Basic Chordsheet Questions - PG Music Forums

PG Music Home

As a newbie, I'm still trying to learn everything involved in completing a chord sheet.

I've figured out how to enter chords onto the correct beats, but still don't undrstand how to differentiate between various parts of a song. For example, I'm working on entering the Beatles "Yesterday". Part one is 7 measures, which gets repeated twice. Part 2 consists of 15 measures which also repeat twice. Finally, the ending consists of 2 measures. I've figured out how to enter Part 1, but have problems after that. Here are my specific questions:

1. How do I set up The repeat in Part 2, without undoing the repeat that I set up for Part 1?
2. Although I've entered chords into gray measures, they don't get played. I know that the measures need to be white. How do I make them white so they are played?
3. How do I enter the double bar to show the end of the song?

I hope that I'm using the correct terminology and that my questions are clear..... Any help with this would be appreciated.

P.S. I searched thru the printed manual before posting here, but couldn't find my answers. The index isn't real specific, and the section on the chord entry, on page 54, didn't cover these specific questions. So, if someone could point me to a more step-by-step part of the manual, or to a simple tutorial, that would be great.

Thanks.

Bert

Probably the easiest way is to not use any repeats. Write it out as one chorus, 7-7-8-7. Set the length of one chorus to 29 bars and as many repeats of the chorus as you want. Put your 2 bar ending at the end of the chorus. Click on the S to the right of the song title and set your ending there. Later, Ray

Newbert, unfold the chord sheet and type in all the chords with no repeats. Use your part markers blue for verses, green for chorus. You can also use these for drum fills where you want them. Set how many bars you want and then a 2 bar ending. You can also add or delete bars if you need to do that.

Hope that helps.

Josie

Quote:

Newbert, unfold the chord sheet and type in all the chords with no repeats. Use your part markers blue for verses, green for chorus. You can also use these for drum fills where you want them. Set how many bars you want and then a 2 bar ending. You can also add or delete bars if you need to do that.

Hope that helps.

Josie

Josie,

I followed yours and Ray's advice and re-entered the chords using no repeats. That helped a lot.

However, as a complete BIAB newbie, I sometimes need step-by-step instructions for the simplest things, so:

1. How do I insert the various part markers? (Blue and Green, etc). And... Once all chords are entered with no repeats, what's the point of adding the part markers?

2. With regard to the ending, I figured out how to get BIAB to generate a 2-bar ending. But "Yesterday" doesn't actually require one. How do simply get a song to end after the last bar where I input chords (without adding two bars)?

3. Finally, for future reference -- Exactly how does one add or delete individula bard, if necessary?

Thanks for all the help! Slowly, but surely, I'll get there!

Bert

Hey there and welcome!

1. Right-click on the bar number, and you'll have the option to place an "a" or "b" part (or other parts if available, or delete the part marker). The part markers, besides being very helpful as visual layout tools, indicate different levels of activity for MIDI parts and RealDrums -- for example, in many styles the "a" part is more suited to a verse, while "b" is busier and better for the chorus or bridge.

2. Reverse what you did to get the 2-bar ending -- that is, uncheck that box in the Song Settings. You might also want to add a few extra bars with rests, just to get a cleaner version of the actual song ending.

3. "individula bard"? If you mean "individual bars", click on any given bar, then go to the Edit menu and select Insert Bars. However many bars you want to insert will be put in before the bar you clicked on.

On re-entering bars. I just highlight the bars by selecting the first one then click and drag to highlight the section. After that you can use the Windows commands CTRL-C, CTRL-V to copy and paste the bars. Much faster than typing on all the bars.

Quote:

Hey there and welcome!

1. Right-click on the bar number, and you'll have the option to place an "a" or "b" part (or other parts if available, or delete the part marker). The part markers, besides being very helpful as visual layout tools, indicate different levels of activity for MIDI parts and RealDrums -- for example, in many styles the "a" part is more suited to a verse, while "b" is busier and better for the chorus or bridge.

2. Reverse what you did to get the 2-bar ending -- that is, uncheck that box in the Song Settings. You might also want to add a few extra bars with rests, just to get a cleaner version of the actual song ending.

3. "individula bard"? If you mean "individual bars", click on any given bar, then go to the Edit menu and select Insert Bars. However many bars you want to insert will be put in before the bar you clicked on.

Thanks for the quick replies, Tom. ...And I see that you speak "Typo-code".

Typing accurately when I'm on my iPad is next to impossible!

Quote:

Hey there and welcome!

1. Right-click on the bar number, and you'll have the option to place an "a" or "b" part (or other parts if available, or delete the part marker). The part markers, besides being very helpful as visual layout tools, indicate different levels of activity for MIDI parts and RealDrums -- for example, in many styles the "a" part is more suited to a verse, while "b" is busier and better for the chorus or bridge.

2. Reverse what you did to get the 2-bar ending -- that is, uncheck that box in the Song Settings. You might also want to add a few extra bars with rests, just to get a cleaner version of the actual song ending.

3. "individula bard"? If you mean "individual bars", click on any given bar, then go to the Edit menu and select Insert Bars. However many bars you want to insert will be put in before the bar you clicked on.

OK. I've got almost all of this figured out, except ...... How do I add rests to the final few bars?

Thanks again!

Hi Bert,

Do you mean rests in the melody or the accompaniment? If you mean accompaniment, do you mean all instruments or simply one or two?

Regards,
Noel

Quote:

Hi Bert,

Do you mean rests in the melody or the accompaniment? If you mean accompaniment, do you mean all instruments or simply one or two?

Regards,
Noel

In an earlier post, Tom Smith suggested that I "might also want to add a few extra bars with rests, just to get a cleaner version of the actual song ending".

At this point, that's what I'm looking to accomplish. So, to clarify -- all instruments.

Thanks.

When you're in chord-sheet view, right click on a unfilled part of the sheet and select "Chord Settings". This will give you the screen below.

Experiment with the settings in here. The things I have marked in yellow are the parts that will do the job you want.

All the best,
Noel

Or, when typing in the chord, follow it with a single period. Two periods indicates a shot, and three periods is a hold. (You can also type "b" for bass, "p" for piano, etc., indicating which parts you don't want to have rested, shot, or held. Try 'em out to hear what everything sounds like.)

Thanks you, Tom and Noel! Both of your answers were very helpful in getting me to complete the entries onto the chordsheet. I'm really learning a lot from the responses here.

But, of course, now I want to "improve" what I'm doing, so I have questions about changing instrumentation "on the fly". Rather than change the topic of this thread, I'll start a new thread covering those questions....

Thanks again!

It'll be worth it to buy a hard copy of the manual from PG Music. Almost all of your questions are answered in the manual. Later, Ray

Quote:

It'll be worth it to buy a hard copy of the manual from PG Music. Almost all of your questions are answered in the manual. Later, Ray

I already have a hard copy of the 298 Page spiral-bound User's Guide, Ray. Is that what you refer to as the manual, or is there a more comprehensive book?

I find that, although the User's Guide has lots of info, the index could be better. It's not always easy to find the exact answer to my questions in the User Guide. That's why I'm happy to have this forum. The help here to get me started has been great!