< "my problem is I dont play an instrument." ... "I`m wondering if anyone could help me put some chords to a song I`ve written." > using BIAB?

I have a friend that's a songwriter and like you, he doesn't know music theory and can't play a note on any instrument. But he's written many songs, is a member of NSAI, Charlotte for many years and used a technique of hiring a professional demo company to perform his songs.

You can do the same using BIAB as your 'demo company' by learning the different ways BIAB can populate the Chord Chart and how to select a style that matches your song.

BIAB can play 3 different types of files:

MIDI
Audio
MIDI/Audio mixture

Chords can be entered by:

Manually writing in the chords
Importing chords from a text file
Opening a MIDI File
Import an XML file
Opening a BIAB SGU file that has the chords already entered
Using a USB connected MIDI instrument
Importing an audio file and using the Audio Chord Wizard to analyze the Chords from the audio

The first 5 in the list above are likely the most beneficial for you to focus on.

Chords can be sourced in dozens of ways. Songbooks, google, YouTube, Facebook, SGU files, MIDI Files, word of mouth, tutorials and so on.

Just for fun, let's write your first song today using BIAB and a popular chord progression you've learned here on the forum - the I,IV,V

Open a new blank project - BIAB defaults to this. It will have a default style that includes a key signature, tempo, feel, time signature and default instruments. All that's lacking is Chords and you have 3 chords in the I,IV,V progression. Millions of songs have been written for generations using this progression.

To write a song using the I,IV,V progression, you only need to hear the progression repeated over and over (like a loop playing) so let's do that using on the first 4 measures (those blocks on Chord Sheet).

Don't worry about chords - We'll let BIAB take care of that...

In the first box type the number 1 and enter
In the second box type the number 4 and enter
In the third box type the number 5 and enter

Use your mouse and click the fourth block and with the left button of mouse pushed, move the curser to the left until all four blocks are highlighted in black.

Hit the F10 button on your keyboard

BIAB wii begin playing those first four black bars and repeating them over and over.

Listening to that loop, you can write a song using the I,IV,V chord progression. you can speed it up, slow it down, play it in another key or another style. That I,IV,V chord progression is loaded and ready to go.

Last edited by Charlie Fogle; 07/23/22 04:40 AM.
BIAB 2025:RB 2025, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.