First off the title, Be The Fish came from my buddy getting skunked on a fishing trip and another friend saying "Be The Fish", which is a take off of the Caddy Shack phrase spoken by Chevy Chase, "Be the Ball".
So my songwriting path can go in various directions and have various starts. This one started on the guitar and I recorded a guitar duet. Then I found this great BIAB jazz waltz groove that fit like a glove and made another recording. And years later and most recently I made a third recording with my sometimes collaborator Keith Forrest.
I'd suggest listening to all three videos to hear the tunes evolution and how BIAB played a part. If you want to save time, just listen to a small piece of the first two videos and then the last video.
And the educational value of BIAB, I often will learn bits and pieces from the real tracks on my own instruments, especially bass guitar. I think on this one I did grab onto the RT bass groove for my own bass lines.
Guitar duet:
BIAB version: ****** Song Summary ************* Title: Be the Fish File:Be the Fish.SGU Key=A , Tempo 165, Length (m:s)=3:19 8 bar intro, 54 bar chorus, from bar 9 to bar 62. Repeat x3 choruses, tag ending, after bar 62 No Melody No Soloist track. Song is saved with Volume, Pan, Reverb, Chorus, Bank0, Style is _JWALTZP.STY (Medium Jazz Waltz w/ Piano)
RealTracks in style: ~546:Bass, Acoustic, Jazz Waltz Sw 140 RealTracks in style: ~552:Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm Jazz Waltz Sw 140 RealDrums [in style:JazzBrushesWaltz: a: Brushes b: Snare, Ride
*******************
Final collab version:
The piano RT is in this final version, EZdrummer for drums, and we played the rest (including Keith playing vibraphone patch on his keyboard).
Frank, Very cool collaboration. Final cut sounds amazing! Was interesting to see the development. Mix is ACE! Congrats to you & crew and thank you for sharing!
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to - and watching - your song journey.
Excellent tone and playing throughout.
I'd be interested to know how you record your guitar (interface?, amp sims? effects?). And if you feel like it, talk about why you dropped the nylon in favor of the tele? And why you chose to use an EZDrummer track instead of the BIAB jazz drummer?
Your videos are "simple" but VERY effective. Easy (and enjoyable) to watch. What are you using to record video? and what software to create the video?
Frank, Very cool collaboration. Final cut sounds amazing! Was interesting to see the development. Mix is ACE! Congrats to you & crew and thank you for sharing!
Misha.
Thanks Misha, I appreciate the encouragement. Cheers
Originally Posted By: Tano Music
Loved your story-line of song evolution! Really appreciated you posting the chart as well. Great work, team!!
Thanks Tano, I thought including the chart for a tune like this was a good way to mix it up, never done that before. Cheers
Originally Posted By: floyd jane
Frank,
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to - and watching - your song journey.
Excellent tone and playing throughout.
I'd be interested to know how you record your guitar (interface?, amp sims? effects?). And if you feel like it, talk about why you dropped the nylon in favor of the tele? And why you chose to use an EZDrummer track instead of the BIAB jazz drummer?
Your videos are "simple" but VERY effective. Easy (and enjoyable) to watch. What are you using to record video? and what software to create the video?
Cool stuff!
fj
Hi Floyd, thanks for the encouraging words.
The guitars were recorded with an SM57 on a Quilter Micropro amp. I really like the lightweight but powerful Quilter and I find it is a great amp for pedals. I set the gain on the Quilter to were it sounds clean with my regular picking attack but with a harder attack I hear just a little bit of gain. I have 8 pedals on my pedal board and always have the compressor on to act as a buffer, which is the first pedal in the chain. My compressor setting is medium light.
The Tele didn't have any other effects from the pedal board. I had a little bit of eq and compression added in Reaper (my DAW).
I used a King of Blues drive pedal on the Ibanez semi-hollowbody guitar. Not too much though. EQ, Compression and Delay were added in Reaper.
As an aside, I have recently been getting into the Amplitube 4 amp sim and have gotten a tone I really like for the semi-hollowbody guitar. Still working on it for the strat and tele.
I didn't give the tele vs. nylon any thought really, the tele was the guitar I happened to have near at hand at the time.
EzDrummer2 has been my go to drums for a couple years now. The BIAB drums would have been just as good for this. The BIAB grooves are a great source for drum tracks as are the EZDrummer grooves, both played by professional drummers and both not quantized (not snapped to the grid). I've acquired several drum kits and a whole bunch of midi libraries. What I like about EZDrummer is I can switch between a bunch of drum kits, and I can easily modify patterns such as muting all but the high hat for this measure, or adding a crash to the 1 of this measure, or changing the hi hat pattern to a ride pattern, etc. and there are a lot of variations within one groove to select and develop a song from. Also, I have control of volume, panning, reverb, velocity and more over each individual element of the drum kit.
I use a free video editor called VSDC. I've tried a few different ones and this one seems to run the best on my PC. The issue I've had with video editing is that my PC gets overwhelmed when I have too many videos running simultaneously. VSDC has worked the best for this and I can easily run three videos at a time, and if I go past three I can lower the resolution during the editing process and I've been able to run five at the same time. This is all very dependent on how powerful of a computer you have; video editing is the most processor intensive thing I do on my computer.
Thanks for the questions, I like to nerd out on this kind of stuff.
Nice and reminds us of Brubeck -- not Take Five but just something about the feel.
We enjoyed reading your nerd out response to floyd. It was very interesting.
