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Band-in-a-Box is so easy to use!Just type in the chords for any song using standard chord symbols (like C, Fm7, or C13b9), choose the style you’d like, and Band-in-a-Box does the rest, automatically generating a complete professional-quality arrangement of piano, bass, drums, guitar, and strings or horns in a wide variety of popular styles. Live audio tracks can be created using RealDrums and RealTracks.And that’s not all...Band-in-a-Box is a powerful and creative music composition tool for exploring and developing musical ideas with near-instantaneous feedback. Over the years many features have been added to Band-in-a-Box – Notation and Lyrics, Piano Roll, 16-channel MIDI Multitracks, Harmonization, the StyleMaker and StylePicker, a live performance Conductor window, Medley Maker, and 24 –substyle Multistyles. The Soloist and the Melodist are popular “intelligent” features that generate professional solos or even create whole new songs from scratch. RealDrums adds the human element of a live drummer while RealTracks add even more live session musicians, bringing the entire Band-in-a-Box arrangement to life. The Audio Chord Wizard has the amazing ability to analyze, extract, and show the chords from audio recordings on-screen and then write them to the Band-in-a-Box chord sheet.The inclusion of digital audio features makes Band-in-a-Box the perfect tool for creating, playing, and recording your music with MIDI, vocals, and acoustic instruments. Band-in-a-Box for Windows® can also record an acoustic instrument or voice to add to the composition, with processing through its own DirectX audio effects. Its built-in TC Helicon audio harmonies will turn your audio track into multiple harmony parts or adjust its pitch, with vibrato and scooping effects for realistic vocal styles and up to sixteen choral parts.You can print out your finished creation with lyrics, chords, repeats and endings, DC markings and codas, or save it as a graphics file for web publication or to e-mail to a friend. And when you're ready to let others hear your composition, you can burn it directly to an audio CD. Or save your composition as a Windows Media File (or in any other compressed formats you have) for a file that’s “Internet ready.”You’ll have even more fun making automatic medleys, playing your favorite song lists in the Band-in-a-Box Jukebox, and singing along to your Karaoke files with CDG graphics.What is Band-in-a-Box?
Band-in-a-Box is an intelligent automatic accompaniment program, which means that you can go from nothing to complete song arrangements in as little as a few seconds. Simply enter chords to a song, choose a style of music, and Band-in-a-Box does the rest, generating a full band arrangement complete with Bass, Piano, Drums, Guitar, Strings, and more. You can arrange, listen to, or play along with songs in hundreds of musical styles. The MIDI and audio tracks that Band-in-a-Box creates are automatically played out through your computer's built-in sound card or synthesizer, and the music notation is displayed in a lead sheet window.
Band-in-a-Box is a unique and flexible program with a broad range of uses. It is a powerful and creative music composition tool for exploring and developing musical ideas with near-instantaneous feedback. Amaze friends and family by coming up with your own original songs in as little as a few minutes! Band-in-a-Box is also an excellent educational tool, used both by professional musicians to sharpen their skills, and as a learning aid by people with little or no musical background. It's also an essential program for practicing your instrument in a full band setting - you play your instrument while Band-in-a-Box takes the place of the other members in your band. And of course, people use Band-in-a-Box just to have fun!
While the basic concept behind Band-in-a-Box has remained the same since it was first conceived over 20 years ago, hundreds of innovative features have been added. The list of things that you can do with Band-in-a-Box is endless! The Soloist, Melodist, and Audio Chord Wizard are examples of amazing "intelligent" features; the Soloist generates professional quality solos over any chord progression, the Melodist can create entire songs from scratch with Chords, Melodies, Intros, and Solos (even a Title!), the Medley Maker can combine songs to create interesting medleys, and the Audio Chord Wizard can figure out the chords in any audio file (wave files, MP3, WMA, etc.).
In addition to these and many more amazing features, over the years Band-in-a-Box has expanded from originally being a Jazz oriented program, to encompass a diverse range of musical genres including Pop, Rock, Latin, Country, Classical, World, Blues, Bluegrass, New Age, Techno, Metal, and much more. There is something for everyone! Over 1700 styles are currently available from PG Music and more are always being developed, many based directly on customer requests. Moreover, since each style is a large database of musical patterns and ideas, the song arrangements will always be fresh, never sounding exactly the same each time.
