Recently a Band-in-a-Box customer sent us this comment: "I just ordered Band-in-a-Box and am anxious to use it. I'm a bass player who can't read music and can only play a limited number of musical styles. I hope BB will help me in those areas."
According to another Customer Comment, "Band-in-a-Box is absolutely great. Band-in-a-Box has really helped my reading skills as a bassist and I've picked up a few new rhythmic patterns to apply to my walking lines. Can't say enough good stuff about it!!" This bass player will be receiving exactly what he is looking for.
Band-in-a-Box is the perfect tool for bass players wanting to learn new styles, improve their time, learn new soloing techniques and have fun. Read on and we'll show you how.
The first thing any musician should do before practicing or playing is tune their instrument. For bass it's easy when you're using Band-in-a-Box. Start by plugging your bass into the sound card on your computer (you can do this through either the microphone or line-in inputs). If you have done this correctly you will hear your instrument through your computer speakers. If you experience any difficulty, refer to the help topic "Connecting an Instrument". Next open the Guitar Tuner (Windows® users will find it in the GM Menu, Macintosh® users can press the tuner button on the main screen).
Although the Guitar Tuner is optimized for guitar and bass it is also useful with other acoustic instruments including voice. Optimize the tuner for bass by selecting bass from the "Instrument" radio buttons. Then play a note. The tuner will "auto-range" to determine the nearest note, and display the intonation of your instrument.
As we will be discussing the use of the Animated Guitar Fretboard Window it is suggested that you tune your bass to the standard EADG tuning. While you are using the Guitar Tuner check out these great features:
Pitch Meter - the easy-to-read bar graph interface ensures accuracy. This graph displays the note in cents (hundredths of a semitone). When the note is in tune, the indicator will be hovering near zero in the center of the graph.
Fine Adjustment Control - quickly calibrate the Guitar Tuner to agree with the other tuners you use. If you have a Piano, Organ, or other instrument you wish to use as reference, you can easily adjust the Tuner to agree with your fixed-pitch instrument.
Hum Filter - eliminates hum giving you a clean signal for accurate tuning.
Chromatic Tuning - the Guitar Tuner detects and displays the most recently played note making alternate tunings a breeze.
Numeric Pitch - numeric display of the incoming frequency.
Tone Generator - select the note you want and Band-in-a-Box will generate an audible tuning reference.
Once your instrument is in tune you are ready to play. The Guitar Tuner can be used inside Band-in-a-Box or as a stand-alone application for those times when the rest of the band actually shows up.
The first step is to select a song, or input the chord progression you want Band-in-a-Box to play, and select a style. Open the notation window and select the bass part by pressing the button marked "B" in the upper right hand side. Press [Play] and see how the notes of the bass line are highlighted as the song plays. You may want to mute the bass part and play along yourself.
Transpose the song into any key and learn to play in every position on your bass.
If you aren't comfortable with written music Band-in-a-Box can still show you exactly how to play the part for any chord in any style with the Animated Guitar Fretboard. It's easy to use and is very useful for bass players as well as guitar players. We've also added fret display support for other stringed instruments, including mandolin, ukulele and banjo. You'll see authentic chord voicings and melody display on the fretboard for all of these instruments.
Open the guitar fretboard and select the bass part by pressing the button marked 'B' located at the bottom of the window. Now when you press [Play] the bass part will be displayed on the Animated Guitar Fretboard. You'll also see bass tablature and correctly displayed bass parts. Follow along as the bass part is played. By moving the fretboard window you can display both it and the notation screen simultaneously to learn where the notes are on the fretboard and what bass patterns 'fit' well with different chords.
This is one of the most useful features Band-in-a-Box has for bass players. Once you have selected a song or input the chords, it's a breeze to learn different styles. You can even do it while the song is playing. Selecting a style to use for your song has been made much easier, and more fun! When you open the new StylePicker Window, it shows you which styles would work best in your song, highlighting all styles that have a similar tempo, genre, and 'feel' to the current song. And you can preview styles before loading them so you can hear what they'll sound like in your song. The style-picker remembers the style and genre that you've used, and will return to it the next time you open it.
If the [Preview on Double Click box] is selected, simply double click on the style you wish to change to and Band-in-a-Box will instantly change to that style. Now you can learn bass parts for any song in any style.
Time is everything for a bass player, and Band-in-a-Box is the perfect tool to perfect your time. Play at a comfortable tempo while you learn, and increase it as you progress. There are several ways to adjust the tempo in Band-in-a-Box, the most intuitive and musical is to tap out the tempo you want and have Band-in-a-Box automatically set the tempo for you. Tap the '=' key four times to set the tempo you want. Use the square bracket "hot" keys ( [ and ] ) to change tempo up or down on the fly. Band-in-a-Box's drummer always keeps 'perfect time'.
Band-in-a-Box comes complete with some jazz practice files. Open the JAZZPRAC folder where you will find a number of standard Jazz chord progressions to practice with. (Please Note, the Jazzprac folder is only installed with the MegaPAK version of Band-in-a-Box.) Transpose them into any key, change the tempo and style to get the most from the box.
While often the driving and rhythmic bass solo is exactly right, at other times a more melodic solo may be what you are after.
Jaco has always been viewed as an innovator of bass guitar playing, often for his melodic solo and melody lines. With the Band-in-a-Box Soloist feature you can have the opportunity to analyze bass solos in Jaco's style.
Open the Select Soloists window and select the [Jaco, slower Pop 16ths] (#87) soloist and have Band-in-a-Box generate a solo for you. In either the Animated Guitar Fretboard or Notation Window select the Soloist part by pressing on the right most button marked "S". Now Band-in-a-Box will show you how the music is played both in notation and on the guitar fretboard.
To try out some of these practice techniques why not download the demo now.
Notation