We got the notion that the rhythm, lead, and bass players might have worked together before They are quite accomplished players.
Enjoyed it. Comments are based on two passes thru version 3 but will check out the others.
J&B
PS And that scat! Yes! Might be the only scat posted here since Janice's song named, well, Scat! (Might be the only song here since she and floyd did some scatting years ago.)
Our albums and singles are on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora and more. If interested search on Janice Merritt. Thanks! Our Videos
Last Chance! The Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac® Special Ends Today (May 31, 2026) at 11:59pm PDT!
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202 New RealTracks Released with Band-in-a-Box 2026!
With Band-in-a-Box® 2026, we've released 202 incredible new RealTracks (in sets 468-488) in a variety of genres—featuring your most requested styles!
Jazz, Funk & World (Sets 468-475):
Our new jazz, funk & blues RealTracks include a groovin’ collection of RealTracks and RealDrums! These include more requested “soul jazz” RealTracks featuring artists Neil Swainson (bass), Charles Treadway (organ), Brent Mason (guitar), and Wes Little (drums). There are new “smooth jazz” styles (4), which include a RealTracks first: muted trumpet, as well as slick new smooth jazz brushes options for drums. Blues lovers will be thrilled—there are more “classic acoustic blues” styles, including guitar (5), bass (4), and drums (10) with blues master Colin Linden, featuring understated and tasty background acoustic soloing, plus brushes drums and acoustic bass. There are also new electric blues RealTracks, including electric blues with PG favorite Johnny Hiland (3) and soulful electric slide guitar from Colin Linden (4). If you love funk & gospel, there are great new options this year, including gospel organ (3) from Charles Treadway, as well as new funk, tango, and rock ’n’ roll drums (3) and bass (1). And for big, bold arrangements, we have uptempo soul horns (4) featuring a three-part hip horn section with options for a full mix or stems of each individual horn — plus an accompanying rhythm section (4) of drums, bass, guitar, and electric piano!
Rock & Pop (Sets 476–482):
Our new rock & pop RealTracks bring a powerful mix of requested favorites, fresh genres, and modern chart-inspired styles! We have more of our popular “Producer Layered Acoustic Guitars (15)” featuring Band-in-a-Box favorite Brent Mason. We’ve continued our much-requested disco styles (10), and added new Celtic guitar (5) with a more basic, accessible approach than our previous Drop-D or DADGAD offerings. There are also highly requested yacht rock styles (17), inspired by the smooth, polished soft-rock sound of the late ’70s and early ’80s — laid-back grooves, silky electric pianos, warm textures, elegant harmonic movement, and pristine production aesthetics. Fans of heavier styles will love our new glam metal (13), capturing the flashy, high-energy sound of ’80s arena-ready guitar rock. We also have a set of rootsy modern-folk rock (18), with a warm, organic sound combining contemporary folk textures and driving acoustic strumming. And we’ve added lots of new modern pop styles (16) — the kinds of sounds you’re hearing on the radio today, featuring exciting new drums, synths, and cutting-edge RealTracks arrangements.
Country, & Americana (Sets 483–488):
Our new country & Americana RealTracks deliver a rich collection of acoustic, electric, and roots-inspired styles! We have new country pop (9) with legendary guitarist Brent Mason. There is also a potpourri (14) of bouzouki, guitars, banjo, and more, perfect for adding texture and character to contemporary acoustic arrangements. We’ve added funky country guitar (5) with PG favorite Brent Mason, along with classic pedal steel styles (5) featuring steel great Doug Jernigan. There are more country songwriter styles (8) that provide intimate, rootsy foundations for storytelling and modern Americana writing. Finally, we have “background soloing” acoustic guitar (12) with Brent Mason — simpler, but still very tasty acoustic lines designed to sit beautifully behind vocals or act as a subtle standalone solo part.
And, if you are looking for more, the 2026 49-PAK (for $49) includes an impressive collection of 20 bonus RealTracks, featuring exciting and inspiring additions to add to your RealTracks library. You'll get new country-rhythm guitar styles from PG Music favorites Johnny Hiland and Brent Mason, along with modern-pop grooves that capture today’s radio-ready sound! There are also new indie-folk styles with guitar, bass, 6-string bass used as a high-chording instrument, acoustic guitar, and banjo. Plus, dedicated "cymbal fills" RealDrums provide an added layer that work very well with low-key folky styles with other percussion.
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MIDI Styles Set 92: Look Ma! More MIDI 15: Latin Jazz
MIDI SuperTracks Set 46: Piano & Organ
Instrumental Studies Set 24: Groovin' Blues Soloing
Artist Performance Set 19: Songs with Vocals 9
Playable RealTracks Set 5
RealDrums Stems Set 9: Cool Brushes
SynthMaster Sounds Set 1 (with audio demos)
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20 Bonus Unreleased RealTracks and RealDrums with 20 RealStyle.
FLAC Files (lossless audio files) for the 20 Bonus Unreleased RealTracks and RealDrums
MIDI Styles Set 93: Look Ma! More MIDI 16: SynthMaster
MIDI SuperTracks Set 47: More SynthMaster
Instrumental Studies 25 - Soul Jazz Guitar Soloing
Artist Performance Set 20: Songs with Vocals 10
RealDrums Stems Set 10: Groovin' Sticks
SynthMaster Sounds & Styles Set 2 (sounds & styles with audio demos)
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but just something about the feel.
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