It's easy to get started using Band-in-a-Box. Here are the basic steps you might use to put together a song from start to finish...
Input chords for your song. Choose a key/tempo and set the number of bars/choruses/loops,etc. You can type in the chord symbols using the computer (qwerty) keyboard, however it's also possible to enter chords in other ways: You can play the chords from a connected MIDI keyboard and use MIDI Chord Detection, you can use the built-in Chord Builder, and you can even have Band-in-a-Box figure out the chords in any MIDI or audio file. The chords that you input can include common chord symbols such as C7, Cm, and Cmaj7, or more complex chords such as Csus#5#9 and C7#5b9#11. Over 100 chords are supported, plus you can enter an alternate root for any chord (slash chord).
Choose a style of music using the StylePicker Window. You can quickly and easily preview your song in many different styles, or you can listen to original demo songs for any of the PG Music styles available. Styles will use up to five tracks for the accompaniment, depending on what is suitable for that specific style. For example, a Classical style might only use the Piano track, while a Rock style may use Bass, Drums, and Guitar. You can also choose a style made entirely of RealTracks and you wont hear any MIDI at all... your song will sound like it was recorded by professional studio musicians!
Arrange your song using automatic intros, 2-bar endings, substyle variations, drum fills, intelligent chord substitutions, pushes, shots, rests, and more!
Press Play to have Band-in-a-Box instantly develop an original arrangement for your song, which is played back through the sound card or MIDI synthesizer of your choice. For playback, you can use a software synth (stand-alone/DXi/VSTi) such as the VSC-DXi included with Band-in-a-Box, or a hardware synth (sound card synth/MIDI keyboard/sound module). In addition to MIDI tracks, Band-in-a-Box also generates original audio tracks called RealDrums and RealTracks.
Input your own instrumental melody/solo track using an external MIDI keyboard, or by using your computer mouse and keyboard in the Editable Notation window. Or, have Band-in-a-Box create the solo and melody for you using the Melodist and Soloist!
Record an audio track. You could use a microphone to record yourself singing, then harmonize your vocal track using the built-in audio harmonizer.
Make an audio CD of your music! Render your song to a wave file and burn a CD, then play the CD in any standard CD player
What do I need to get started using Band-in-a-Box?
You can use Band-in-a-Box on virtually any computer, and you don't need any special equipment! We work hard to make sure Band-in-a-Box remains compatible with older computers, while also working flawlessly with the newest systems available.
You can get the most out of Band-in-a-Box by having a fairly up-to-date computer, a good quality sound card, and even a MIDI keyboard, but these are not requirements. Here are some more details that you may want to consider, depending on how you will be using Band-in-a-Box.
General system requirements (Band-in-a-Box for Windows). Band-in-a-Box runs on Windows 98 (98SE preferred), NT, ME, 2000, XP, and Vista, and requires a minimum of 128MB available RAM (256MB or greater preferred). You should have a minimum of about 150MB (for the Pro version) or 500 MB (for the MegaPAK) of free hard disk space. This doesn't include the RealDrums and RealTracks, which require more hard disk space - about 100 MB per RealDrums set and 800 MB per RealTracks set. If you are planning on recording digital audio tracks with your songs (e.g. vocals), this will also require more hard disk space, about 10 MB per minute of audio recording.
Sound card and MIDI sound source. Band-in-a-Box is largely a MIDI program, and therefore requires a MIDI sound source (MIDI synthesizer). As mentioned, you don't need any special equipment; your computer most likely has a sound card and MIDI sound source built-in. In addition, we include a high quality software MIDI synthesizer with Band-in-a-Box that anyone can use - the Roland VSC.
