Song Practice for Guitarists: Slow Down Solos, Loop Riffs, Play Along
Every guitarist has hit the wall: a solo that flies past too fast to hear, a riff you almost have, a record tuned somewhere your guitar isn't. Song Practice turns any song on your iPhone into a practice track you can slow down, loop, retune and play along with.
Import a song, drop the Speed dial to around 70% with the pitch locked, set an A-B loop around the lick, and turn on the metronome. When you are ready to play along, lower the other stem, where the guitars live, and take the part yourself.
Slow down solos with the pitch locked
The speed dial runs from 25% to 200% of the original tempo, and the notes stay in the original key the whole way. That matters on guitar: your instrument is tuned to the record, so if a slowdown dragged the pitch lower you would be chasing bends and vibrato in the wrong key.
Each step is 5% of the song's own tempo, and the speed is shown as a percentage of the original. A 128 BPM track at 76% plays at 97 BPM and is still in C♯. A good working pattern for a solo:
- 50–60% to work out which notes, which string and which position. Listen for slides versus hammer-ons.
- 70–85% to get the phrasing, bends and vibrato under your fingers.
- 90–100% once it's clean, then push to 105% so full speed feels relaxed.
For the full method, see how to learn a guitar solo.
Loop licks to the bar
Set an A marker and a B marker around the lick and it repeats at whatever speed you're on. Markers snap to bars, so a two-bar phrase loops cleanly without a hiccup at the join, and you can nudge A or B by a beat when a pickup note starts early. Save the tricky spots as bookmarks, or jump between detected song sections to get from the verse riff to the bridge.
Practical tip: loop one bar more than you need. Starting a beat or two early gives you time to get your fretting hand in position before the hard part arrives. More in how to loop part of a song.
Play along: where the guitar lives in the mix
Song Practice separates songs on your device into four stems: vocals, drums, bass and other. There is no dedicated guitar stem. Guitars end up in other, together with keys, synths, pads and anything else that isn't a voice, a drum or the bass.
What that means in practice:
- Solo other to hear the guitar parts without the singer and the kit covering them. In a guitar, bass and drums band this is close to a guitar-only track.
- Mute or pull down other to play along in place of the recorded guitar. On songs with keyboards, the keys go too, so you may hear gaps where a piano was filling space.
- Pull other down a few dB instead of muting if you want a faint guide to stay in time with the record while you play over it.
The Mix sheet gives every stem its own fader in dB, a Reset button, and quick mixes: Full mix, Karaoke, Vocals only, No drums and Rhythm. Rhythm keeps only the drums and bass, which is the cleanest bed for playing guitar parts yourself; set the faders from there to suit what you're practising. See how to make a backing track from any song.
Match tunings and capo positions with key shift
Key shift moves the song from −12 to +12 semitones without touching the tempo, which saves a lot of retuning between songs.
| Record is in | Your guitar | Shift the song |
|---|---|---|
| E♭ standard (half step down) | Standard E | +1 semitone |
| D standard (whole step down) | Standard E | +2 semitones |
| Drop D | Drop D | None, just drop your low E |
| Standard, capo 2 | Standard, no capo | −2 semitones, then play the same open shapes |
Drop D doesn't need transposing because only one string changes and the other five are still at standard pitch. E♭ standard moves every string, so either tune down or shift the song up by one. A capo works the same way: each fret is one semitone, so shifting the song down by the capo fret lets you play the same chord shapes open. The detected key is shown under the song title, which helps you find the right position fast. More in how to change the key of a song.
A metronome locked to the song
Song Practice detects the BPM and turns on a metronome that follows the song's own tempo. Slow the track to 70% and the click slows with it, so you're never fighting a separate metronome app that has drifted off the record. It's especially useful for strumming patterns and palm-muted rhythm parts, where timing is the whole point.
Rough MIDI from the other stem
Any separated stem can be exported as MIDI, including other. Open it in GarageBand, Logic or a notation app to see roughly which notes are being played. Single-note lines come through best. Chords, heavy distortion and parts that share the stem with keys will be messier, so use the MIDI as a map and your ears as the final word. See how to convert audio to MIDI on iPhone.
Common questions
Can Song Practice isolate just the guitar?
Not on its own. Songs split into four stems: vocals, drums, bass and other. Guitars land in the other stem along with keys, synths and similar parts, so soloing other is the closest you get to a guitar-only track, and muting it removes guitars and keys together.
How slow can I play a guitar solo without changing its pitch?
Down to 25% of the original tempo, and up to 200%. The pitch stays in the original key at every speed, so your guitar stays in tune with the recording.
How do I play along with a song tuned a half step down?
Either tune your guitar down to E♭ standard, or leave it in standard tuning and shift the song up by 1 semitone so it matches you. Key shift runs from −12 to +12 semitones and does not change the tempo.
Can I get tabs or notes from a guitar part?
Song Practice does not write tabs, but you can export the other stem as MIDI and open the notes in GarageBand, Logic or a notation app. Treat it as a rough sketch to check against your ears, especially with chords and distortion.