PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows Entering chords.

This is from the help manual: Computer Keyboard Entry

The most common way of entering the chords for a song in Band-in-a-Box is by typing them in from the computer keyboard. Up to 4 chords per bar may be entered.

Chords are commonly typed-in using standard chord symbols (like C or Fm7 or Bb7 or Bb13#9/E), but you can enter them in any of the supported chord symbol display formats - Roman Numerals, Nashville Notation, Solfeggio, and Fixed Do.

Tip: To view a list of chords recognized by Band-in-a-Box, refer to the Chord List topic.

To start typing in chords:

- Go to the top (Bar 1) of the Chord Sheet. The Home key will go directly there.

- Blank the Chord Sheet (if necessary) by clicking on the [New] button.

image\39_1.gif This is the chord highlight cell.

Chords will be entered wherever this is placed. You may move this around by cursor arrow keys, the Enter key, or a mouse pointer click.

The chord highlight bar moves 2 beats at a time (½ a bar). When you have the chord highlight cell over the area that you want to enter a chord, you simply type the name of the chord you would like to see there.

For example, type c6 to get the C6 chord. Note that you should never have to use the Shift key, as Band-in-a-Box will sort this out for you.

- Use b for a flat, e.g. Ab7.

- Use 3 for a sharp #, e.g. for F#7 type f37.

- Use / for slash chords with alternate roots, e.g. C7/E (C7 w/E bass). A chord like Gm7b5/Db will display correctly using a Db instead of a Gm7b5/C#, since Band-in-a-Box bases it on a Gm scale.

- Use a comma to separate the ½ bar, enabling you to enter 2 chords in a cell. In the example below, we would type Ab9,G9 to get the 2 chords in the cell on beat 3 and 4 of bar 2.

image\39_2.gif

The sequence of keystrokes to enter all these chords above would be:

HOME c6>am7>dm7>ab9,g9>c6/e>>a739

Note: We're able to type A7#9 as "a739" because Band-in-a-Box knows to use the uppercase of the 3, which is #. The > indicates a carriage return, or the Enter key.

Tricky Chords:

C5b : This is "C flat 5." It is spelled this way to avoid confusion.

C2, C5, C4, C69, C7alt, Cm7#5

Shortcut Chords:

If you enter a lot of songs, you'll appreciate these shortcut keys.

J = Maj7

H = m7b5 (H stands for Half diminished)

D = dim

S = 7sus

Example: To type CMaj7, just type cj (it will be entered as CMaj7).

You can also type in Rests and Pushes when you are typing chords, or you can assign them in the Chord Options dialog by right-clicking on any chord symbol and choosing Chord Settings from the menu.

Chords can also be typed in from the Notation Window.

image\39_3.gif

A setting in the Display Options (Options | Preferences | [Display]) for "11th chords" allows display of ‘9sus’ chords as ‘11’ (e.g., Bb11 instead of Bb9sus). This only affects how the chord is displayed, not how it is stored, and you can type either C11 or C9sus to enter the same chord.

image\39_4.gif

The "Display ‘2’ as ‘sus2’" and "Display ‘sus’ as ‘sus4’" settings in the Display Options dialog will show suspended chords more explicitly: ‘sus’ implies ‘sus4,’ and ‘2’ implies ‘sus2,’ but you might want to see the full extension name.

Right-click on a chord, and a menu allows you to make edits to the chords and other song settings.

image\39_5.gif

You can cut, copy, and paste chords in the Chord Sheet. Use the Chord Builder to try different types of chords, or play the current chord to hear how it sounds.

Chord Settings include pushes, rests, shots, holds, and pedal bass.

Use the Bar Settings to make changes at a given bar, and Song Settings to make overall settings for the song.

Bar-based section letters lets you add a section letter which will display just above the bar number on the Chord Sheet.

Enter Chords from MIDI Keyboard

You can also enter chords from an external MIDI keyboard using the Window | MIDI Chord Detection… feature. Play the chord on the keyboard, then press Ctrl+Enter to insert the chord into the Chord Sheet on the first beat of the current chord cell, i.e., beat 1 or beat 3 of the bar. Use Ctrl+Shift+Enter to insert the chord on the next beat, i.e., beat 2 or beat 4 of the bar

Import Chords from a Band-in-a-Box Song

Easily import part or all of an existing Band-in-a-Box song to your current song, with options to specify source and destination range, type of information to import (chords, melody, lyrics, etc.) and more. Choose File | Import MGU Song. In the dialog, choose the range that you want to import (Import from Bar and # of bars), and the destination bar (Import to Bar). You can also choose which information to import, and the insert mode (Insert/Overwrite).

Import Chords from an Audio File (Audio Chord Wizard)

This feature analyzes a WAV, WMA, MP3, WMV, or CDA audio file and imports it to Band-in-a-Box. It works out the tempo, bar lines, and chord changes so you can easily make your favorite files into Band-in-a-Box songs