PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows deconstructing the demo songs, how to?

That's the spirit, kenjazz.

Over the years, I have found out that Band in a Box is like learning a completely new and different "instrument" in and of itself, and the same sort of problems arise that one would encounter if they were to try adding a new and different musical instrument to their arsenal. Imagine the things that a consummate reed instrument player would have to contend with when picking up, say, a guitar and attempting to make music with it.

In one aspect, the reed player would be ahead of the game, in the sense that things such as notation, counting, rhythmic figures, etc. would be things that are already developed.

But on the other hand, the kind of things that would be necessary to master about playing the completely different instrument are going to take some time and repetition, study and understanding before that new instrument becomes a dependable asset.

There is a forum regular around here for many years who recently passed away who said it best: If Band in a Box could be mastered in a day or two, the program wouldn't be worth the purchase price. (I'm paraphrasing here, the late John C. had his own wonderful usage of the English language in these forums, but that is the gist of it.)

When I first had an early copy of Band in a Box, way back when pgmusic had not even added Audio to the thing, a MIDI-only auto-accompaniment program, I did not really use the program very much if at all. Tried it out, didn't get results that were good sounding enough and left it to languish. It was not until some time later, maybe more than a year, that I decided to sit down with the program and try to really make it work for me, entering the chords to a particular song that I needed to woodshed. That began the true learning curve for me, as I got enough of what I needed out of the program at that time to have an auto-accompaniment in order to streamline the practicing of the particulars, to include working out the improvisation of solos.

I then started trying to make that happen for other tunes and along the way learned quite a bit as to the methods, features, tips and tricks needed in order to become a seasoned PGMusic practitioner. And, the learning never ends, it seems, as PGMusic manages to come up with so many New Features to add to this wonderful music tool, every year. Sometimes every half year.

Take your time, work with it, play with it, don't let the frustration of self-imposed "deadlines" get in the way.

Sometimes putting the thing to bed for awhile and coming back to it makes all the difference in the world.

And, as I found out many years ago here, this forum is a dynamite place to share the experience, making the learning of this New Instrument much more fun than trying to scope it out on my own. I hope you find out the same.

The most important aspect, IMO, is Peter Gannon's own motto:

"Have Fun,"

Having FUN with Band in a Box is likely the best path to getting past initial learning curves, moving into "user" status and continuing on to "superuser" status IMO.

And after working out and having fun with this marvelous program for a bit, you will likely enjoy the looks on the faces of the *other* cats you've been playing live with when they hear the differences in your playing and soloing from the bandstand.


--Mac