YouTube is an astonishing musical resource for students and seasoned performers alike. Learning jazz by transcribing solos, practicing with backing tracks, studying exceptional recordings or simply listening for pleasure are all integral parts of the jazz journey for many of us. YouTube provides easy access to all of these things. Did you know that YouTube has a bunch of useful keyboard shortcuts to enhance your musical experience? I didn’t, until very recently. Here are the shortcuts most useful for music on YouTube:
Play/pause with the space bar
Ok, so this was the only one I already knew about. The space bar stops and starts the video or recording wherever it is up to. The K key will do the same thing.
Restart the video
Press the number 0 and the video will start again. If it is already playing it will play from the start. If it is paused, it will go ack to being paused at the very start of the video.
Jump to a percentage of the way through the video.
You can use the number keys to jump straight to a specific point in the video. The 1 key takes you to 10% into the clip. The 2 key takes you to 20%, 3 jumps to 30%, 4=40%, 5=50%, 6=70%, and so on.
Skip 5 seconds
Skip back or forward by 5 seconds using the left/right arrow keys.
Skip 10 seconds
Use the J and L keys to skip back or forward by (remember K=play/pause).
Adjust the volume
You can use the up/down arrows to adjust the volume
Move one frame at a time
If the video is paused you can use the full stop ( . ) to move the video forward by 1 frame. The comma ( , ) moves it back by one frame at a time.
Full screen
F toggles full screen on and off. ESC also takes you back to the normal view.
