Hi Dev

I don't know a lot about Band In A Box. I do have some understanding of music and can play guitar a little.

Here is some simple stuff you can do. Each one of those little rectangles you see in BIAB represents one measure.

Confine your first experiences to only four measures. Type in C,G,F,C in those first four little rectangles. It really does not matter if you understand why I would ask you to use those chords or even what a chord is. The fact that it is a 1,4,5 does not matter. The fact that it is in the key of C does not matter.

Play that little what we call a "chord progression" out with different styles and go figure out how to loop it so you can really listen to it play over and over. Figure out how to change the speed, which we call tempo.

Those are very easy to learn things to do in BIAB. This will teach you a couple of things. One, how to do some simple stuff with BIAB and what different styles actually sound like, and two what one of the most common "chord progressions" in music really sounds like. It will train both your mind and your ear.

After you do that for a bit I would be glad to help you get to the next step in figuring out a little more about how to build a simple song in BIAB.

It is best to confine your style choice to the sort of music you like to listen to in the beginning.

You can make songs using only a computer and BIAB software. It is done every day. That may in the future lead you to other adventures in music like learning to play something.

Best of luck with your learning and be assured there are a lot of nice folks here who will be glad to help you on your way.

One of the issues you will run into is that there are a zillion choices of things to do with BIAB. Best to limit things in the very beginning.

Billy

EDIT: I went back and read all your posts again. You may or may not ever find the exact "feel" in BIAB you hear in your head. At least you have some better ideas on how to look for it. It is very unlikely anyone using only BIAB can write a song and have BIAB play out exactly what they hear in their head. It is much less frustrating in the beginning to make your ideas conform to BIAB that trying to force BIAB to conform to your ideas.

You can without too much effort generate music with BIAB. Like any tool it has limitations. It also takes time to learn to use.

Last edited by Planobilly; 07/21/22 04:19 PM.
“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig?
“Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”