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I am using Band in a Box 2013 to help me with my sight reading skills. I can't say enough about how helpful it is in that regard. I used the Melodist and it generates piece after piece of music I haven't read before. Very helpful. I am getting good quick at reading single lines with my right hand.

But I need to do more than just read the melody. I need to learn to play what the piano track normally plays. Problem is, I'm still at a beginner to intermediate level where playing both hands with chords etc is concerned. I've read over and over that the best way to develop good sight reading skills is to be sure you're reading at a level that's appropriate for your skill set. The Melodist produces left and right hand piano at a level that is just a bit more than I am ready for, though perhaps there's something I'm missing that will allow me to get it to produce things that are simpler. If so, perhaps someone could tell me how.

If that is not an option, I thought someone on this site might be able to point me to a MIDI site that has piano or keyboard music on it at defined levels, like beginner or intermediate. I thought perhaps I could bring some of that music into BB and learn to play and follow along that way.

Any ideas or suggestions appreciated.

Hi WAS,

PGMusic sells some great software learning aids.

I recommend the Blues Pianist, the Master Piano Class, the Modern Jazz Pianist, The Oscar Peterson Multimedia CD and there are others as well.

These interactive programs are like having private teachers at your beck and call 24/7 -- and the ability to repeat any lesson on an as-needed basis.

No kidding, for the entry price you can't get a live teacher and these programs are in many ways actually better than a live teacher in that you can proceed at your own pace, whether fast or slow, they do indeed teach the things that are needed to know in order to become a good all around improvisational style pianist and all of them start out with the slow and easy and accessible, gradually increasing in depth until you are dealing with university level situation.

I recommend the Blues Pianist as the perfect starting point. Starts with rather simple and easy LH boogie patterns. The Blues should be the underlying basis for any and all improvisational piano styles IMO.

The softwares can be viewed at the hotlink below:

http://www.pgmusic.com/products.win.htm


--Mac

Something you might try is the "Simplify" option. I can't tell you where it is at the moment, so check Help. It is primarily meant to generate less complex chords than a full-on jazz arrangement. Try it and see how it works for you.

HTH,

Richard

You're so right, BIAB is a great learning tool. I love to play along with the different styles.

What I might suggest is slowing down whatever music it is you're playing. This is what I do when learning new music, I play with a metronome and work on small sections at a real slow pace.

Do continue to have fun; BIAB is new to me and I'm discovering every day new features.

Along with slowing down the Tempo, we can also highlight any nunber of successive bars and use the Loop Play command to have them repeat over and over automatically while we try to match what's being played.

Super practice aid.

Check out the dedicated, "Practice" window, accessed using the Practice toolbar icon, too. There you can set up things to automatically start at some designated slow tempo and gradually increase tempo with each repeat. Great way to woodshed on each particular section of something.

--Mac

@Mac

>Super Practice Aid.

Absolutely the best I am aware of. I have tried for the longest time to improve my sight reading skills, but to little avail. However, I think I have learned more internally in the last few days than perhaps in the last few years. For reasons I don't know if I can explain, the light has just sort of come on and it has become like the best "Angry Birds" game ever.

I've heard it said over and over again, "you learn to sight-read by sight-reading." And I would add, "everything you can, at or a little below your normal ability." This aids tremendously in not allowing you to unintentionally memorize. Having something that provides endless new material is just wonderful; and I have found some styles that lend themselves to my particular abilities, both for the melody and the chords.

When you talk about highlighting a number of bars, I suppose you mean in the main window and then switching to the Notation Window... Right? Which do most use more for sight reading practice, the Notation Window or the Lead sheet window?

So far, I have really only worked with the Melodist. I have yet to really understand what all the practice window offers. I look forward to it.

Thank you (and others) for your input. I think the darn thing is going to teach me how to become at least a reasonable sight-reader, in a reasonable amount of time. I can see it's just a matter of enjoyable practice.

Last question first, I usually use Sheet Musics for sight reading practice. But I learned way back when Band in a Box - and the home computer, for that matter - was not yet a gleam in a certain dentist's eye. Certainly Band in a Box can be used for the purpose. A some point, turn off the note highlighting, though, as the sheet music encountered out there in the real world is not going to be able to provide that crutch.

Here is perhaps the biggest single thing that I learned about sightreading;

*The study of Music Theory, Scales, starting with the Major Scales, and how the chords are derived from the scales, how the extensions of chords are the numbers from those scales, was the single most important aspect I found to make a monster sightreader possible.

