The Practice Panel indicates the scale position you are viewing, and controls any practice session you are currently conducting.
The selected scale is also displayed in the Scale Matrix, and a graphic view of its current scale position is shown on the Fretboard.
The main feature of the Practice Panel is the Practice Panel Grid, which takes up most of its area and contains settings that control various aspects of a practice session. You can find a detailed discussion of these in Practice Grid.
Full and Partial Positions
ChordWizard offers two perspectives on scale positions. You can choose to use either of these, or to switch between them as needed. In either case, the locations of the scale positions are highlighted on the fretboard with overlay labels.
Full Positions include the locations of all notes in a scale that can be physically reached with the hand at a particular fret on the instrument.
Partial Positions include the locations of only the notes a scale within a single octave, arranged in sequence from the root note to the root note one octave up.
You can switch between these using the following commands:
| Button | Menu |
| Scales-Full Positions | |
| Scales-Partial Positions |
When exploring scale positions, or during practice sessions, the Status Bar indicates whether you are using full or partial positions, and which of the positions for the scale you are currently viewing.
You can get more details on how full and partial positions work in Scale Positions.
Exploring Positions
The first step in using Scales View is to select a scale in the Scale Matrix. All possible positions for the scale are then available to be explored, and are arranged in a series from the lowest fret to the highest.
The instrument, tuning, and Fret Span specified in the Practice options affect the number of possible positions available for each scale.
The Practice Grid and the Status Bar indicate the fret and order of the current scale position. You can navigate through the scale positions in order with the following commands:
| Button | Menu |
| Scales-Prior Position | |
| Scales-Next Position |
You can also select a scale position directly from the Practice Panel Grid, using the Position dropdown list.
The third way to select a scale position is to hover the mouse over the Fretboard. Wherever a note location from an alternative scale position is found, a hollow overlay label will be highlighted. You can then click on this location to select the scale position that contains it.
The overlay labels which indicate the fretboard locations of each scale position can be configured to show note or degree names, either for interactive exploration, or for practice. You can change between notes and degrees with the following:
| Button | Menu |
| Filter-Overlay-Note Labels | |
| Filter-Overlay-Degree Labels |
Single Practice
Once you have established a scale and a position for it, ChordWizard can give you an animated demonstration of how to play the scale position.
This is known as a Single Practice and it can be started with the following command:
| Button | Key | Menu |
| F9 | Scales-Single Practice |
Depending on the Practice options, you can get an additional silent animation so that you can repeat the sequence of note locations on your own actual instrument.
Many of the Practice Grid settings affect the behavior of the Single Practice. These include which notes in the position are played; what note pattern, rhythm pattern and tempo is used; and whether a chord is played at the same time to set a harmonic context for the scale practice.
Cycle Practice
Continuous scale practice sessions can be conducted easily in Scales View by sequencing a series of Single Practice animations, or steps, together. This is known as a Cycle Practice.
As well as simple repetition, a Cycle Practice session offers you the ability to automatically vary many of the Practice Grid settings between each step to keep the practice interesting and challenging. For example you may vary the scale, the scale position, the note and rhythm patterns or the tempo.
With Cycle Practice, you do not need to have a scale already selected in the Scale Matrix to begin a session. You can start a CyclePractice with the following command:
| Button | Key | Menu |
| F10 | Scales-Cycle Practice |
This opens the Cycle Practice window, where you specify which parameters vary between steps, and how they vary. Pressing the OK button in the Cycle Practice window starts the practice session.
Depending on the Practice options you have set, the Cycle Practice session can finish after a certain number of steps, or it can continue indefinitely. It will be interrupted if you change away from Scales View or if you open a popup window while the session is active.
You can terminate a Cycle Practice session manually with the following command:
| Button | Key | Menu |
| Esc | Scales-Stop |
At the top of the Practice Panel is a single line (marked in the illustration above with Practice). During practice sessions, this display changes to indicate the progress of the practice session.
At the right of this line is a small button, which opens a popup window containing the Practice options in case you want to make adjustments.
See Also
