PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows Just give me a kick on how-to

How you doing so far? Seems like you have to do a lot of things to even get started, don't it? A lot of that is the difference between telling a computer program what to do versus telling yourself or a picking buddy. Did you have any trouble finding which button to press to select the StylePicker? It's easier with the 2014 interface but the tip ballons still help alot.

Sorry for the part 1 and part 2 stuff but I was on my tablet for part 1 and the battery was dying. I'm on my desktop now and have 2013 BIAB loaded.

I tried five styles before settling on _BOOGBRT.STY. It's a country boogie Real style with drums, bass and three guitars. I was correct in guessing the song needs a swing style; you have a 50/50 chance on that. To me if a song is "peppy" it's most likely a swing style. If multiple choices don't work, try using a style with an even feel. O the other hand if you tried multiple even styles first and none had the right feel, then try a swing style.

How am I trying all these styles? After narrowing the number of selections with the filter, I auditioned different ones in Stylepicker to narrow the list even more. Once I had five or six likely candidates I started loading each candidate into BIAB, then hit the play button. Notice that since we told BIAB the song is in E it placed an E in the first measure so I'm hearing the chord I expect to hear and can concentrate on feel and tempo. All it takes is a few measures (called bars in BIAB speech) of listening to determine if the style works or not.

So now it's time to input some chords. The first E is in measure 1 so we hit the play button and sing the song to ourselve, mentally play the song in our head or whatever it takes to keep track of where you are while BIAB is playing. At measure 3 the chord changes to A. You've most likely past the beginning of measure 3 when you realize you need to change the chord. That's ok. Press stop, use your mouse to click on the left side of measure 3, enter the letter a then press the GenPlay button. BIAB will generate the song again with the addition of the new chord.

As you progress you'll realize a few things: You don't need the song to loop three times so you can press the square with a 3 in it and change the number to 1. You need more than the default of 32 measures so press on the square with 32 on it and change that to 48.

The chorus starts at measure 17 so click on the 17 and an "a" appears beside it, press again and the "a" changes to a "b". A and b are part markers so BIAB will start selecting b variations at measure 17; for instance you may hear the drums switch from side stick and high hat to snare and cymbal rides. The next verse begins at measure 33 so you'll need to put an a part marker there.

When you get finished, you should have these chords at these measures for the first verse: 1-E, 3-A, 5-E, 7-B, 9-E, 11-A, 13-E, 14-B, 15-E, 16-E.. The double dots behind the E at measure 16 tells BIAB to play a shot. Try changing the two dots to 3 dots and see what happens. What happens with 1 dot? Dots or periods are powerful. They get used a lot.

Measure 17 has a b part marker and starts the chorus. Chords are: 17-B, 19-E, 21-B, 23-E, 25-B, 27-E, 29-F# and 31-B

Measure 32 starts second verse so there's an a part marker and the chords are: 33-E, 35-A, 37-E, 39-B, 41-E, 43-A, 45-E, 46-B, and 47-E
48-E is automatically entered as an ending.

Ta Da! Your first song and a durn good one at that!