There are different types of MIDI synthesizers, and as you might expect, they vary greatly in price and quality. A MIDI synth might be built into your sound card, it might be a software MIDI synth such as the VSC or widely available GS Wavetable, or it might be an external hardware unit that you connect to your computer. External MIDI synthesizers include compact sound modules such as the SD-20, or full MIDI synthesizer keyboards. These may be connected to your computer with MIDI cables and/or a MIDI interface that connects to the USB port on your computer.
External MIDI controllers. As mentioned above, you can use an external MIDI synthesizer as your sound generator. You can also use a MIDI keyboard, MIDI guitar, or MIDI wind controller to record or play live along with Band-in-a-Box. This is certainly not a requirement to use Band-in-a-Box, but it can augment your experience and aid in practicing and composition. For example, you could enter chords using MIDI Chord Detection, or record melodies and edit them in the Notation Window. The most inexpensive and convenient MIDI keyboards are simply MIDI controllers which don't generate sound by themselves. Most are simple to use - simply connect them to a USB port on your computer and select the MIDI Input Driver in Band-in-a-Box. Other synths you connect with MIDI cables and/or a MIDI interface.
Audio playback and recording. For audio playback and recording, advanced users can benefit from having a dedicated sound card or audio interface - in other words, a sound card that is separate from the one that might have come as part of your computer's motherboard. If you will be doing audio recording, you can plug in your equipment directly to the sound card (often stereo 1/8" jacks), or for better results with "built-in" soundscards, use a pre-amp or mixer and plug that into your sound card's line-in jack. You may wish to have headphones for monitoring.
Speakers. This may sound obvious, but it is often overlooked... A good set of amplified speakers or headphones can make a world of difference, especially if you are using a laptop computer.
Other software programs. You certainly don't need any other programs to use Band-in-a-Box, however many people use a sequencer like PowerTracks Pro Audio in conjunction with Band-in-a-Box. This is because you can save your Band-in-a-Box songs as standard MIDI or wave files which can be imported into other programs for further editing. You can import these files into a multi-track sequencer/digital audio editor (like PowerTracks), then fine-tune your performances, record extra audio tracks, add digital audio effects, and so on.
What are some things that Band-in-a-Box is used for?
Using the Melodist, you can compose a new song in the style of your choice in a few seconds, complete with intro, chords, melody, arrangement, and improvisation.
The songs generated by the Melodist are yours to use however you want. Use the songs "as they are", or add your own touches by editing the chords and melody. You can generate as many new tunes as you want until you find one you want to work with.
Enter your own chords from scratch and instantly hear how they sound in many different styles. This is a great way to experiment with new song ideas!
Use the SoundTrack Generator to quickly create original royalty-free music of a specified duration and tempo, for corporate videos, home movies, jingles, etc.
Designate any chord as a rest, hold, or shot. This can be applied to any or all of the instruments. You can also push the chord (anticipate the beat) by an eighth or sixteenth note, add pedal bass, and more.
Enter chords by typing them in, by using the Chord Builder (which allows you to choose and audition different chord types), or by using MIDI Chord Detection from an external keyboard.
Styles have at least two variations (substyles), and you can switch them at any point in your song by adding part markers. For example, often people use a livelier variation for the middle choruses. A typical style has two variations, however you can also use "Multistyles" with many more variations.
Automatic Intro generation! This is a chord progression that gets inserted as an intro in the song. Choose Jazz or Pop style chords, Intro length, Pedal Bass, and more. Re-generate the Intro as many times as you like and get a fresh one each time. Band-in-a-Box will also automatically generate a 2-bar ending pattern for your song.
Record your melodies using a MIDI keyboard, or enter them using the mouse and computer keyboard in the editable notation window.
Use the Melody Embellisher to automatically add notes and effects to the melody track - for example grace notes, slurs, vibrato, etc. - making it more lively and realistic.
If you have written a melody but are having trouble coming up with the chords, use the Reharmonist. The Reharmonist creates a chord progression based only on the melody, in any genre that you choose
"Jazz up" or "Jazz down" the chords, converting a typical jazz chord progression into one more suitable for pop/rock genres, and vice versa.
