Hope I explain this correctly. BIAB allows 4 beats to the line which corresponds to one line of a song. Sometimes I find a song which has a 5th beat at the end of a chorus before it goes into the second verse. It is sort of a little vocal pause between sections of the song. How do I handle this outside of using a 4 beat instrumental break to separate the sections? Does this thing have a name in music? Thanks Bill
That 5th beat sounds like it might be a pick-up note and not really a 5th beat. It's also possible that it could be a pause (also called a fermata) where one holds the note longer than written.
Can you give me the name of the song you mean and I'll have a listen on Youtube to see if I can isolate the issue.
Welcome to the forum and to Band-in-a-Box. One way to add a pause is to use the tempo settings available at any bar by pressing the F5 key on your computer keyboard.
I've had more success using the "% Change in Tempo" setting than the "Tempo Change To " setting but everybody works differently. I'll start with a change like change the tempo by -5% first (- is slower), regenerate then back up a few bars, hit play and listen. If it doesn't work then change the percentage to -10% and try again.
I should point out when you make a tempo change that is the new tempo until you use the F5 setting again to negate the new tempo. So if you change the tempo by -20% the tempo stays 20% slower until you use F5 and enter a 20.
Here is the song. I have run across it before but I cant find them offhand. California Earthquake by the Seldom Scene. First verse is 4 lines. The 4th line has beats on rum, dis, way, and drea and then another beat before starting on the chorus for beat 1 on Sher. I happens at the end of the second verse with the 4th beat on gain and then the 5th beat before starting the next chorus with the 1st beat on came.
1. To my ears, the song is written with a slow 6/8 feel.
2. While this could also be interpreted as 12/8, the 6/8 lilt stands out for me.
3. An interesting phenomenon with both 6/8 and 12/8 times is that it's also possible to hear them as either 3/4 or 4/4 depending on how the ear hears the rhythm pattern of the strong and weak beats. What identifies the 6/8 is the Sww Mww pattern of beats. (S = strong, w = weak, M = medium)
4. From what you've written, you're hearing the song in 4/4. That is, your ear has focused on the strong and medium strength beats. When I do this, what you describe as an 'extra beat' before the chorus, is actually an extra two beats. (What feels like two beats is actually a single bar of 6/8.)
5. To set this up in BIAB, simply insert a bar before the chorus.... press F5 to enter bar settings.... and set the number of beats for the inserted bar to "2" -- see the image below.
6. After performing step 5, it's necessary to set the bar that follows the 2-beat bar to 4 beats. So, for example, if you've set bar 8 as the 2-beat bar, click on bar 9.... press F5 again to enter bar settings.... set bar 9 to 4 beats.
Thanks Noel96 for your time. Your explanation is a bit above my musical knowledge, but I will listen to the video again and try your instructions in BIAB to see how it works out. I guess I have always looked at things in 4/4 time and in the vast majority of times it works out. Guess I am going to learn something new! Bill
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