Originally Posted by TheMaartian
<...snip...> Thanks, Bob!

Thank you for your purchase and for your kind words.

When I started making BiaB Fake Disks, back in the 1990s, they were on 3.5" and 5.25" floppy disks. I still call them fake disks, because I can't think of a better name. Any suggestions?

I used to sell the companion fake books, too. I bought them from a wholesaler in Fort Lauderdale, about 120 miles away. Being that the traffic is nasty, the 240-mile round trip took most of a day, I had him ship the books to me.

This was mainly to help my disk sales, I made very little profit on the books.

Then Amazon came along and by the time I paid for the books plus the shipping, Amazon was selling them for less, than I could get them for. To save my customers' money, I just let Amazon sell the books.

Full disclosure: Amazon pays me a small percentage, so I still make a few pennies on the book sales. But you don't have to buy them from Amazon if you find a better price elsewhere, or if you want to support your local music store.

I got the idea of adding books after my first fake disk. People asked where they could get the music for the songs, and since I used the scores of music books that I own, (pun alert: scores of scores) there was no one place.

That gave me the idea to use published books, so you can load the song, open the book, and play along.

Mrs. Notes and I support ourselves by playing music live http://www.s-cats.com at yacht clubs, country clubs, restaurants, bars, condominium complexes, and just about anywhere else a duo can play. I make my own backing tracks, from scratch, and sometimes with the help of BiaB. (I play sax, flute, wind synth, guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards in various levels of competency/incompetency).

The Band-in-a-Box add-ons are a "moonlighting" job for me. Gig work is slow in the Florida summer, and I used to have to go "up north" or gig on cruise ships in the summer. The sales help fill the gaps between the slim gigs. Now I get to stay home and enjoy the Florida summers that I love.

We're starting work on the last volume of the Volume 6 of The Real Book (jazz). Stay tuned.

BiaB has come a long way since those early days, and with the improvements Peter Gannon and his team keep adding to BiaB, the Fake Disks get better and better.

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks