Hey, everyone. I'm trying to use BIAB to practice some jazz arrangements I'm playing with a big band. The problem I've run into is that the part of the song I need to practice starts on bar 43, but in BIAB the bar numbers (obviously) start on bar 1. It makes entering the chord symbols confusing. Is there a way to change the bar numbers? Or maybe I should enter 42 empty bars first?

Cheers,

Doug

doogiet,

Welcome to the forum. I am not aware of a way to change the bar numbering. You didn't state how many bars you want to practice. If it is not too many it might be easier to write a chart on a piece of paper.

1 = 43
2 = 44
3 = 45

Oh, just bars 43 to 158. No problem. :P

This is my first real day trying to practice with BIAB. In the past I've just used a metrenome and not really have had any way to tell if what I'm playing matches the chords of the song. This is seriously going to transform my playing.

I don't believe BIAB has this function. Entering a displacement value for measure numbers is a common feature of music notation software.

I'm lost. What's a displacement value? Entering empty bars?

Suppose I want the first measure to say 5 instead of measure 1. I enter a displacement of 4.

Or I want a two-bar intro not to have measure numbers, so I enter -2. Then the third measure is marked as measure 1.

But again, BIAB doesn't do this. You would need a program dedicated to printing music notation.

Anyone know if MuseScore 2 can help?
PS: I don't use this app.
PPS: It's free.

DE

Doug, as already been said BiaB does not do this. BUT this is an excellent idea and you should put this on the wishlist.

If you are using BIAB 2016, there's a new feature called "bar based lyrics" that allow you to enter text in a, new added ("layered") row on the chord sheet. Perhaps you could use this feature to put in the measure numbers you want to see. The actual BIAB measure numbers will still be there, but whatever number you choose could be entered as if it were part of a lyric.

If you're not using BIAB 2016 yet, this might be a good reason for you to update.

Yes. Musescore 2 will renumber bars, and it's very simple.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I'm pretty much new to BIAB (I just upgraded to 2016) so I just added 42 empty bars at the beginning to get my numbers to line up. I guess I should have them just be a drum beat or something.

Is there a way to tell the program to play the chords on offbeats, like shots in a jazz band? This program is so sophisticated in what it can do, it's kind of overwhelming.

I can answer that (the answer is "yes, mostly") but I suggest you start a new thread. Others can help too, if they know there is a new topic.

First hint: put two dots (periods) after a chord name, and it plays it as a shot.

Second hint: right-click on a chord, select Chord Settings. You can place the chords on a beat, choose whether they are pushed earlier, choose whether they are a shot or a hold or normal, and even select which instruments play or do not play the shot etc.

Doogiet:

At the top of the BIAB screen, you will see 2 boxes that show the FIRST bar of your song and LAST bar of your song.

You said: "Oh, just bars 43 to 158. No problem. :P"

Just enter 43 as the first bar and 158 as the last bar. Then set the number of "chorus's" i.e. number of times through the song, to the number of times you want it repeated for your practice session.

I think it will then play the "intro" (bars 1-42) ONCE, then your practice bars, repeated as you have instructed. I'm not at my BIAB machine so I can't try it to confirm.

Good luck!
LLOYD S

I just put the revised bar numbers in the lyrics line.