Sure, that takes a bit of time. More time for some than for others, perhaps, but making a concerted and dedicated effort to understand these things is what makes it possible to scan sheet music while playing it at the same time and quickly understand what it is trying to convey to us.

Practicing Cadences, where we want to teach the hands to "grab" the certain right notes for a certain chord. Eventually, seeing a note stack will not be something that has to be deciphered one note at a time, but becomes a "macro" kind of thing to you. The "shape" of an E Major chord on the staff kind of thing. You see the root. Its an E. You see the notes between the highest note and the root. They are B's and G#'s. One day, with the daily regimen of practice, reading, and perhaps most importantly, THINKING about the triads around the circle, naming the notes for each, then adding extensions to that, starting likely with the dominant 7th, but keep going until you have all extensions out to the 13th, yo may come to the realization that you are no longer one of those players who must plod through a sheet, identifying single notes at a time and then trying to play them. Instead, you are more like an *analyst* who, having been there and done that, seen "everything" (well, just about) and done it, the magical abilities of the sight reader come to the fore.

Get your hands on the various old and good scale books and learn the right fingerings for playing the two octave scales in all 12 keys. It must become drilled in habit to automatically know the fingerings for such. This allows us to not have to peer at fingering numbers as well as notes on the sheet, of course, but it has so many other benefits as well. Schmidtt, Czerny, at least should be two of the books. There is nothing worse than hittin' a planned run and finding out that you've crossfingered and suddenly have run out of fingers before what you have to say has been said. This practice, too, should be done while starin' at the notes, because at some point the brain will kick in and you will be surprised at the ability to take in several bars of never before seen music, realize it ain't nothin' but a Bb scale and, since you've already practiced the special fingering for the Bb Major scale, the only real two things of interest will become the first note, and the last note. All the rest in between are now part of that 'macro' thing.

TIP: Find the common church hymnals. Play the hymns as written as part of the practice drills. Here we find Standardized harmony, rather easy pieces to melodies that many of us have at least heard before if not also sung or performed, and the skillset is readily transferable to other genres. Also, different church denominations will often have the same hymns as others, but arranged in other keys and with differing arrangements, so collecting a few hymnals for your arsenal is advised. Thrift shops, used bookstores, garage sales, etc. are great places to find not only hymnals but music books, sheet musics, and the like without breaking the bank. Also, if you happen to be involved with a church music group, don't be afraid to ask the music director, choir leader or pastor if they would allow you to take a hymnal home for the purpose of practicing.


--Mac

Again, thank you for your input.

For me it's been a kind of hand-eye coordination thing. I don't mean to make myself out to be anybody at all. I'm not, but it might help to mention that I'm not entirely without musical instincts. I am now 66, but I wrote for a major publishing company in Nashville at age 19 and recorded a couple of times at Columbia Studios at about the same age - all with guitar - all with instinct. I took music theory classes for a couple of years, and know and understand my theory reasonably well. But I can't slap my butte with both hands - easily - when it comes to sight-reading.

I think this is because I have depended on my ear for so long I just don't trust black dots on a page. I am having to completely unlearn that. I'm experiencing an epiphany. "If you look at them long enough, those little dots tell you where to put your fingers." <grin>

With an understanding of theory it does help to see quickly, for example, this is just another triad with an added 2nd (ninth). But still, something is and always has been missing for me where sight-reading is concerned. I think what is missing is just the constant "drill" of figuring things out in real-time quickly. This is why I like reading a constant flow of new material.

Your point about Hymnals is a good one. I have plenty, but when I play them they all sound bad. (The problem is me, not the hymn) And because they sound bad, all the time, the playing of them becomes boring in the extreme. For reasons unidentified, having, as it were, a musical group, playing behind me just makes it fun; especially when I can speed up or slow down or go back over this or that section indefinitely.

News Flash!
I have just discovered a web site with lots of hymns in MIDI format. I will experiment with bringing them into BB and see where that leads me.

Best Regards

Woody

@Mac

I have a MIDI file (Hymn) that can be brought into Band in Box, but the problem has to do with the split point. I am starting a new thread called "Importing MIDI and split point".

If you are willing to contribute to that discussion it will be appreciated.

Done.


--Mac

@Mac

Is there a way to bring in a Hymn (either as MIDI or MP3) and have BB easily embellish it?