PG Music Home Forums PG Music Wishlists Band-in-a-Box Wishlist Issues of lyrics and BIAB

I've just started to enter lyrics into BIAB as part of live playing. I've been using large notebooks on a music stand, stand light, and all the rest to set up. Boy, things are much simpler on the laptop screen. However, I'm discovering a few things. The Movable Notation Window works fine for many tunes (4 measures at a showing). But many of the traditional standard tunes are too wordy to get everything displayed to match in sync with the scrolling chords. I first discoved this with "Everything Happens To Me". You can abbreviate the words and cut-out the spaces, but then it becomes so cryptic that I can't read it. The Big Lyrics window is too small for me. With the Lead Sheet window, I can't figure out if lyrics can be added to that. And, even then, many times the entire tune doesn't show on my screen in Lead Sheet mode. What would be neat in my application would be the availability of the full screen like that of the Lyric Documentation window and the placement of chords above the lyrics (double or triple-spaced), so that the entire tune can be seen at once---sort of like sheet music I guess. Maybe this can be done in BIAB and I've just not figured it out. Such an option would really assist with "wordy" songs that have multiple verses.

Well, maybe I posted too quickly concerning lyric displays. I just noticed that the Big Lyrics window will open to full screen size showing all the chords to a given tune. However, what's the trick in pasting-in or typing-in the lyrics using this feature to show in sync with the appropriate chords? How is that done with the Big Lyric window? Any help is appreciated.

Hi J. Larry,

I like to take the time to first enter a Melody on the Melody track, then use Note Based Lyrics to enter the lyrics that will follow the notes just like a published sheet. The pgmusic FAQ page should lead you to some tutorials about getting started using Note Based Lyrics.

The FAQ can also show you how to enter a Melody line using the QWERTY keyboard wizard in BIAB by simply tapping the keys to the rhythm of the melody while recording on the Thru track. Then it is just a simple matter of dragging the notes to the correct pitch to match the Melody using either the Notation Edit window or the Pianoroll window, whichever you find easier for you.

Note Based Lyrics will show up on the Leadsheet window as they might appear on published sheet music once you get the hang of entering and editing them.

They also show up on the Notation Window, the one you get when you hit the single 8th note icon, with bars scrolling across the bottom of the main BB screen. This is the one I prefer to use in live gigs, takes a bit of practice to get used to the screen redraws happening on the left side while you play the bars on the right, but you get not only the Chords and Lyrics below, you get the Melody notes AND a neat feature I exploit there is to use the old Line Based Lyrics bar up above to include CUES:

Like this:

---> ----> Get Ready for SHOT ----> -------> SHOT! Coming UP! next!->

And neat reminders like that.

Remember to MUTE the Melody track when doing this so the MIDI synth doesn't play that part you should be singing or playing. This can be done by Rightclicking on the Melody name up above and turning it Red, which will stay that way for a whole session or until you turn it back on.

Works a treat in live performance and I like being able to keep an eye on all the other controls and stuff in the upper part of BB. Sometimes being able to see those keyboards right away has clued me in on a problem, like forgetting to turn the synth channel up on the PA and other things that can go bump on the dark stage. I also like the scrolling much better than the hard to see highlighting of the LeadSheet view. Visual cues for timing are simply bigger and better in the Notation View IMO.


HTH,


--Mac

Mac:
Some excellent suggestions you provided. I've played a few gigs, now, using the scrolling line based lyrics and am getting the hang of it. Have not tried the note-based lyrics, since I've not recorded (as yet) melody lines, etc..in BIAB. I don't have a decent interface to the computer and know-how to set it up. I'll see what I can do with the keyboard wizard, although that edit stuff is confusing. I stumbled across a few BIAB tunes on the web that had the note-based lyrics already embedded. Wow, that was a nice treat following the melody line in difficult passages where memory fails----especially the bridges to tunes.