Hi,
I'm a bit confused with regard to the way BIAB defines a chorus. It seems to me that this is meant as simply the set of chords that can be repeated a number of times. So, looking at it basically, there can be an Intro section with a user defined set of bars which is good and then a repeatable section (called a BIAB chorus) and that is it! Since this is the only repeatable section then it means the entire song is really a BIAB chorus.
I have always ignored this definition and composed my chords in the form of the song Intro - Verse - Chorus - Bridge etc with no overall repeat and didn't really take much notice of this feature.
However, I was just looking at a video overview of the Melodist and the narrator specifies the creation of 5 'choruses' an Intro chorus, three middle choruses and an ending chorus.

So can I say that the intended meaning of this word is just a generic reference applied to each section of the chosen song form and thus rendering the repeat feature being quite limited?

Jonel

In BiaB terms a chorus is considered as once through the song, excluding intro's and outro's.

Check out the BiaB help section on Chorus, which states:

'Chorus:
We are using the term "chorus" as it is often used in Jazz music. A chorus therefore means "once through the entire form of the song." A typical length of a chorus is 32 bars. A song may have the form AABA where the A sections are verses and the B section is the Bridge. This entire form AABA is considered one chorus.'

Thank you very much for your helpful reply.

Jonel

The origin of BIAB was to play songs from jazz fakebooks. In jazz, if you say ‘Take a chorus’ it means to solo over the whole tune.

BIAB does have the ability to define sections of the song and then play them back in an order you specify. That can be used to simplify the form if you think of a song in terms of verse, chorus, bridge etc.

You can also use the tag ending feature to break out of the chorus for a bridge or an ending, but everything from the tag ending onward has tho be defined linearly, and the sonny ending will begin after the tag ending.

Thanks John. I have dabbled with BIAB on and off for a long time and I remember when it was almost totally about Jazz and, although I could see some possibilities, all the demos etc were about Jazz any.
My experience with software is that the large investment made by PG Musicin programming and instruction manuals is not easy to change once the software is changed to broaden the genres on offer.
I think BIAB is good enough for my needs by just treating it in linear fashion.
Anyway, I have been using MuseScore which does give me all I want and I can import the MusicXML file into BIAB (also to GuitarPro)

I am always very grateful for your expert help though.

Thanks again

Jonel

Look up Help, Song Form Maker.

You'll be surprised.

Their whole definition of CHORUS kinda threw me until I figured out what they were talking about and then ignored it totally.

I've never liked Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Climb and other definitions as their meanings change from song to song.

I know that in the 30-40s the verse was a long intro and then the entire song was called the chorus (think Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life" or Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust").

In the above case he "chorus" then might consist of A-A-B-A parts and the long introduction the "Verse".

Later the Chorus might only be the B section of a song while the A's are called Verses. That is if the words in the B section are repeated every time while the A's are different. The Hook might be in the Chorus or B section.

But then sometimes the B section is called the Bridge, instead of the chorus or the B might be called the Release as it often releases itself from the tonic key.

Since I'm more interested in the music than the lyrics, I just call the parts Intro, A, B, C, ... Coda or whatever.

For an A A B A song I'd call it A A' B A" or A1 A2 B A3 to designate that the A sections are a little different in structure. The first A usually has a turn around for repeat, the second A lead-in chords to the B and the third might be a little longer.

As clearly explained in posts above, in BiaB-speak, "Chorus" is just the repeated section.

Insights and incites by Notes

Long ago in the DOS world PG Music Distributed a 5.25" disk with the product that had a few hundred jazz standards in sgu (biab) format.
I guess that impinged on some copyrights as the disk disappeared after a year or two.

I wish I had copied that over to the 3.5" floppies I'm using now.

Bygones.