questions about using tabledit program

[mandodan1960]

I just downloaded the tabledit demo 2.64 and have downloaded and been playing Old Joe Clark that I got from mandozine. What I want to do is be able to start and stop
in increments throughout the song about 6 measures at a time. Play six measures stop try it myself (hit back) play the same six measures stop try it myself etc. I read the tutorial and that mainly deals with creating tab/midi. I have trouble in knowing the melodies (didn't grow up with bluegrass) Is this a good way to practice.
Thanks Mando Dan

[John Flynn]

Use your mouse (click and drag) to highlight the measures, either notation or tab, you want to play. Make sure the highlight covers all the notes in the measures you want and doesn't clip any off. Hit Shift+F10 to play what you've highlighted. The Play>Play menu will give you other playback options. Play>Midi Options will let you slow it down or speed it up.

[psann]

If you select play>repeat before you hit shift F10, it will keep looping through the selected section until you stop it. Definitely a good way to practice. Slow it down at first until you can play the whole song comfortably befoe bringing it up to full speed. Otherwise their is a tendency to play the easy parts faster than the difficult parts when you start putting it all together.

[Martin Jonas]

Dan: if you don't want to create new TablEdit files but rather just want to play and print existing ones, you've downloaded the wrong program. You'd be better off using the free TablEdit viewer TEFView, rather than the demo version of the paid-for full TablEdit 2.64.

The viewer download is here (http://www.tabledit.com/tefview/index.shtml).

Martin

[bgjunkie]

Something that has worked well for me is to slow the tune down in tabledit to the point that I can follow along on my mandolin. I play through the tune several times this way until I get familiar with the melody. I then start trying to play as much as I can without looking at the tab. I only look back at the tab when I stumble and then I will play that part several times until my finger and brain catch up with one another. Once I can play through the tune several times without looking at the tab, I start playing the tune on my own (without the midi playback or tab). Once I get the notes under my fingers and can play the tune comfortably, I then return to Tabledit and start speeding the tune up. Playing along with the midi at and slowly increasing the speed with give you something to work toward and give you a target to hit each time you practice the tune. Always remeber to slow the tune down if you start getting sloppy. Work on clean notes and speed up only when you can play cleanly.