There are as many right ways to write a song as there are songwriters. If you get stuck, play the melody and then find the right bass line to go under it. Everything else can flow from that.

David Snyder mentions MIDI Chord Detection in RealBand, and how helpful it is. I just thought I would add that this is available in BIAB too, under the Window menu. It is perhaps my favorite function of BIAB that I suspect most people don’t know about, because it is hidden in the menu system.

You probably know I do composing, arranging, and orchestration. You probably know I work primarily in jazz and Brazilian music. I do a lot of transcribing of songs, and the complex chords used are simply not detected accurately by most computer programs. Published sheet music especially free stuff online is mostly just wrong. In my genres, the upper chord extensions (for example, a #9 or b13) are still ignored even by the best of these programs.. For this reason, I often play the notes I hear into MIDI Chord Detection and get an opinion from BIAB. The function gives four possible choices. Very helpful.

BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.