Well, it could (and should) be made automatic - maybe this is one for the suggestion box. Here's a couple of scenarios:

1. You're writing a song from scratch, or transcribing one from a fakebook, that has already been folded up (curious term) with repeats. You type in the chords for the first 8-bar section, then put in a simple repeat. BB would detect that the bars after the repeat are different, and generate the bars in the repeated section. In fact, if you tell it to repeat a section 'x' number of times, BB would generate that section of bars 'x' times.

2. You are writing a song, or are dealing with a song in which all repeats have been unfolded. You have a 16-bar section which consists of two identical 8-bar phrases. You then put in a repeat at the 8th bar. BB would detect that the bars after the repeated bar are exactly the same as the repeated section, and NOT generate the bars. Automatically.

3. The two 8-bar phrases you're entering are identical, except that the last bar of the second 8 bars is different (to modulate to the bridge or something). BB would detect this and instead of a simple repeat, it generates a 1st & 2nd ending repeat, automatically generating the bars.

Eventually, BB could become quite sophisticated in this automatic detection of song form and generation of logical repeats, D.S., Coda, etc.. in cases where there's more than one system of repeats that might work, BB could present a pop-up menu of choices, and you could select the folded-up version of the song which makes the most sense to you.

BB is a great program - and I feel it could be made even greater by enhancements to the programming, making it conform more to the way musicians use music, not the way a computer deals with it.

--Doug

Last edited by protostar; 04/29/10 02:05 PM.
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