Play your song using RealDrums. These are real drum recordings of top studio Jazz/Rock/Country drummers that Band-in-a-Box plays in perfect sync with the other parts of your song. These are not just "samples" or "drum loops", but are full recordings lasting from 1 to 8 bars at a time. Band-in-a-Box can play the drum patterns in an endless variety of ways.
Play your song using RealTracks to add a new dimension of realism. Your song will sound just like it was recorded by top studio musicians! These tracks feature real audio recordings of acoustic fingerpicked and strummed guitar, pedal steel, and tenor sax, acoustic and electric bass, fiddle, rhythm and lead electric guitar, resonator guitar, and much more. RealTracks can be assigned to play on any Band-in-a-Box track (guitar, bass, etc.), and you can select up to seven different RealTracks in one song. RealTracks can also be built in to the style, replacing the MIDI bass, guitar, piano, or strings part in that style. In addition, you can use the Soloist to generate RealTracks.
Save your song as a MIDI file for further editing in a sequencer such as PowerTracks Pro Audio, easily render your song to MP3 or WMA for use on the internet, or burn an audio CD of your music.
MultiStyles are Styles that can have anywhere from 4 to 24 substyles! A typical Band-in-a-Box style will have two substyles (e.g. chorus and verse), but with MultiStyles you can make a Band-in-a-Box style or song that uses 4 substyles (e.g. First Verse, Main Verse, Chorus, Break). You can select the various sections (substyles) using "a"/"b"/"c"/"d" part markers. Some of our newer Styles Sets are MultiStyles, typically with 4 substyles, but some Techno Styles have 24 substyles. You can easily make your own MultiStyles, either from scratch, or combining parts from existing Styles. For example, if you have 10 favorite Country Styles, you can quickly make a single MultiStyle that has 20 substyles available within the same song.
The Band-in-a-Box Medley Maker allows you to combine multiple Band-in-a-Box songs into one song for a continuous performance. But a medley is not simply joining songs together - a good medley uses a "transition" area between songs, to introduce the new style, key, and tempo. The Medley Maker automatically creates a nice transition area for you.
Enter songs into Band-in-a-Box (chords and melody), aquire completed Band-in-a-Box songs from other sources, import MIDI files using the MIDI File Chord Wizard which can figure out the chords and import the melody from MIDI files, or use the Audio Chord Wizard, which can interpret a chord progession from an audio file.
Typically, it would take 2-5 minutes to enter the chords to a song, so you could enter chords for 20 songs from a fakebook in about an hour!
Use the StylePicker window to choose an appropriate style for the song - there are over 1700 PG Music styles currently available, and you can get them all in the MegaPAK, SuperPAK, and UltraPAK packages. For popular songs and standards, you can often find a suitable style quickly by searching by song title or artist.
Enter melodies either by recording them with a MIDI keyboard (or Guitar controller), or by entering them manually using your mouse in the editable notation or graphical Piano Roll window. Band-in-a-Box offers one of the quickest methods of notation entry available.
Listen to the song in Band-in-a-Box, and practice it to learn chords and melody. Learn the melody by focusing in on it - mute all tracks except for the melody, loop sections of the song, watch the notation in the Lead Sheet window, watch the on-screen guitar fretboard and piano keyboard, and step-advance through the song note-by-note or chord-by-chord.
Piano players can learn the voicings being used in the song by looking at the Notation and Lead Sheet Window, or by watching the Big Piano Window.
Guitar players can learn the guitar part by watching the guitar tab in the Notation and Lead Sheet Windows, or by watching the on-screen Guitar Fretboard Window.
For transposing instruments such as saxophone, trumpet, and clarinet, you can set a visual transpose so that the chords and notation are written in the correct key for your instrument.
Use keyboard shortcuts (hotkeys) to easily step-advance forward and backward in the notation window, one chord or note at a time.
Start with a slow tempo, and gradually increase the tempo as you learn the song.
Lyrics can be entered and displayed karaoke style in the Big Lyrics Window, making Band-in-a-Box a great way for Vocalists to learn tunes.
Save all of the songs that you are learning in a single folder, and use the Jukebox to play them, either alphabetically or in random order.
