Hi everyone.

This is kind of a pre-purchase question.

I am not a musician, cannot play an instrument at all, though I want to learn.

I am a writer and have a ton of lyrics that I think would make a decent song and I want to write and record a song just because it would be fun.

Can I use BIAB on it's own, without playing an instrument to write and record my own song?

If yes, are there any good resources to learn the basics of the songwriting craft?

Thanks.

Scott.

Hi Scott,

Welcome to the forums.


Yes


Yes

Have a look at some of the videos at the below link. They should help you get a feel for what BIAB is capable of.

Windows clips
http://www.pgmusic.com/videos.bbwin.htm

Mac clips
http://www.pgmusic.com/videos.bbmac.htm

Essentially, what you'd need to do is simply to enter a chord progression and then choose a particular style to play it. Once the style is selected, BIAB will create an entire backing. You don't need to know anything about music to do this.

Since chord progressions are not copyrightable, initially you could either use a progression from one of BIAB's demo songs or the progression to any song ever written. Eventually, by using existing progressions, you'll develop a feel for how they work and eventually start creating your own progressions from scratch.

If you check out some of the clips, I think you'll start to see what I mean.

Regards,
Noel

Noel,

Thanks very much for the information. I will have a look (and listen) at the links you provided.

I appreciate the response.

Scott.

Scott,

Take a look at the User showcase and you'll see there are a good number of forum members that are songwriters that use the showcase to obtain feedback on their songs.

Coursera offers a free, online songwriting course. You can find more about it ++ HERE ++

Let me answer this question with an example.

COME & GO

Have a listen to that song.... it is 100% Band in a Box with Real Tracks except of course for the singer. Quite often I will drop in some of my live playing since I do play several instruments, but this one is strictly BB/RB.

So NO, you do not need to have the skills to play an instrument to write songs that are excellent quality tunes. In fact, BB is designed for such folks to be able to compose music. It has a short learning curve to get you up and going. Once you learn it, there's so much you can do with it.

As far as resources for songwriting... absolutely. I would recommend The Nashville Songwriters Association International. (NSAI) It's a non-profit group which specializes in education regarding all aspects of the music business with a focus on writing music and lyrics for songs. They lean heavily on the country side but I think all genre's of writers can find a ton of useful information in their members only online video library. They offer song critiques with your membership and that alone is easily worth the cost of a year's membership. In addition, there are dozens of local chapters across the country and around the world. There's bound to be one in a big city near you. The song I used as an example above was honed by using the song evaluations and following the advice I was being given.

Another good resource for learning is TAXI. They are more expensive but they also have a wealth of information and you will find country music is a smaller percentage of what they do. They have a free forum whereas NSAI does not. SO you can use the TAXI forum to connect with folks who are all about writing the song.

As I see it, folks here are writing mostly for fun and enjoyment, TAXI & NSAI writers are for the most part seeking to become commercial writers and are honing their chops accordingly. You can learn a lot by associating with those kinds of writers.

Hope this helps you.

Welcome Scott to one of the most friendly sites on the web.

All of your questions have been answered so I can add nothing there. But I should mention that if/when you have a question about Band-in-a-Box or Realband (Realband is a DAW that comes with BiaB) feel free to ask away. There are many here that will help you. The only dumb question is on that is not asked. You will always get help here and the answer will never be read the (input you own F word here) manual.

Have fun!

I've been actually using BIB as a songwriting tool, typing in alternate chords to see what sounds best. As for not being a musician,give this track a listen. As an experiment, I used nothing but BIB to record a difficult song, Hotel California, no instruments added at all.
https://soundcloud.com/willrockwell/hotel-california

It seems that everyone is assuming that you sing and/or can make up melodies to work with the chord progressions you entered into BIAB and with your lyrics. I trust that is the case.

IMO we are all wired somewhat differently I play bass and rhythm guitar but unfortunately I don't walk around with melodies popping in and out of my head - but lyrics do appear every now and then. Now my wife Janice is completely different. She also plays rhythm guitar but give her a lyric with a meter and she will immediately hear chords and melodies in abundance. I can only wish!

Bud

The difference between poetry and songwriting is that you have to divide the words rhythimically into syllables and fit that to music. I am trying to write science ideas and don't have many one-syllable words to choose from so I have to dream up creative ways to break a script right. I am not good at this but I have an idea where I am going.

Biab is a history lesson
Downbeat magazine is a magazine that has so many examples that you are introduced to so many different styles quickly. I have learned a lot about music by using Biab. It is the history of music in a program. you need to then just take a semester of a basic music class. Not because you want to be a great musician but so you are exposed to basic harmony. Take a piano class for a semester.

Scott think of BIAB as your first musical instrument. Pick up a beginner guitar song book or go to the web and search for a simple song with chords. You can simply type the chords into the bars of the song in band in a box pick a band in the style picker hit play and away you go. You are a musician.

Now its going to take you sometime to put the chords into the correct bars, like do I give this chord 2 or 4 bars or only 1. But if you search for a beginner Rhythm guitar method book one that has slash marks like this D///|D///| A///|A///| or one that has the strumming pattern in it D VV^^V |D VV^^V |A VV^^V| These two notations show you how many bars you hold each chord. In this example you play D for 2 bars then A for 2 bars.

Every rhythm guitarist learns to strum 3 chord songs and usually sings along to get the rhythm. If you get the basic BIAB package $99.00 (much less than a good beginner guitar) you can be playing 3 chord songs in hours. Rather than the years that it takes to master guitar playing. And you will have a lot of fun amazing your friends when they hear the songs that you wrote in no time. I would estimate if you keep it simple you could put chords to one of your lyrics in a month or two.

