Hi I'm new here and I hope that this wish, or suggestion is going into the correct topic.

I wish that : You could describe your song to biab by familiar terms like : INTRO, VERSE, PRECHORUS, CHORUS, BRIDGE, OUTRO, SOLO, etc...

It's difficult for me to wrap my head around the idea that a SONG in biab is seen as just a bunch of choruses. I struggled with this from the getgo and I still do. I mean, with all of the amazing technology implemented in biab, how hard could it be?

I realize that you can add these things (after the fact). My wish is that it was the native mode of song entry, not an afterthought.

Thanks,
Paul

Welcome to the forum, Paul. You might enjoy a short discussion of this topic a few days ago in which I described why BIAB is this way. http://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=65857&Number=443764#Post443764 Scroll up to the top to read the whole thread.

It is that way because it is a convention used in jazz. The software was designed back when jazz was not the least popular genre in the U.S. and just never updated to something more common.

Once you get used to this wart you won't mind it too much. Just unfold your song and forget about the whole concept of jazz choruses.

There are actually a couple of ways in BBox how you can define the individual sections of your song beyond just a or b parts. But since these differ between the PC and Mac platform, and you haven't specified which one you are using (see my tip in the Beginners forum!), I cannot presume which one to outline for you.

Thank you for clarifying that for me.
I appreciate the feedback.
Still a nice item for the wishlist, nevertheless.

Absolutely, I was just checking if perhaps you could already do this and just didn't know about it
Happens more often around here than you might think. I'd even say I've yet to find anyone on here who knows absolutely 100% of all the things you can do with this program.

I'm not new to BIAB but I have been away for a while and recently upgraded. I was hoping to find an alternative to the old chorus and tag structure so I also add this to my wish list.
I use ONSONG on an iPAD for gigging which uses INTRO/VERSE/CHORUS/BRIDGE etc. It's chords and lyrics only, no accompaniment, but I find that it is much easier to build new songs that way.

+1

+1 for more options to define this as suits you best

It also depends on what you call a verse, bridge or chorus. In a large majority of the old standards and jazz songs the choruses were 32 bars long. A verse was something in front of the 32 bars and usually not played in the solos. The scheme was A-A-B-A, with B being the bridge. A lot of songs were also written 16 bars-16 bars with no verse or bridge. Many of today's song are written with parts called verse and bridge that have no relevance to the old standards. What today's song writers might call a verse, bridge or chorus is very subjective.

You just beat me to the punch with that elaboration there, Ray

I think this whole thread just underlines a need I've seen in other threads, for an overhaul/update to these definitions. To give the user more varied set of choices, a bit like they're already offering with the various ways for us to define chords. Perhaps a sort of "Define terminology in Jazz or Pop" kind of settings for the user might be just the thing here.

EDIT: And needless to say, this should be song based, not ruined by a crude Global implementation (which happens too often!)

Before everyone continues, you should take a look at the Song Form Maker in the Tools toolbar. It gives you a basic way to define A,A,B,A,C,A,B sections by defining measure ranges.

For those who may not know what a verse, bridge or chorus is, you can always label the parts from A to Z with repeats, if desired, in each section.

Ahemm...

Ain't that ever an understatement!

+1, I even watched "A Chorus Line" and still not getting it. I'll make do I suppose.

LOL!

My definition of a verse, chorus, bridge does not come from jazz but rock and roll and country music, as it has been for the last 50+ years.

Most popular music starts out with a 4 - 8 bar intro, then goes to a verse, then a chorus, then another verse, repeats the chorus, and optionally introduces a new musical/lyrical idea with the bridge (or the middle 8, as the beatles called it). As a songwriter I usually break my songs up this way and it would be nice if the tool spoke the same language.

I am familiar with the song form maker and it is useful. But it results in a flat structure that is great for production but not so much for the printed sheet.

Thanks again for all the great discussion.
-Paul