Band-in-a-Box is the perfect practice companion because you can input a song, play your instrument of choice and let Band-in-a-Box take care of the rest. Band-in-a-Box takes the place of all the other members of your band!
If you plan on playing one of the instruments that is already in a style, you can mute that instrument.
You can define a favorite key and "each time a song is loaded" Band-in-a-Box will optionally transpose all loaded songs to that key. This is a great feature for practicing in a certain key.
It is essential to practice in many different keys, and there are advanced Transpose features that will automatically change the key every chorus by a regular or random interval, and much more!
The Chord Breaks feature is great for practicing tempo control. Select the # of bars, and Band-in-a-Box will play for, say 4 bars, and then will rest all instruments for the next 4 bars. During the silence, you keep playing (comping, drums, melody, etc.), trying to stay in tempo.
A useful feature for aspiring improvisational musicians is the Soloist trade 4's function: Band-in-a-Box will create a solo every 2, 4, or 8 bars and stop soloing after each interval is complete, allowing time for you to try your hand after hearing what Band-in-a-Box has to offer.
To be proficient at any song you should be able to play it at practically any tempo; with Band-in-a-Box, you can start practicing the song at a very slow speed and gradually increase the tempo.
The Practice Window allows you to quickly and easily access any of your PG Music tutorial programs and add-ons from within Band-in-a-Box. This is also a central location where many Band-in-a-Box features useful to learning can be launched.
With the loop functions in Band-in-a-Box it's easy to go over the tough section of any song until you can nail it every time!
Band-in-a-Box is a sight-reading practice tool as well. The Melodist will create an infinite number of unique songs for you, so you'll never run out of new songs to practice with.
If you can't take your computer with you to your practice space then you can burn a CD of your song and practice as much as you want away from the computer!
You can print out notation for all of the instrument parts from the Lead sheet window, so you and your band can practice away from the computer.
The Audio Chord Wizard will detect the chords in your favorite Audio files (MP3s, CD tracks, etc.) and display them on-screen. You can then practice playing along using the chords detected by Band-in-a-Box.
Band-in-a-Box can play up to 40 choruses for those extra long practice or jam sessions.
Use the song exercises in the 'Practice' folder to practice frequently used chord progressions. These songs have typical chord progressions in swing and straight 8th feels, and range from very easy to quite difficult. This is a great way to practice improvising.
Improve your improvisation using the Soloist. It is good practice to analyze and learn parts of the solos.
For vocal practice, the Big lyrics Window will show lyrics karaoke-style as the song is playing, and the Vocal Wizard will transpose any song to the best key for a singer's vocal range.
Guitar and keyboard players can practice different comping techniques in a variety of styles. You can vary the tempo, mute the other instruments, and watch the notes play on the on-screen keyboard and guitar fretboard.
To make a song easier or harder to practice, you can automatically reduce chord and note durations by 1/2, or expand them by 2.
Import an MP3 or an audio CD track and slow down the music to 1/2, 1/4, or 1/8 of the original speed - great for practicing transcription, or trying to learn a tune.
Practice playing or singing in harmony - generate a melody harmony type, for example 'Trumpet/Sax 3rds' or 'Barbershop QT close harmony' (choose from over 200), then use the Lead Sheet window to view the notation and mute the part you want to play.
Easily loop any section of the song. The program will start playback at the first loop point and play the looped section until stop is pressed or looping is turned off. This feature is handy for looping a full chorus or other section of a song for practice or performance.
Band-in-a-Box is great for one-person live performances - you play your instrument and Band-in-a-Box is the rest of your band.
The Conductor Window allows complete control over a song while it is playing, by pressing keys on your MIDI keyboard or computer keyboard. For example, if the last chorus is playing you can easily extend the length of the song. You can also set loop points "on the fly". The loops happen seamlessly so are suitable for the "dance floor".
When you use the Wizard Playalong feature, you can play either your computer (qwerty) keyboard or MIDI keyboard, and Band-in-a-Box will intelligently transpose each note you play so that it is "correct" (i.e. so it sounds good with the song). This means that you can solo along to a song without ever hitting a wrong note!
