PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh overwhelmed by the software!

I've had BIAB V12 for Macintosh for a while now and I'm finally getting serious about learning the software. However, when I sit down at the computer, I'm overwhelmed by the complexity and flexibility of the program. So, any suggestions about the best way to absorb what the software has to offer? My projected usage is as follows:

I am interested in improving my jazz improvisational skills (I'm a trumpet player). A friend gave me a series of BIAB chord files that match the published RealBook jazz fake book. I'd like to play melody against the chord progressions (figured out how to do this much), and also would like to have the software generate solos (in Bb) that I can play off the computer screen to learn phrasing, get ideas, etc. If something really good develops from the generated solo I might want to print out a few bars for reference, but in general I see myself listening to a generated solo, playing along with the progression on-screen (solo audio muted, but notation still visible), then finally trying something original on my own.

I've figured out how to get a solo to play, swap it to the melody line so that I can hear it, try a few different styles, but I'm still unable to figure out how to get the solo line transposed so that its in the correct key for me to play along (Bb) while the computer is putting music out in C.

I feel like I'm stumbling around and am getting slight frustrated with my inefficiency.

Art

You've done really well to get where you are at! I suggest you go to PGMusic's video tutorial page and work your way through some of the many videos. You'll find that these make a whole lot more sense now that you can understand the product a bit better.

tutorials/demos link

thanks for the encouragement - I'll check out the link provided

Art

Yep, it is overwhelming when you consider all it will do. However, treat it like an instrument. Just because you're a guitar player doesn't mean you know every guitar lick and every song. The good thing about BIAB is that you can make some really good music without knowing all the deep details of the program. I use the basics and every now and then something comes along that forces me to learn something new. Have fun with it.

Is there a site where one can download BIAB files for jazz standards?

There are some standards in the songs module (for example the first bossa one is Night at the Carnival), but they have different names. Does anyone know what they are?

Welcome C1802362,

There are more than a few trumpet players here on the forums to help you along. A couple that come to mind are Mac, and Matt Finley. They really know this program and you can see many posts by them. I also make my living using my Trumpet and Band in a Box. I use BIAB to make my sequences for performance, as well as practice and for my students. First, you might want to get real comfortable just entering the various jazz chords. The best way to do this is to open the help menu, go to "Chord List", print that list out, and then tape it next to your computer/piano so you can reference it whenever its needed.
Next, I can't recommend enough that you learn to use the shortcut keys to enter chords, this will save you a lot of time.

To answer your question on transposition, after opening the notation window, you need to go into the options menu (Upper left hand corner next to the little 8th note.) From the "Lead Sheet Options" menu, Choose "Notation Options". Right in the middle you will see "Transpose Options". Use the pull down menu to select "Trumpet +2".

Here are a few tips about how I use BIAB for Jazz practice.

1. First, Make a folder on your Desktop called "BIAB jazz practice". All of your various jazz exercises and tunes should be available to you there, nice and fast.
2. Create a new folder in the jazz practice folder called "Scale practice". (Or "Solos", iim7-V7-IM7, or whatever your goals are.)
3. Open BIAB, choose your style, tempo, key and number of choruses. Then type in your chords, using shortcut keys wherever possible.
4. Now, listen to your song, make sure it sounds and looks correct, make corrections, name and save the file in the folder of your choice.
5. Practice your scales, or patterns at a slow tempo with lot's of repetitions. For example, If I'm going to work on my major 7 Be Bop scales, I will type my progression>Bar1 CMaj7 (CJ), Bar2 Dm7/G. then I copy those 2 bars a few times, then set the chorus to repeat 25 times after bar 8. I end up playing those scales 100 times very slow. That's on Monday, on Tuesday I open the saved file, and then transpose it to F, Wendsday is Bb, etc. There are endless variations. Make sure you experiment with different stlyes.

Now, here is where it gets good>
I find that the Soloist is one of the coolest things about BIAB. So when I want to get some good ideas going over a new set of chord changes, I will do all the above until number 4. Next, I do the following>
1. Make sure you have a 4 to 8 bar chord progression to start with.
2. After you have your progression, open the soloist and choose>Pat Martino 16th soloist. I don't know how it was put together, but the lines that come out of this soloist are AMAZING. And I can promise you a good hard harmonic workout in playing these lines.
2. Now open the Notation window (Not the Leadsheet window!)
3. Click on "S" to see the soloist (You should change the transposition and octaves in the Leadsheet options as above)
4. Listen to the solo, when you hear a lick or pattern that you like, click "LoopScn". This loops the current bars so you can hear the line over and over.
5. I then slow it down to 50, and work that line for a least an hour a day. I gradually will increase the tempo until I can play that line at tempo with no errors or hesitation. In fact, I will right click and mute the solo part to make sure I sound good. Since you saved the file, you can open it everyday at the new tempo, and then start to work on the next pattern or lick.

I have collected a ton of pattern and lick books, which I make into folders of tunes. I then play in the exercise using my midi keyboard. Depending on if I want sight reading or pattern/scale practice, I will open 1 folder a day in the Jukebox, and let er rip! It's good because I never know what's coming next. This is also great for learning/playing/transposing Tunes, I now have over 17,000 BIAB files.

Good luck, sorry for the long post, hope this helps someone, PM me if you need more info,
Ed

Excellent approach, Ed!


--Mac

I play horns Bflat, and keys, the keyboard and program is set to (in the practice window), transpose to Bflat. In order to get a good key to play in I often use keys so the song ends up in C, D E flat, F, G, or Aflat. But I can play in any key unless we are talking 6 flats or sharps. The program can make you much better on the horn, keep transposing up....build the chops.. I started the horn (baritone and trombone) at 52, and am going stronger all the time....

How do you save the tune with the solo and sty intact? I tried the Save+, but it lost the solo. Pretty annoying when you're trying to practice something over and over again!

If the Solo is a MIDI instrument, try using the "Save with Patches and Harmony" command under the file menu.

RealTracks are another story, though. Until the Mac version gets its own Audio track, I'm afraid the only choice is to Render the entire song to AIFF or compressed mp file or put up with the Solo regenerating when you load the song.


--Mac