In BIAB Win 2021 I am looking at the Show Form display. It looks like it could be helpful with song creation and analysis.
But I cannot discern what it is showing. Please, Is someone able to share some light on this feature?

I get to the [Show form] button on the Edit Repeats and Endings dialog. It is in the bottom left corner.
The Help under Add/Edit Repeats and Endings has a section titled Examining The Form Of A Song. One of the points is that it shows the form in 2-bar sections.


Example song
[Chords]
| C| F| C| G| C| F| C| G|
| C| G| C| F| C F / /| C G / /| C G / /| C F / /|

Show Form display
[A] ,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7
[A] ,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7
[-]
,99

I accept that it might be me, I may simply being too 'tik' to get it today.
thanks Roy

I'm not sure if this is the 'Show Form' or the 'Song Form' you are referring to. Song Form is discussed in detail on pager 135 of the 2021 manual (available from BiaB > Help > Program Manuals).

thank you VT for the reference

It is the Show Form function that has me exploring

I just looked at that and got the same result. I have to admit, I've never seen this before and cannot explain it.

Everyone, to see what he's talking about, do this:

In the chordsheet, right-click on a chord.
Select Repeats/Codas/1st-2nd Endings
Click on Show Form (three up from bottom left)

Thanks for the clarification. In my effort to assist, I searched the manual for the text SHOW FORM and nothing was found.

Perhaps there is missing data in the manual? I'll report it.

There is a section in the Help under
Add/Edit Repeats and Endings
has a piece titled Examining The Form Of A Song

Thanks for the clarification, appreciated.

When I click on "Help", and scroll down the topic, I see the following:

Right John. that is the help information I see as well.

To Give it a try

[Chords]
|:a) C| F| C| F| C| G| C| G|
| C| F| C| F| C| G| C| G|
| C| F| C| F| C| G| C| G|
| C| F| C| F| C| G| C| G:3X|
[ChordsEnd]
With this set of heavily repeated 3 chords in 32 bars
In total only two sets of chord pairs C-F C-G

SongForm reports
[A] ,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7
[A] ,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7
[-]
,99

"What does it all mean Basil?

Either it’s not implemented, or I can’t break the code. Maybe Simon or Chantelle will explain it.

Hi Roy,

This is my take on it.



*Each numeral represents two bars.

*In the first [A], there are 8 numerals so this means that there are 16 bars.

*0 = bars 1 & 2, 1 = bars 3 & 4....7 = bars 15 & 16

*Wherever the same numeral occurs, this means that those two bars of chords defined by their first appearance occur.

*Since your second group of [A] is exactly the same as the first, then the 16 bars are identical to the first group.

Let's say I had the progression...

C|F|C|G|C|C|F|F

First section...

C|F = 0
C|G = 1
C|C = 2
F|F = 3

C|F|C|G|C|Dm|G|C

Second section...

C|F = 0 (this has already been defined)
C|G = 1 (also defined above)
C|Dm = 4 (it's a new chord pair so it takes a new numeral)
G|C = 5 (another new chord pair)

This means, that if I want to use repeats, I could repeat the first 4 bars of the first section and and then jump to a second ending for the last four bars represented by chords 4 and 5.

Regards,
Noel

OK Noel, Thanks for the insight. I am tracking with you on the logical representation of 8 pairs of bars. That is what I was expecting. It becomes a code to represent the sets of chord pairs. In your example the code is from 0 to 5.

Does your example work for you?
| C| F| C| G| C| C| F| F|
| C| F| C| G| C| Dm| G| C|

I tried it with the 16 chords you proposed. Alas, I get the same output
Show Form display
[A] ,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7
[A] ,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7
[-]
,99

OH WAIT IF I replicate the 16 bars and make the song 64 Bars long . . .
then Show Form displays
[A] ,0,1,2,3
[A] ,0,1 ,4,5
[A] ,0,1,2,3
[A] ,0,1 ,4,5
[A] ,0,1,2,3
[A] ,0,1 ,4,5
[A] ,0,1,2,3
[A] ,0,1 ,4,5
[-]
,99

The mystery is a little less mysterious, with the 64 bars it begins to show the Song Form code.

I experimented with several other combinations of chords in 32, 48 & 64 bars, the results were erratic, unreliable and all over the map.

I am going to move on and try go on living without this SongForm report.
Thanks still for the help RrR

Hi Roy,

That's strange that the 16-bars I used didn't work for you. They did for me. Did you generate the song? BIAB usually does its calculation things during generation.

The SGU file I used is below. I had my song set to one chorus. That might have made a difference.

IMPORTANT... I've changed the extension of the file to .txt so that I can upload it to the forum. You will need to change it back to .SGU so that it can be loaded into BIAB. (It is a BIAB song file.)

Regards,
Noel

Thank Noel, the song you attached worked
You may have exposed the key to the mystery with the suggestion to Generate.
the 16 bar song form worked
and a 48 bar generated version song form also worked

Excellent!