Can you help me identify a PG Music product I think I have ?

All I have is a list of around 60 MIDI files that must have been in the product. They are all classics, like As Time Goes By, Danny Boy, My Funny Valentine, Lady Be Good, Wind Beneath My Wings, You Made Me Love You.

The file format for all of them is JP0xx.MID where the xx is numbers from 0 to 65 or so, e.g. JP057.MID. I think the "JP" must stand for Jazz Piano.

I think the program may have also included instructional features, because there are things called "ii V I Changes", "Blues Changes", and "Coltrane Turnarounds".

If you can identify the PG Music Program that would have these things in it, is it still for sale in case I cannot find the program ?

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

Bob Carwell

I don’t know. But I question it would be a PG Music product because song files have proprietary extensions like .SGU and .MGU.

If that isn’t the point and all you want is a program that reads these MIDI files, many programs can do that, especially including Band-in-a-Box by PG Music.

I agree with this. Most of the PG Music products if not all, are in the proprietary format. I have some old files from the BIAB users group that used to be on Yahoo and has moved on to another service now. It seems some of them were MIDI and had titles like you indicated with JP0XX etc. Maybe you had downloaded those at some point?

What folder were they stored in?

PG Music created several karaoke programs that included MIDI files. Working from memory but I believe each song had an associated MIDI file for the song melody and an MGU song file to play the song. Song lyrics displayed during playback.

That is the format I remember of their program of 50 Christmas carols. I wish I could find the floppy disk so I could see if an update is available.

Thanks to all for responding ! Unfortunately mystery continues.

I don't have the MIDI files, just an alphabetical listing of the song titles and midi file names.

Why its driving me crazy and I suspected it might be from a very old PG Music program is I was recently disappointed to learn Tech Support can give me only a listing of programs I purchased in the last few years, not dating back as far as when I started purchasing PG programs.

I still have the little blue manuals for programs like "The Jazz Soloist for Windows" and "The Christmas Pianist for Windows", both copyrighted 1995 (but I don't have the programs- I assume they were on CDs).

And there are others like "New Orleans Pianist", "Gospel Pianist", "New Age Pianist", "Ragtime Pianist", "Jazz Guitarist", and "Essential Blues Guitar". Some of them I have the CDs for still.

But one of them I ran across was "Jazz Pianist". And THIS is the one that I was suspecting my mysterious MIDI file list related to (and of course I cannot find the Jazz Pianist program.

It is also a mystery to me exactly why PG Music, after going to all the trouble to produce these programs, no longer sells them. The content would be timeless. I though based upon the list I found perhaps there was a copyright problem with it, as the titles for the 60+ tunes suggest many if not most are not in the public domain.

As you all suggest with the standard PG Music file conventions of SGU, etc. maybe what I found related to a non-PG Music product. They are clearly .MID files though with the two leading characters being JPxxx.MID.

Oh well, maybe someday I'll figure it out, as I would really like to have MIDI files of those 60+ classics to study (assuming they were good of course).

But now my biggest mystery is exactly WHY PG Music discontinued alot of those titles. The subject matters were GREAT- New Orleans, Gospel, Latin, etc. I'm sure alot of that is contained in the new styles of BIAB, etc. but these were actual courses.

Any input re the foregoing is still welcome.

Best,

Bob

Some of our older products have been discontinued and so we no longer distribute them nor have the old files for them anymore. Some of the programs you mentioned however can be found here: https://www.pgmusic.com/products.win.htm

We do sell these ones on the page we linked you which do include MIDI files:

• Latin Pianist
• Modern Jazz Pianist
• Blues Pianist
• New Age Pianist

But the Jazz Pianist in particular we no longer offer nor have the old files for - just the Modern Jazz Pianist.

Bob, "The Christmas Pianist for Windows" shipped on a 3.5" floppy diskette. That is the program I mentioned above.

Still don't understand why some programs are discontinued when there is no fault with the content. Unless the demand is so small as to not warrant it.

BUT: my original mystery SOLVED (well, at least partially). I finally FOUND a CD I had burned of all the 60+ MIDI files of classics, not just a print out of titles. And I am guessing now I must have found them somewhere on the internet and that they are probably NOT PG Music files !

I've listened to some and they are terrific, high quality. Still wish I could figure out where on earth I found them. And I still wish I could find my PG Music program New Orleans Pianist and a few others. But I'll take this success of at least finding the MIDIs of the files I was hunting for !

Best,

Bob

The biggest mystery has now been solved as to why PG Music discontinued these great programs. I found this and should have Googled better in the first place. Now that I know they were from the '90's and on FLOPPY disks (!) I know better where to hunt for them in my barn. The one in particular I was hunting for is called The Jazz Pianist

For you history buffs about PG Music here is what I found:

pgmusic used to have a bunch of "pianist" programs, which consisted of midi files and a player program that had extra info, etc. most of them have disappeared except for the few that are left on their website. they were (are, if you're lucky enough to have them) great programs. i'm not sure what's left to buy - these are the ones i know they have had:
blues pianist
children's pianist
christmas pianist
gospel pianist
jazz pianist
jazz soloist
latin pianist
modern jazz pianist
new age pianist
new orleans pianist
ragtime pianist
the pianist (6 volumes of classical works)
my understanding is that it was mostly copyright issues that took them off the market. too bad - probably the only place to find them is from someone who wants to sell them. i recommend getting any of them you can find, but especially the jazz pianist.

i have it for pc (the 1993 1.01 version ! ) and you're right, it's a cool program (with around 60 midi files to playback with in real-time, in different styles of jazz, staff, on-sreen piano, and even lessons, and trivia).
when i check the help/index section, i find nothing about updating it online.
just an address and phone nbr : pg music inc 266 elmwood avenue, suite 111, buffalo, ny 14222 .... ph (800)-268-6272 or (905)-528-2368 ... (if it still alive), maybe they might enlighten you with that.

************************

Now to find my floppies (and a floppy drive to try to run them on !)

Best and thanks for all your input. ALL mysteries now solved !!!!!

Bob

Those tunes were "The Jazz Pianist". It was long ago discontinued but worst of all the files lost compatiblity with MS operating system upgrades. It was a favorite of mine in the day.

Fun thread.

This sort of problem occurs with updates to the OS. As a programmer, I wrote tons of programs that no longer work, or require some kludges to work. It could be worse; think of those who use Macs (including me) where the OS seems to destroy backward compatibility more frequently.

I wonder if that address was Peter Gannon's when he first wrote BIAB.

At any event, Bobc, you could consider going back to your first post and clicking Mark as Resolved.

Bobc got it right when he said it was copyright issues… The “nature” of biab-files, as they aren’t wav files, is that they are labeled as “scores”, if they include the melody (MGU) or easily identifiable chord changes, The copyright cost for sheet music is considerably higher than for reproductions, like MP3’s.

But what great performances in the Jazz Pianist! Maybe not as cool as the Modern Jazz Pianist (Renee Rosnes is playing all this modern Hancock-Beirach inspired harmony and it’s really next level music), but still, what a pity it isn’t for sale any longer. Anyways, it’s available somewhere on the web.

On the other hand, the software looks and feels dated, even if it still kinda runs on windows. The fonts, visuals and interface… it’s got 90’s written all over.