I‘ve already made a couple of suggestions for the next BiaB version(s), but those were either about bugs or smaller things with regard to ergonomics and the like, or they were mainly meant to beware other new users from specific issues. – But for sure, I also have some bigger wishes for myself (which nevertheless will most probably be interesting for other users, too). Among those, I’ve picked the one that I find most urgent at the current state of the software; My personal No. 1 wish for BiaB 2022 or – probably more realistic – for BiaB 2023:

A tool that only generates very simple chords.

Such a tool is very useful for beginners, and sometimes it can even be useful for specific purposes of advanced musicians. Depending on how much both user groups shall feel addressed by this tool, it can be named either something like „E-Z Chords Generator“ or something like „Basic Triad Chords Generator“.

I’m not a total beginner in Music, but I’m a beginner at the piano. I think that this is quite a good constellation for demanding beginner tools. Total beginners in music usually are not yet able to separate or express what exactly they would need most urgently in order to have better learning conditions, and advanced musicians have often already lost the sensibility for beginner’s issues.

The general purpose of the hereby suggested tool is to fill an empty leadsheet with chords (or to replace all chords of an existing leadsheet)
  • that are first of all as simple as any possible from the perspective of beginners at music or just at a specific instrument (only picked from the 7 basic diatonic triads, in case of a minor key only using the natural minor scale, with a user-defined range of chord-density from which the software can choose, and with the option to exclude e.g. diminished chords or even also minor chords or to even practice only a specific chord type as kind of a drill training) – easy understandable and easy playable
  • but also in a way that is as simple as possible from the perspective of beginners at BiaB
  • And also I’ve tried to make it as simple as possible from the programmer’s perspective (not too many interdependent options, fitting in a strictly modular song-creation approach but also to a certain degree usable as standalone-tool)

Also, I’ve tried to keep in mind, that it should be at least possible
  • to take the tool as a basis later for another version of the tool with options for more sophisticated musicians (or to add a button later which would enhance that tool or which would lead to a „More Options“-Window)
  • to design further tools later which can still modify the results of this tool (e.g. in order to: post-enhance chord density, also include harmonic minor, add sus2 chords, add 7ths at about x% of the chords / jazz-up, add dominant 7ths wherever reasonable, and/or the like)
for the case that these things might be desired some years later.

Well, and here’s a sketch of that tool (I’ll add a couple of more detailed explanations right with the next posting of this thread):

Attached Files (Click to download or enlarge) (Only available when you are logged in)
E-Z Chords Generator.PNG (39.39 KB, 137 downloads)
Last edited by MoveToGroove; 10/07/21 02:06 PM.
BiaB UltraPak+ 2026; Windows 10
Bass: Intermediate; Piano: Beginner
I came to this forum in order to suggest feature improvements for non-professional musicians like myself that use BiaB mainly as a playalong tool and as a learning tool