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Band-in-a-Box can help you practice at home anytime by giving you an endless supply of melodies and improvisations to practice, full-screen lead sheet notation, and a great back-up band to play along with. It's easy to learn how to play a bossa or jazz solo, or to practice playing along with a horn section or with a hot R&B band.
Some people like practicing their trumpet with a walking bass line. No problem. Type the chords of the song you want to play, or select one from your Band-in-a-Box library and mute the parts that you don't want to hear.
Follow these links to some suggestions on how to get the most from Band-in-a-Box.
Even the most creative musician can get into the occasional, improvisational rut. It's all too easy to lapse into old familiar patterns instead of going for something new and risky. Band-in-a-Box's powerful Soloist feature has an infinite capacity to create original solos providing all new inspiration and ideas regardless of the instrument.
You might want to work on a particular type of passage, say turnarounds or II-V-I progressions, or you might want to generate some new ideas for a particular song. To practice playing over standard jazz chord changes open the Jazz Practice (Jazzprac) folder and choose the progression you wish to work on. (Please Note, the Jazzprac folder is only installed with the MegaPAK version of Band-in-a-Box.) Or take a couple of minutes to enter a set of chord changes in Band-in-a-Box, choose a Style, and then click on the Soloist button.
Band-in-a-Box will suggest an appropriate Soloist if the Auto-Suggest box is checked. Click the Suggest button or simply search for the Soloist you like. There are number of trumpeters, from generic Jazz Waltz and Pop 16th trumpet to the likes Miles, Freddie H and L Armstrong. Once you have selected the Soloist you like, just click 'OK' and let the fun begin. The Soloist allows you to set a number of parameters for the soloist you choose, such as when the soloist will perform, the instrument played, the phrase length and much more.
There are many options for the Soloist. Setting the Mode to normal will generate solos for the middle chorus' of any tune while the option to Solo Around The Melody will generate riffs playing at times when the Melody is silent.
To solo around the Melody, do the following:
Open up a song that has a Melody, preferably a sparse Melody with some space in it that a Soloist might be able to "jump in".
Press the Soloist button. Select the Solo Mode "Around Melody".
Set the Soloist to play in All Choruses, and un-check the Mute Melody in Middle option.
Press OK, and the Solo will be generated, playing riffs at times when the Melody isn't playing.
There is a type of soloing called "Fours" soloing - Band-in-a-Box can generate the first four or the second four bars. Taking 'Fours' refers to a solo lasting four bars, usually followed by a different melodic solo (or drum solo) for the next four bars etc.
It is fun to solo along with Band-in-a-Box in 4s mode, letting the computer solo for four bars, followed by your solo. In the Select Soloist dialog, you can click on the button beside the 'Trade 4s' radio control to select whether you want the first four bars or the second four bars. If set to '1st'', the soloist will take bars 1-4, 9-12, etc. And if set to '2nd'', it will solo on bars 5-8, 13-16, etc. The fours are based on the beginning of the chorus, not the first bar of the song.
Once you have made your Soloist selections open the Notation window, select the Soloist part (click on the 'S' at the right end of the row of Track buttons) and follow the music. Remember to go to 'Preferences' under the 'Opt.' menu and set 'Concert Pitch adjust' so that the notation will display in trumpet's transposition.
There are many other ways that Band-in-a-Box can help you to learn a new solo like setting the tempo to whatever feels comfortable. If you don't want to keep your original tempo, try using the new Tap Tempo buttons to set the tempo you like. 4 taps on the '=' key will restart the song at the tempo you 'tapped' in.
The 'Loop Screen' feature in the Notation window will keep repeating the current screen so you can work on a specific passage for as long as you want. When you deselect 'Loop Screen' the song continues. The 'Scroll Ahead' option means you never lose your place while waiting for the Notation screen to redraw. For a full-screen view open the leadsheet window.
The numeral 1 on the number pad toggles in and out of Loop Screen mode, that's the mode that keeps repeating the current notation screen. When Loop Screen is on you can use the Up and Down cursor arrows to move back and forth from screen to screen. Change tempo up or down in increments of 5 with the [ and ] keys.
Here are some suggestions for creating out-of-the-ordinary solos to stimulate even the most jaded palate. The easiest, and most obvious, way to do this is to try some off-the-wall juxtapositions of solo artist and song style. It's not surprising that the 'Mark O'Con. Fiddle' soloist sounds great over any set of jazz changes, but how about 'Bluegrass Fiddle' with the Level Funk Demo. It comes out as wild Gaelic rock. Anyhow, you get the idea.
There are several powerful features in the 'Soloist Editor' that give you a lot of control over how the Soloist plays. Enter your changes by clicking on the Soloist Maker 'Edit...' button. Settings like 'Phrase Length', 'Insert Space Between Phrases-How Often', 'Space Length' and 'Outside' range are self-explanatory. Other like 'Legato Boost', 'lateness', and 'eighth note spacing' have a dramatic impact on how the soloist plays.
These are the settings that let you define a particular player's style. For example, Miles Trumpet is spacey and legato with an even eighth note feel. Freddie H. Trumpet has a bit less space, is more legato and more 'outside', with less even eighth note spacing. It's a lot of fun to experiment with different settings, and they can make a huge difference. You can compare two different results by moving the first one to the Melody track before generating the second one. Have a look in the Notation window, and use the hot keys to help you analyze the track.
As you examine the solos in detail you will realize that these are the real licks and phrases that accomplished musicians play. You will recognize modal scales, passing tones, non-scale tones, chromaticism - all the improvisation tools that the best players use. That's because these solos are not based on algorithms or randomly generated. They are created by a sophisticated programming routine from comprehensive databases of phrases recorded by top studio players. (If you have the add-on Soloist disks the databases are even larger, Killer Jazz is 8-MB!) The program intelligently assembles the phrases with consideration for both continuity and variety.
The most frequent comment we hear from teachers and veteran players is, "...if only I'd had something like this when I was a student." It's true, the Soloist is not only a wonderful resource, it's also one that gives you the power to manipulate the many variables of a performance for an infinite variety of new ideas.
Pick up a tune from the Band-in-a-Box main directory. Set the tempo you are comfortable with. (You can do this by tapping the = key 4 times in the tempo you want, or by adjusting the tempo control numerically). The first time you play the song try singing along without playing, but finger the melody on your horn while you sing. Next you may want to try playing with just your mouthpiece, and then start to practice with your horn.
Adjust the tempo and practice playing both faster and slower. Transpose the song into different keys for even more practice. This is a great way to train your eyes and mind for more complicated tunes, and also enhance your instrument skills.
Once you're familiar with the melody try applying harmony parts, like trombone quartet, super sax, big band, or any kind that emulates a horn section.
