PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Beginners Forum BIAB For Beginners Forum??--Plus a Sample Lesson

Fellow BIABers,

I am seeing a lot of questions about using Band in a Box if you are a beginner being asked over and over, and I wonder if there could be or should be a forum (Like OFF TOPIC) dedicated solely to Band in a Box for Beginners--instead of developing a "Band in a Box Lite" program.

Coming from a musical background some stuff seems intuitive to me, but I can see how it might be nerve-racking for people with no musical training.

I do think that some of the tutorial videos move a little fast, and the mouse disappears from the screen before you can figure out what just happened. They just need to be SLOWED DOWN a bit in the future, for beginners. The content is still good.

In response to a question on another thread, I will take another stab. This is the kind of thing I am talking about.

Question: "Suppose Someone Wants to Learn How to Play Amazing Grace."

Ok:

1. Realize that Midi is your friend. Go to the web and google Amazing Grace midi. A site with a good reputation is this, though everyone should use their own anti-virus protection when downloading anything.

https://www.8notes.com

One added note: the reason why Band in a Box doesn't give out BIAB files with melodies is because of something called copyright. But, if you want the midi melody of most songs, there is a safe midi site out there where you can find one for "educational" purposes. Just use something like Norton, and make sure it is a safe site and that the file is being scanned during download.

2. Search for Amazing Grace on the safe midi site, download Amazing Grace midi and open up in Band in a Box.*


*In Band and a Box Choose File open and open the Midi File. Make sure "files of type" is set to midi or "all types."

(I have attached screenshots of styles to reference what I am saying.)


3. You will notice BIAB has already figured out the chords when it loads. If it is a professional midi (done by someone who knows how to play), most of these chords will be right most of the time.

4. Go to style picker, and open it. In the box that opens, you will see "enter the name of a song" in upper right corner. Enter Amazing Grace.

5. You will see several choices listed--and if you pick one of the choices, hit ok and look closely, you will see they are in waltz time. You just learned something important. Amazing Grace is in 3/4 so any waltz will work.

6. Look at the Style picker filter on the left. Look at the drop downs. Fiddle with them. For instance, keep the signature drop down on 3/4 but set the other filters to "all categories" by making sure the settings are set like the settings in the screen shot below. In other words, setting "Feel" to just "feel" will bring in all "feels." But look at the other drop downs to see how they work.

7. Choose of these styles and hit render.

8. If you have opened a midi file, the midi will play in the melody track. If you click on the "Notation" button you can choose any of the tracks to see what is being played. This is awesome.

9. Choosing Big Piano or Guitar Icon will show you what is being played (at least for midi tracks) if you do not read music. That is also awesome.

10. If the midi track has several parts, you can open it in Real Band and the parts will be on different channels. That is also awesome.

11. Now that you see how it works, you can begin experimenting by studying song books with chords in them, typing those chords into the boxes, realizing that the default entry is on beats 1 and 3 of each measure. But know that you can get the chord to land on beats 2 or 4 in 4/4 time if you hit a comma before entering.

I am not sure how to make it more simple than that for absolute beginners.

There does have to be some investment of time. Once you pass the beginning stage, ANY kind of music is extremely nerve-racking and tedious in the best of circumstances, as you try and get better. As a matter if fact, the better you get, the more tedious it gets. That's the way music is.

The reason for the "Beginner's Thread" might be that all lessons could be found in a single place. And there are hundreds of people out there who LOVE to take the time to show other people how things work, so why not use their experience all in one place?

For example, Forum Member "Pipeline" is always on call, it seems, to answer any and all technical questions and I have learned a lot from him and hundreds of others.

Hope this makes sense.

I guess I am saying it might make sense to have an entire Forum thread dedicated only to the Basics of Band in a Box instead of talking about making "Band in a Box Lite."

With just a little time--like a few weeks--you will see it is not that hard and you will have outgrown any kind of "Band in a Box Lite." It's "lite" enough already. I can't see how they could make it easier.

Just my opinion.