PG Music Home Forums Please explain the song structure in Band-in-a-Box.

21. Please explain the song structure in Band-in-a-Box^®.

Band in a Box uses the Jazz convention that a "Chorus" is the whole song. This topic covers the terminology of:

1. Intro
2. Verse
3. Chorus
4. Bridge
5. Tag

You'll need to use the "Framing Controls" of Band-in-a-Box^®, where you set the chorus begin bar, the chorus end bar, and the number of choruses to repeat.

INTRO
How long an intro is, and what is included, is determined by what is in the 1st number box of the framing section of Band-in-a-Box^®. So if your first chorus starts at bar #17, you have from bar #1 to #16 (16 bars) to do what ever you want to with. You could create a standard intro, or with instruments coming on one at a time every 4 bars. You may place part markers, to go from lighter to heavier feels. You may include as many bars as you need to, but this section will only play once.

VERSE/CHORUS Section
"Chorus begins at bar #17" means that everything from bar 17 to the "Chorus ends at" bar (lets choose 48) will play or repeat as many times as you have indicated in "#choruses". In this section it is a good idea to make full use of the part markers, which will give your song a different feel, especially in the bridge.

BRIDGE
Contained within the main framing section of the song, the bridge is usually emphasized with the use of the "B" substyle. To make your song even more interesting, Band-in-a-Box^® allows you to do style changes at any bar. Experiment with two styles that are similar, and later with wildly different styles.

THE TAG
The tag can also be used similarly to the intro. You can make it as long as you like. It will fall outside of the "chorus begins at" and "chorus ends at" section, so it will only play once. It could consist of the chords for a bridge, a key change and chorus restatement, then a full ending. Note: A Tag will only be active if there is more than one chorus set to play.

THE 2 BAR ENDING
This automatic feature can be selected if you do not want to create your own ending with held bars/instruments and/or rests. It will add 2 bars, or start 2 bars early to end on the last designated bar if you choose.

Hi,

I understand and can use the Intro but can't use the other parts like tag, bridge and verse yet. I particularly would like to make the endings more interesting instead of the sudden stops I've been using. Can you give more suggestions on how I can use these parts?

Gtrmtbiker

I can only comment on the Windows version, but I believe that this will be the same on the Mac.

Select Song Settings (probably Command-N on the Mac) and then choose options from there.

Welcome, also.

I generally use the tag feature rather than the 2 or 4 bar automatic ending.
That allows a lot flexibility in "writing" the ending.
Sometimes my tag may be 20-40 bars if I want the last verse/chorus to be a bit different than which plays before. For example, I may repeat the intro before the ending.

I often use a hold on the next to last bar of the ending followed by a rest.
I like that ending a lot more than just a sudden stop.