Shadow Edge
English
Get started

Help Getting started

Your first shadowing session, step by step

Shadowing means listening to a short line, then repeating it out loud while it's fresh — copying the rhythm, melody, and sounds of a real speaker. Shadow Edge gives you a curated library of ready-to-practice videos and audio (and you can import your own too), breaks each one into bite-sized lines, lets you record yourself on each one, and shows you how close you got. Here's your first run-through, start to finish. It takes about ten minutes.

Before you start. You'll need a working microphone — your laptop's built-in mic or your phone is fine — and to be signed in at webapp.shadowedge.app or in the app. New here? See Getting Shadow Edge on your devices.

Step 1 — Pick something to practice with

When you sign in you'll land on the Home page, which is full of ready-to-practice videos and audio hand-picked for learners. For your first session, the easiest thing is to pick one from here — it's already transcribed and ready to go, so there's no waiting.

  1. Browse the Home page, or tap a category to narrow things down. Looking for something specific? Open Search, right after Home in the menu.
  2. Pick something short and clearly spoken for your first try — a minute or two of a single speaker works far better than a fast, noisy clip.
  3. Tap it to open the practice page.

Want to practice with your own video or podcast instead? That's easy too — see Adding your own source. For your very first session, though, a ready-made one from Home is the fastest start.

Step 2 — Open it and listen to a line

On the practice page, on a computer you'll see the player on the left and the list of lines (the transcript) on the right; on a phone they stack, and you can tap All segments to see the full list.

  1. Pick a line from the transcript to start with — the first one is fine.
  2. Press Play segment and listen once. Don't speak yet — just take in the rhythm and the sounds.
  3. Want it slower? Use the speed control (try 0.75×) and play it again. You can replay a line as many times as you like.

Step 3 — Record your attempt

  1. Click Record my attempt. The first time, your browser or phone will ask permission to use the microphone — choose Allow.
  2. Say the line out loud, copying the speaker as closely as you can — not just the words, but the melody and pace.
  3. Click the large pulsing accent-colored mic button when you're done.
  4. You can click the circular trash button on the left to discard the recording.

You can play your recording back to hear yourself. Happy with the take? Click Submit for scoring. (Not happy? Click Record again for another go — there's no limit.)

Step 4 — Read your score

After a moment, your score appears. There's one big Overall number out of 100, and four details underneath:

  • Accuracy — how close each sound was to the original.
  • Completeness — how much of the line you actually said.
  • Fluency — how smooth and natural your pacing was.
  • Prosody — how well your rhythm and intonation matched.

Below the numbers, each word is colored green, amber, or red so you can see at a glance which ones to work on.

The sound-by-sound breakdown

On paid plans, words with a dotted underline can be tapped to open the sound-by-sound breakdown — it lists the individual sounds in that word, each with its own score, and calls out the one that needs the most attention with a short tip (for example, "Loop the /l/ sound in isolation 5×, then re-record"). It's the difference between knowing which word was off and knowing which sound to fix. On the free plan you still get the overall score, the four detailed scores, and the colored word breakdown — just not this per-sound view. A few languages (such as Chinese and Japanese) aren't scored sound-by-sound at all; see How pronunciation scoring works for the full picture.

You can also play Original and Your recording back to back to hear the difference for yourself — often the fastest way to spot what to fix.

Step 5 — Try again, or move on

This is the loop that builds real improvement:

  • Click Try again to re-record the same line and beat your last score. Repeating the same line a few times is where most of the progress happens.
  • Click Next → to move to the following line when you're ready.

Work through the lines at your own pace. Even ten minutes a day adds up quickly — and your scores and streak are saved automatically so you can track how you're improving over time on the Report page.

That's the whole loop: listen → record → score → repeat. Once it feels natural, try hiding the subtitles to test yourself, or switch on cinema mode (the Player ↗ button) for a distraction-free, full-screen session.

What's next?