But, don't hold back. If you have a bunch of words that you want to make into songs, BIAB is the only tool I know of that will allow someone who has no experience playing a musical instrument to compose original music. Even if it takes you a year you will be way ahead of yourself, compared to starting to learn one instrument. Because BIAB allows you to learn all the instruments you want all at once.

Scott, everything I've done, musically, in the past 20 years has been BIAB exclusively. Sample my stuff in the links below.

That being said, many users create backing tracks that they play along with in various venues or situations or in personal practice sessions. You can loop all or part of your composition and practice to your heart's content.

Some just use it to add great drum tracks (or an endless selection of soloists) to their live band. Imagine Brent Mason or John Jarvis, both first call Nashville session players sitting in with you or your group. BIAB gives you that option.

Mario touched on a great point - This is the PG Music family. Flaming is very rare and usually done by trouble makers in transit. They don't last long when they see the talent and professionalism in this tight group. Before long you will be contributing, giving back to the whole.

Welcome to the family.

Don

>>> "I am a writer and have a ton of lyrics that I think would make a decent song and I want to write and record a song just because it would be fun." <<<

Spoofing off PGMusic video, here's my instructions that anyone can follow to write their own song with no musical background.

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW TO WRITE YOUR OWN SONG IN 10 MINUTES

Choose an existing song from the genre your song will be written in.
Your song will be an "In the style of" song.

Get a digital download of the song you have chosen to write your song "in the style of"

Search and download a copy of the lyrics with chords of the "in the style of" song you've chosen.

Open BIAB, Import the digital downloaded song into BIAB.
Import the song in the following manner:
File/Open Special/Open with chords
This will import the song and open the Audio Chord Wizard.
Run the ACW paying attention to setting the first bar and using F8 to assure the proper tempo. There are videos showing how to use the ACW.

Once the ACW has run and imported the audio and chords into BIAB, using the lyrics with chords that you downloaded, make any necessary corrections to the chord chart.
Note that at this point, the BIAB styles are disabled allowing you to play the "in the style of" song and follow the lyrics and chords to make chord corrections.
Once you have the chord chart. Open File/Open Special/Audio Chord Wizard Utilities
Erase the tempo map and erase the audio file. Close the window.
Set the tempo to your satisfaction
Select a style similar to the "in the style of" song. Chances are you can search for a style in stylepicker by your "in the style of" song title.

Generate the song.

Write your song over this musical bed.

Enjoy and share your song with us on the Forum User Showcase -

Or short-circuit Charlie's procedure even more by having BIAB melodist create the melody for you over that chord progression. Then adjust any notes you don't like, apply your lyrics to the notes, and voila.

Thank you so much everyone. I haven't been here for awhile so I missed some replies but you have all pushed me much closer to getting started with BIAB.

One final question for anyone that might be able to answer. How does BIAB compare to something like Logic Pro? I assume BIAB is simpler to use but what are the advantages/disadvantages of BIAB compared to Logic Pro?

Thank you all again!

Scott

Scott, there are very few similarities between BIAB and Logic Pro.

BIAB is primarily an accompaniment generator software - the best that there is.

Logic Pro is primarily a Digital Audio Workstation, one of the best that there is.

Almost no overlap between them.

Scott,

LogicPro is a Mac specific digital audio workstation or daw. The first order of business in any daw is to create or import the raw material by recording music. Once music is recorded then you can edit the music, use tone controls on each music track, add effects such as reverberation or time delay, mix the tracks to stereo then finally prepare the completed project for distribution. Please note again the first task: record music. But you don't play a musical instrument so you must find some other way to generate and record the music and that is where Band-in-a-Box excels!

Not only can Band-in-a-Box create music the program makes the other tasks (edit, equalize, add effects and prepare for distribution) easier.

There ARE ways to create music using LogicPro but the program is designed to make recording easy, not to make creating music easy. Band-in-a-Box is designed to make creating music easy.

Your initial question has been answered but I will add this if you already have Logic Pro. You can generate backing tracks in BiaB then drop and drag, an easy way to move all BiaB tracks to a DAW, and record more tracks, mix and master in Logic Pro. You can do this in BiaB but you will be limited to one track for your recordings. Thus if you only sing one part you can accomplish this in BiaB but if you want to add other parts like harmonies, live guitar etc then you will need a DAW of some kind.

PS - I am not a Mac user but I think that Garage Band can accomplish this also. Also any 64 bit DAW will offer better sounds if you are working in MIDI.

Logic Pro is a top tier DAW that can easily overwhelm even when used in the "less features mode." GarageBand is a much better option for newbies and it's free. GB in itself is a powerful DAW and its projects can be edited by Logic Pro if needed. BTW, for me it's easier to just render BiaB tracks to a folder and then drag them from the folder to Logic or GB - quicker than the BiaB "drop box" if you are generating multiple tracks.

Best to you.

Scott,

Google a guy named Gary Ewer. For about 30 bucks you can download 6 e-books that well tell you everything you ever wanted to know about songwriting formats, song progression theory and every chord progression known to man, plus some. You can fiddle with this until you learn the alchemy and magic tricks.

Also, when you buy Band in a Box, go to style picker, and when you find a style you like, click load demo. You will see and hear a great sample chord progression . Study the verses and choruses carefully. Study how it all works. The nuances of band in a box are all taught within the demos. It is like a university music major--uh, in a box!!

If you do one of these a day you be be a songwriter in 6 months.

Cheers and welcome.

I wanted to thank you all for your input on my question. I just pulled the trigger on BIAB and I also bought Gary Ewer's songwriting ebook bundle. I'm looking forward to this new adventure. Thanks again!

Scott