Changing the tempo of the audio files

In order to do this you will need an Audio Editor. Throughout this text i will be referring to an audio editor called Audacity which can be downloaded for free if you click here. Once you have installed the program the first thing you need to do is to download the file to a location on your own computer. Now start Audacity. This is done either through double-clicking on the Audacity icon on your desktop:

Or by clicking on the start button and finding it in the programs menu:

Once the program is opened your screen should look something like this:

Now you must import the file you want to edit into the program. This is done either through pressing Ctrl+I or through clicking on the word "project" at the top of the page and choosing "import audio file" from the drop down menu:

This will open an explorer window where you find all the locations on your computer:

At the bottom of the explorer window there is a menu called "file format". It`s important that this is set to either "All files" or "MP3" otherwise you won`t find the file:

Now locate the audiofile and click "Open". After a couple of seconds it should be graphically displayed in the Audacity window looking somewhat like this:

Double click in the empty grey area underneath the volume and pan controls (to the left of the file graph).You will notice that the background of the file graph gets a bit darker:

Now click on the word "effect" on the top of the page and select "change tempo" from the drop down menu:

This opens a dialog where you are asked to specify how much you want to change the tempo. This can be done in 3 different ways:

• 1) By specifying the amount of change in percent. A positive numerical value makes the tempo faster while a negative (put a - before the number) makes it slower.

• 2) By specifying the new tempo in the musical term "beats per minute" (BPM). To do this you need to know the original tempo. You find this on most of the notated material available in the "Notation" column of the song page where you downloaded the file from. It`s always in the Song Overview. Enter this value into the "from" box and the new tempo into the "to" box.

• 3) By specifying a new length of the file (in seconds). If you make the file longer than it originally is the tempo will be slower and vice versa.

Method 1 is the quickest but my advice is that you use method 2 since you then will know how fast you are practicing in musical terms. Once you have specified the amount of change you just click "OK" and after a couple of seconds the tempo is changed. Now you have to save the file. This is NOT done through clicking save (ctrl+s) but through clicking on the word "File" on the top of the page and selecting "Export as mp3" from the drop down menu:

This opens another explorer window. Give the file a name and find the  location where you want it stored and click on the "Save" button:

You`ve now got a new file in the desired tempo ready to be used.