Use the Soloist's "Solo Wizard" during live playback. This instructs the Soloist to play only when you press a key on your computer or Piano keyboard.
The Vocal Wizard transposes the song to the best key for a singer's vocal range, and it can do this automatically for every song loaded, based on your preferences.
For karaoke style performances, use the Big Lyrics Window - this will display chords and/or lyrics as the song is playing, with a customizable size, color, and font.
Audio Karaoke files are popular using several formats; the most common is CDG format, which includes the lyrics in graphical format on Audio CD's. Since a computer doesn't typically use audio CD's, there is a format that combines MP3 (containing the music) and CDG (the graphical lyrics). You can open up MP3/CDG files inside Band-in-a-Box and see the scrolling lyrics from your Karaoke files, using the Karaoke Window. Best of all, you can use the Audio Chord Wizard to figure out the chords as well, making Band-in-a-Box a great choice to play your Karaoke files!
Use the Jukebox to play a folder of songs, or use the Favorite Songs window to play saved sets of songs.
With realtime MIDI harmonies, you can play a MIDI keyboard, and Band-in-a-Box will harmonize the notes you play in real-time according to the chords of the song.
Band-in-a-Box supports the TranzPort control surface, which is a hardware device that allows you to control Band-in-a-Box remotely, through walls from up to 30 feet away! The TranzPort unit (purchased separately) has a backlit LCD screen that shows you chords, and a number of buttons that allow control of many Band-in-a-Box functions.
You can use simple keystroke commands to loop sections of a song. For example, live performers can loop middle and last choruses so that the music will continue while the dance floor is full, or jump to the last chorus or ending if it's time for the tune to end!
When performing live or at a jam session, it helps to have the volume of all of the songs be similar. With the MIDI Normalize feature, you can level the volumes to a range set in the program options. For example, you can set all volumes to be between 65 and 75, and the program will make each song play within those levels.
The Band-in-a-Box Medley Maker allows you to combine multiple Band-in-a-Box songs into one song for continuous live performances. Inside the Medley Maker, simply select the songs that you want, and Band-in-a-Box will make the medley for you. A medley is not simply joining songs together -a good medley uses a "transition" area between songs, to introduce the new style, key, and tempo. The Medley Maker automatically creates a nice transition area for you, writing in chords that would smoothly transition to the next song/style/key/tempo!
You can quickly choose a Fadeout ending, just press the Fade button in Song Settings, and Band-in-a-Box will fadeout the last "X" bars of the song (you can specify how many bars). Or customize the fadeout with precise values for each bar.
Ear training is an important exercise for all musicians, and you can practice and sharpen your ear training with help from Band-in-a-Box. In addition to the common interval exercises (perfect 4th, minor 2nd , etc.), learning to "play-by-ear" for Jazz and Pop music is further enhanced by ear training exercises to recognize common chord types (e.g. Major, Minor, Dominant).
Using the Ear Training window's "Interval Tutor" module, Band-in-a-Box will play an interval and it's your job to guess what it is. To guess an interval, you click on the appropriate up or down interval. You can have the interval replayed if you didn't get it the first time.
There are a number of settings that you can use to determine the key that you want the intervals to play in, the difficulty level of the interval, or what type of interval you want to practice. For example, you can have the first note be the root of the key (easier) or it can be any tone (harder).
Band-in-a-Box keeps track of your score, and displays it in the dialog, allowing you to monitor your progress.
Use the Ear Training Window's Chord Tutor module for practice learning and recognizing different chords. Band-in-a-Box will play a chord and you will have to identify the chord type (for example, major, maj7, minor). A more advanced option will have you guessing the both the chord type AND root.
Optionally show the notes on the on-screen piano keyboard while you are guessing the chords. If you are an advanced musician, seeing the notes on the piano during the guessing game would be "cheating," since you'd probably quickly recognize the chord. However, a beginner would benefit from this.
Other options in the Chord Tutor include "types of roots and chords to use", "extensions to include", and "voicing types" (open, closed, etc.), allowing you to customize the ear training exercises for beginner through to advanced.
