PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows F# or Gb

I play alto and tenor. When I play in E (guitar players fav key), I think of it as F# or C#. But BB makes it Gb and Db, fair enough I suppose, but how do I make it F# or C#?

The weirdest thing is that when I am looking at Gb Blues, the IV chord is B not Cb. Go figure???

Thanks

dgr

Are we talking chords or note pitches? The answer is different depending. I think you mean chords, but please confirm.

Chords.

OK. First, although notes of Cb, B#, Fb and E# are currently supported in BIAB, chords of those names are not, so you are not going to be able to get that Cb chord no matter what.

As for the chord spellings, that can sometimes be accomplished by working with the key signature in BIAB. In the example given, did you first make the key signature of the song E before entering the song?

Regardless, you can also try this: change the key signature to something with flats, like Eb, but say No when it asks if you want to transpose. Then change it again to E and again say No to transpose. Often, the chords will 'flip' to the more appropriate enharmonic spelling. [However, in my experience, this method is not foolproof.]

Check out this recent thread on the same subject, you may find some answers there:

http://www.pgmusic.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=328375&an=0&page=1#Post328375


--Mac

Hi DGR,

I am a fellow saxophone player, so I understand what you are experiencing with the way Band in a Box transposes notation -- You can change all the notes and chords you want in the concert key version, but when you view the notation for an Eb or Bb instrument the changes you made have no effect.

For the benefit of others reading this post, let me start off by describing how we would see the situation you are describing.
1. You want to learn a new song in E, so you type in the chords, say E, A, B, E.
2. You want to play along with the new song on alto sax, so you click the "P" icon on the toolbar and click "Eb Alto". The chords now display as Db, Gb, Ab, Db. This makes sense, but you were hoping you could display them as C#, F#, G#, C#.
3. You want to play along on tenor sax, so now you click the "P" icon and click "Bb Tenor". Now the chords display as Gb, B, Db, Gb. This progression does not make sense, and you want it to be displayed as F#, B, C#, F#.

So, now to answer your question "how do I make it F# or C#?".

You have to trick it. You need to know that the transpose notation feature will only give you up to 5 sharps -- the key signature of B. After that, it switches to flats.

So, If you want the chords to dispay as if in F# or C# for the tenor, change the key to A, and say "NO" to the transpose worksheet question. That gives you the key signature of 5 sharps, which is the maximum that the notation transposition will give you.

And, If you want the chords to dispay as if in F# or C# for the alto, change the key to D, and say "NO" to the transpose question. Once again, that gives you the key signature of 5 sharps, which is the maximum that the notation transposition will give you.

Now you have to be careful not to be tricked yourself because the key you entered is not the actual key of the piece! It is just a work-around, but it's the best you can do.



Back in April, I have did a thorough analysis of how the transpose functions work. I posted some of my findings here:

Chord Entry Nuisance
http://www.pgmusic.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=UBB1&Number=312611

And, based on my findings I posted my requests for improvements here:

Transposition improvement suggestions
http://www.pgmusic.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=UBB11&Number=313456

Good luck,
Jim

First class work, Jim. So 5 sharps is the limit, and F# (6) and C# (7) are never going to happen. I want to sit down with your post and do more experiments.

Well, that five sharp limit is kind of like a jazz sheet convention of sorts, back when I was young and being taught arranging and the like, they used to beat it into our heads that we should try to make our charts as easy to read as possible for all instruments and to that old school way of thinking, less accidentals in the key sig was an easier read.

Maybe a Wishlist Item here, asking for yet another Prefs toggle or better, perhaps, another Song Setting that would override that if desired.


--Mac