I will tackle some of your questions...

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1. Melodist 127-255-- there are no notes about any of these. I have no idea what genres they fit in... are all of these simply Jazz swing (Jazz)? They only show up in that sub-category.


These are just undefined (empty) Melodist slots.

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2. Are there any Melodists that work best with pop styles? 1-5-6-4 chord progressions, with the V chord at the end of a part? Nothing crazy, no weird 2-5-1's... but standard pop? I have such trouble finding Melodist styles that are more simplified / poppy.. in a word, "cliche" or boring. It helps, with students learning basic pop structures, instead of 6th chords, dominant 9ths, etc.


Try the "Light Rock 8ths" category, which use the MELPOP8.st2 database, or "Rock 8ths (Pop)" (MELROK1.ST2), or "EZ Listening (Pop)" (MELEZ.st2). You're right, even with the simplest settings it does try to be interesting. You won't get it to create a song that is mostly a repeated I vi IV V. If you want that, you should just type it out. If you then want a melody you could use the Melodist with "Generate chords" unchecked. It is a good feature suggestion to restrict certain chord types.

Also the "Edit menu | Chords | Jazz down" might be useful - this doesn't change the chord progression, but makes the chords less complex.

Just for your information you *can* define your own Melodist but it's not a common thing to do. (1) Choose a simple Melodist, maybe #89. (2) Click the Melodist Maker Edit button. (3) Click Export, and save the M1 file. (4) Choose one of the aformentioned undefined slots. (5) click Import, and select the M1 file you saved. (6) Type in a title, and edit some settings, for example uncommon chord progressions == 0. Now you have your own melodist saved in this slot. Note that if we update the main melodist file you would need to re-import your M1 file so save a backup of it.

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3. Are there any RealStyles that have lead parts (whether "Soloists" or simply, "RealStyles Solos" (which to me, are two different things, are they not?) where it's not so much shredding or ultra-fast licks, but simple phrases? Nearly all of the Styles I have auditioned have solos that are just simply too busy, too insane, too shreddy. Doesn't matter if it's a slow jazz style or a chill pop style. The solos are always a bit much. Take for instance, the 60bpm Jazz Style with the Pat Martino solo. The solos are insane! It's a 60bpm, jazz brushes, pretty, coffeeshop vibe... why are the solos so fast and intense?


Well, Pat Martino was a virtuoso... this is the style of playing of this particular RealTrack - I'm assuming you're talking about #2156 (Guitar, Electric, Soloist JazzBalladPat Sw 060).

However, you CAN 'tame' it by selecting the "simple" variation. This is a checkbox in the RealTracks Picker. I loaded in a style demo for _SBLPAT and rendered 8 bars playing the regular and 'simple'... here they are:

Regular:
https://nn.pgmusic.com/pgfiles/support/misc/2156.m4a

Simple:
https://nn.pgmusic.com/pgfiles/support/misc/2156_simple.m4a

Note: There is an S in the "Simple" column in the RT Picker which tells you that a simple variation is available.

But in general it is dependent on the particular RealTracks. You just need to find a less intense one. One idea is to use Background type RealTracks instead of Soloists.

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4. Any way to constrain Soloists to stick with mostly chord notes (especially for MIDI soloists) and slower, more simple phrases? I teach a lot of intermediate students and no one is capable of soloing the way these pros PGMusic has brought on, can solo. I want them to stick with simple Pentatonics (minor and major) and just keeping things vibey, simple, normal. Any help/guidance is sincerely appreciated.


If you're using RealTracks, this is mainly dependent on which RealTracks you are using. You could start with one of the demo songs - these typically have fairly simple chord progressions that are appropriate for the style. Either load in a demo from the StylePicker, or find a Soloist/Background RealTracks in the RT Picker and use the Load Demo button there. Then, just simplify, modify the chords to suit and save the .SGU as a different file name (to not overwrite the original). For example, I took _cursed.sty and here is the Guitar Electric soloist #3362:
https://nn.pgmusic.com/pgfiles/support/misc/_cursed_quickdemo.m4a

Also, have you seen the Instrument Studies? If you have the Songs and Lessons PAK then you have these in the Songs and Lessons folder. They focus on teaching licks using common chord progressions. Not beginner, but can be slowed right down, and there is detailed and accurate notation / tab.

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5. Is there any way to create Melodist "rules" that can create chord progressions in simple, cliche pop styles? Again, sticking with I, IV, vi, V, and occasionally, as needed, the ii and the iii?


No, but it is a nice feature idea. Please put it on the wishlist forum.

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6. Is there some sort of repository somewhere that has BIAB "BB Song" (*.MGU) files, of famous pop songs? It seems like there should be, as long as BIAB has been out there.


We don't have anything like that here. However, you can enter the songs yourself in under a minute per song. There are a bunch of keyboard shorcuts that can speed this up. For example, of you type K <enter> this will copy the previous 8 bars to the current position. K4<enter> for the previous 4. There is a list in Help --> reference --> Shortcut keys.
There is also a song titles feature (top right-hand section of StylePicker) that you can use to search up a popular song - I think it has over 20K songs in the database. This will start you out with the correct feel / tempo / etc. of the style, so you then only have to worry about the chords and melody.

If you want to enter a (MIDI) melody for the song, this would take a little bit longer but there is a trick you can use that is easier than entering the melody note by note with your mouse:

(1) First enable the 'wizard playalong feature' under the Play menu.
(2) Record MIDI, and tap the melody on your (QWERTY) keyboard. Don't worry about the note pitches, just rhythm.
(3) Open the Notation window and toggle Editable notation mode.
(4) Now, hold down shift and use the right/left cursor keys to step through and highlight the notes. Use the Up/Down arrows to change the pitch of a note.

Andrew
PG Music Inc.