between 120 and 180).

This is just my take on what the instructions say after reading through them. Let me know if it works

All the best,
Noel

The idea is to learn to play the song better by playing it faster than the original tempo? "To woodshed the tempo" means to bump it up, i.e. from 120 to 180?

Woodshed as a verb means to me to practice a tough part until you can play it successfully. Since no one wants to listen to this process, it normally takes place somewhere that you can retreat to work in private, as in going out back to the woodshed.

I can normally play whatever I can think, but I did have to woodshed seriously one time before a concert. My band does not rehearse, and the pianist brought a new tune to perform the next day. Now, often a pianist or any other non-horn player may not have the same understanding of patterns and/or range issues that may be more difficult to finger on a horn. I took my part to the only quiet place I had (the sailboat), shut the hatches, and played it over and over, increasing the tempo until I could play it quite well. This was a great success, as the pianist counted off the tune way too fast, and I was the only one left standing at the end of the melody. Hey, it happens. Hooray for woodshedding.

Me too. But if it's tough to play at tempo X, I don't see how it gets less tough by attempting to play it faster than X.

Speed up or slow down, it's a simple question:

1. Set the base tempo.
2. Set the number of changes.
3. Set the amount of each change.

All I can get it to do is alternate between original tempo and half original tempo, one playback each. Is that all you can do with it?

Oh no. You can set the starting tempo to be well under (slower) than the original (desired?) tempo, and work up gradually.

Tom,

We need to know a little more about how you have configured Woodshedding.

What is the song's original tempo and what settings have you added to the Woodshedding box?

Also, are you woodshedding a section of the song or an entire chorus (that is, once through)?

Regards,
Noel

Indeed.

Tom: The idea behind 'woodshedding' in practice and in BIAB is to start way (too) slow and gradually build up to the desired (faster) tempo. As an example, let's say I want to be able to play "Unit 7" at 240 bpm. I'd open the tune in BIAB, change the tempo from whatever it currently is set at to one that is slower than I can currently play accurately. Let's say that's 160 bpm. I then go into the practice module, hit woodshed, change the increment to 10 (or 5 if I'm having lots of trouble) and the ending increase to 80. 160 bpm plus 80 bpm = 240 bpm. I then go back to the notation page and highlight the first chorus and hit f10 (repeat section). (BTW, I'm doing this all from memory on a computer than doesn't have BIAB, so please forgive me if I've made mistakes.)BIAB will then start playing that section, in this case the first chorus, at 160 bpm. When BIAB finishes the first chorus @ 160bpm, it immediately starts over on bar 1 @ 170 bpm, if I had chosen to increase by 10 bpm each iteration. This cycle continues until the tempo reaches 240 bpm, at which time the process repeats depending on how you have configured the woodshed algorithm: go up then back to start, or go up and then back down to start.

When doing this, I frequently add an intro of 4 bars to the song, just so I have four measures to hear the beat, as the woodshedding algorithm doesn't have a count-off. Adding 4 measures in the new, faster tempo helps get me into the rhythm.

Again, I apologize for any memory lapses in my description, but I hope this helps you in using the woodshedding part of practice.

Bob

Very good detailed description by Bob. That's exactly how to use this.

Tom, don't forget Noel's questions if you still need help.

Thanks Wombat, that is my idea also, start slow and build up to normal tempo in increments.

I see no place where the number of increments can be set, or the amount of increase per increment . The two numbers you can specify are:

1. "Woodshed tempo by (default = 0 BPM) . . . "
2. "Maximum total tempo . . "

I don't see how that determines

1. Start tempo
2. number of increments
3. increase per increment

. . . or if it's even supposed to. Apparently "to woodshed" doesn't have a settled meaning, so perhaps the reason I can't do what I want is that that wasn't the intended purpose. Actually I didn't know it was a verb.

Tom,

Tell me what you want and I'll see if I can give you the information you need.

Let me know ...

1. your desired start tempo

2. what tempo you'd like the playback to finish at

3. how many beats per minute you'd like to increase playback each time you go through the song

Regards,
Noel

"To woodshed" can be thought of as a synonym for "to increase" in this case.

Let's run through an example. I want to go through a song starting at a tempo of 100 bpm, ending at 200 bpm, with 10 increments of 10 bpm increases. Here's how:

1. In the chord (main BIAB) window, adjust the tempo to your starting tempo of 100 bpm.
2. In the woodshed window (click "practice" on the upper bar, and then 'woodshed'), adjust the "Woodshed tempo by" value to 10.
3. For the moment, ignore the "mode"; however, note that to the right of the 'mode' line BIAB says "100 is the Current Tempo"
4. In the Maximum Total Tempo window, put in a value of 100. Note that to the right of this value BIAB says "200 will be the maximum tempo.

Under these inputs, BIAB will say:
Current tempo is 100. It will increase by 10 each loop, to a maximum tempo of 200. When it reaches the Max tempo, it will RESET to the original tempo... (etc).

As an exercise, why not try this and report back on what you see and hear. These replies will help us help you all the more.

Bob

Thanks, Wombat. I never would have figured out the jargon on my own.

"Total Tempo" means the total of the increments plus the original tempo as lowered to make room for the increments. "Woodshed" is a verb meaning "Increase tempo by increment of X". So this would appear to be the procedure:

1. Decide ending tempo.
2. Decide beginning tempo.
3. Subtract beginning tempo from ending tempo.
4. Decide what the increment of increase in tempo will be.
5. Hope the arithmetic came out right. Helps to use a computer program. You must woodshed in the correct increments the correct number of times to reach the total tempo.

For example, if you want to start at 100 bpm and reach 200 bpm in 3 stages . . .

200 - 100 = 100
100/3 = 33.33

Starting tempo = 100
Total Temp = 200
"Woodshed by" 33.33

Also remember to make a note somewhere of what the original tempo was before you changed it in order to "woodshed" in the word's other sense, i.e. to practice, otherwise, the audio track will be out of tempo.