Getting started with ChanterLab

ChanterLab is a choir-practice tool. The app plays every voice except yours — you sing your part along with it, watch your pitch on the singscope, and get a note-by-note score.

Best on the device you’ll actually practise on — the tour points at the real buttons. You can also start it anytime from the ? in the app’s top-right, or read on below.

The idea in three parts

1. The choir sings the other voices. 2. The scope shows your sung pitch versus the note you’re aiming for. 3. The score tells you, after each pass, which notes you nailed and which drifted flat or sharp.

On your phone tap

On a phone the controls tuck into a bar at the bottom to keep the music in view. Tap the ⌄ handle to open them.

1. Tap ▶ Play to hear the choir. Tap again to pause; ■ stops and rewinds to the top.
2. The chip S is your part (S/A/T/B). Tap it to mute your part so you sing it yourself — tap again to hear it while you’re still learning it.
3. Tap ⌄ to open the full controls. They’re grouped into three tabs: Practice, Sound and More.
4. In Practice, pick Your voice, drag Tempo to slow a hard passage, or set a Loop range and tick on to drill just those bars.
5. In Sound, tap 🎤 Mic to sing along and get scored. Keep 🎧 Headphones mode on and wear earbuds — that stops the mic from hearing the backing voices.
6. In More, open 📚 Library to search the full collection, and switch the View between split, score-only and scope-only.

On a computer click

On a wider screen everything is laid out at once: the scope and music on the left, and a control rail down the right with Practice, Sound and More all open — no tapping to reveal them.

1. Click ▶ Play — or press Space — to hear the choir. Space again pauses; ■ stops.
2. The chip S shows your part. Click it to mute your voice so you sing it (or press 1–4 to switch between Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass).
3. Under Practice, set the tempo and a loop range. Press L to toggle the loop on and off.
4. Under Sound, click 🎤 Mic (or press M) to sing and get scored. Headphones keep the mic clean.
5. Under More, open 📚 Library to browse, and set Scoring to Relaxed or Strict.

Keyboard shortcuts

Reading the scope & your score

Once the mic is on and you press Play, sing your part. On the singscope your voice draws in cyan and glows gold the instant you’re on the note — any octave counts. The dashed lane is the pitch you’re aiming for right now.

After each pass (or when you Stop), a little report appears above the controls with your hit percentage and your worst spots — the measures with the most missed or off-pitch notes. Tap a spot to loop that neighbourhood and try again.