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#113181 05/01/11 06:41 PM
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In the past two months though I have learned enough about BinaB to enter songs from the Real Book. I entered Satin Doll today and noticed that it decided to play something that is not compatible with the chords I entered. I am not talking about an alteration or extension. I am talking about the WRONG key. For example, in the first A part of Satin Doll where it does a II,V in the key of C and then a II,V in the key of D it chooses to stay in the key of C. I am using the Jazz Swing Style from the generic 24 but it does the same thing with the other Jazz Swing styles. What am I missing?

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Hi Bluestraveler,

What are your chords?

Whenever I've played Satin Doll, it's never left the key of C. In the key of C, my base chords are ii, V, ii, V, iii, V of ii, iii, V of ii, etc. (i.e. Dm, G, Em, A). While it's possible to think of Em, A as ii and V of the key of D, as far as I'm aware, the song itself does not change key. My ear places the A chord as a secondary dominant in the key of C. I find Satin Doll an excellent excursion into secondary dominants and chromatic chords.

Regards,
Noel


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For your Satin Doll song, if your chords of the beginning are /D-7 G7/D-7 G7/E-7 A7/E-7 A7/,so C key is the right key. Temporary modulation in a song don't change the basic key of a song. That is different if the whole chorus is transposed + half tone, in this case, the key should be changed. Regarding harmony rules, additional data can be found over the net or in many manuals.


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Assuming Satin Doll has an AABA form the problem I am having is with the second A. Could it be that BinaB is transposing it up a half tone? How can I turn this off? I like how BinaB changes feeling on choruses but I find that particular change annoying.

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To be sure to well understand, are saying that your second A section begins with following chords :/Eb-7 Ab7/Eb-7 Ab7/F-7 Bb7/F-7 Bb7/ ? So in this case, you got a transposed A section. Go to the menu Edit/Transpose/Transpose From...To... and then fill with appropriate data.
Unless you are talking about the key signature ? Pls confirm.


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I would look at your settings under:

"Opt, Preferences, Transpose" and see if the setting for:

"Each Chorus that a song is playing, transpose by nn Semitones". There is an option there for random # semitones as well. If that is set to "2", then a song in C would play the next time through in D.

Just a thought.


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To John Luke: In the Hal Leonard Real Book the A part is |Dm7 G7|Dm7 G7|Em7 A7|Em7 A7|Am7 D7|Abm7 Db7|Cmaj7 Dm7|Em7 A7|. The Dm7 G7 is a II,V in C. The Em7 A7 is a II, V in D, Am7 D7 is a II,V in G, Abm7 Db7 is a II,V in Gb. The first time through A it follows the chords. The second time it goes through it seems to stay with the C chord.

To Jford: All the opt pref transpose are 0 or off.

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I'm still not able to well understand what you got. But anyway, you say you have a structure AABA. Are you in unfold mode, that is have you only one big 'chorus' of 32 bars? In the main page of BIAB, bar beginning of chorus should be set to 1, bar for end of chorus should be set to 32, and number of choruses set to 1. Did you copy your second A section from the first A section ? As I previouly said, in Satin Doll, you have temporary modulations, but globally the key signature of the song will stay in C. The display of the key signature don't reflect the actual key signature of some bars of the song. So, when BIAB plays /E-7 A7/ the display of the key signature will not move to D.
As far I understand, when you play the second A section - with the same chords as the first section, you just get a C chord for the 8 bars, is that correct ?


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Hi bluestraveler,

It's pretty rare but every once in a while, it seems to me BIAB does something strange with one of my songs.

When this happens, my first move is to "Return to factory settings" under the Opt menu, exit BIAB, restart BIAB and test the file. If that doesn't work, I sometimes I play around with the file to see if I can work out if the problem was one that I created or not. Most times, though, I've found it easier to simply start a whole new song file and type in the chords. I always choose "New" from the File menu so that I start with a brand new, blank template.

Regards,
Noel


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There is NO key change. The Em7 A7 in bars 3 and 4 (in the key of C), should be thought of as IIIm7 VI7. I repeat, NO key change. Later, Ray


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I found the problem. I used a 1st and 2nd ending repeat to do the first two A parts. The first A I entered the chords. The second A I only entered the second ending. When I deleted all the repeats there were no chords in bars 9-14 so I was stuck on the last chord (A7) of bar 8 for bars 9-14. I copied and pasted bars 1-6 into bars 9-14 and THEN executed the first and second endings function. It worked!

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As I stated it in my previous post, there was no reason to make you song with a complex structure with 1st/2nd ending like you did. As general rule, in order to get the most from your BIAB software, my advice should be to begin with some basic songs in order to well understand how it works, and then you will be able to grow in power.


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