Looping repeats one passage over and over, so you can drill it until it’s clean. You can loop the whole song with one click, or pick an exact range of bars, or a precise stretch down to a single beat.
Loop the whole song
Click the loop button next to the playback buttons in the top bar. When the song ends, it starts again from the beginning. Click it again to stop looping.
Loop a passage
You can always select a passage straight on the piano roll with Alt + drag. For selecting by bars, turn on the loop strip, a thin bar under the scrub bar that shows how busy each part of the song is, once in Settings → Playback → Loop region.
To select | Do this |
A precise stretch | Hold |
Whole bars | Drag along the loop strip. The selection snaps to bar lines. |
Exact bar numbers | Click the Select bar range icon at the end of the loop strip, type the From and To bars (or use the arrows), then click Apply. |
IMAGE · play-loop-region.gif · 1200 × 600 px · Animated: Alt+dragging across the piano roll to mark a loop, the orange band appearing on the roll and the strip, then clicking the blinking loop button.
Adjust or clear a loop
To | Do this |
Move the start or end | Drag the edge of the orange band, on the strip or on the piano roll |
Clear the loop | Right-click or double-click the piano roll, double-click the strip, or click the strip outside the selection |
A loop keeps working when you change the tempo or the key. It’s cleared when you open another song.
Use case: learn a fast run
Loop the bar with the run, drop the tempo to 60% and play along until it’s clean. Then raise the tempo a few beats per minute at a time. Once it holds at full speed, widen the loop by a bar on each side so you learn to enter and leave it smoothly. Step by step in Learn a fast run.
See also: Step Through, to walk a passage one note or chord at a time with the arrow keys before you loop it.