Pitch Invasion is a full-featured arcade-style game included with Band-in-a-Box. "Aliens" descend upon your home planet, intent on destroying your prized collection of musical instruments. It's your job to blast them out of the sky by recognizing the pitch that they are playing!
In Pitch Invasion, you can customize the number of different notes that the aliens will play, as well as the speed at which they travel. Develop perfect pitch with this amazing ear training tool!
Music Replay is another great arcade-style game included in Band-in-a-Box. This game is designed to teach you how to recognize and play back melodies and rhythms. The program will play a melody, and it's your task to play the same melody back, either using a MIDI keyboard (if you have one) or your mouse and computer keyboard.
Music Replay features 3 different games that focus on developing three different musical skills. "Replay Note" is a game where you need to play back an ever-increasing series of notes. It's primary function is to develop the player's pitch-recognition skills. In "Replay Rhythm" a series of 1 bar rhythmic phrases are played and you try to play them back as closely as you can. This develops the player's ability to recognize and play different rhythms. "Replay Melody" is a combination of the two. 1 bar melodies are played, and you need to play them back with correct pitches & with the correct rhythm.
Generate a Solo, then mute all tracks except for the solo track. At a slow tempo, try to copy everything the Soloist is playing without looking at the screen. Band-in-a-Box can generate an endless number of different solos, so you'll never run out of material for this exercise.
There are many ways to use Band-in-a-Box for ear training, including interval and chord tutor modules, and arcade-style games to develop specific musical skills.
With the Soloist and Melodist, a huge amount of sight-reading material can be generated. You can select the key you want the songs to be generated in, the style of music, the song form, and much more.
An excellent way for a horn player to practice sight-reading is to start with a single line melody, use the MIDI harmony feature to add a harmony (over 200 different harmony types are available), then view the track in the Lead Sheet window. You have control over each individual harmony voice, for example you could mute the voice that you want play.
The Harmonization features give you a great opportunity to study how harmonies are made. Once band-in-a-Box has generated a harmony, convert it to the melody track (so you can see the notation) and analyze each of the voices.
Band-in-a-Box is a huge knowledge base of styles, especially if you have the MegaPAK, SuperPAK, or UltraPAK. Use Band-in-a-Box to analyze and learn about different styles of music.
Teachers could have a group of people read from the lead sheet window - increase the font size, reduce staves per page, and turn on the scroll-ahead feature. With scroll-ahead you can see what's coming up, which simulates what people do naturally when reading music from a "real" book.
By listening and watching different instrument tracks in the notation window, you can learn how the different instruments in the band, and different voices of a harmony, work together.
One of the most import sections is the rhythm section - Band-in-a-Box offers a great way to see how things are put together in the rhythm section. For example, open a FreddieG style and study the guitar part by muting the other instruments and watching the fretboard and tab. Or, use the Guitar Tutor which will show you rhythm guitar chords for any song.
Reharmonizing a song with the Chord Substitution Wizard is a fun and educational way to perform or practice a familiar song in a brand new way. For example, if you had chords such as "Dm7 G7 Cmaj7", a list of substitutions including the tritone substitution "Dm7 Db7b5 Cmaj7" would be offered to you. There are also helpful comments associated with each substitution, showing you why a given substitution might work in each case.
In the Notation Window, notes can be displayed in different colors, and/or with the note names inside them. The colors and names can be 'absolute', or relative to chord or key. The default color scheme is the one introduced by the Russian composer Scriabin.
In the Chords Window, you can set the chords to be displayed in Roman Numeral (ex. IIm7, V7, Imaj7), Nashville (ex. 2m7, 57, 1maj7), or Solfeggio (ex. Rem7, So7, DoMaj7) notation.
You can display a visible metronome on-screen during the entire song (or just the lead-in). Seeing a metronome on-screen is a great way for a student to learn to keep on the beat, and with a settable size, students can view this from across the room.
Guitar and Bass: The animated Guitar Fretboard Window displays any track playing on an on-screen fretboard. The fretboard can be set to one of over 10 different guitar tunings (for example DADGAD, Double Drop D, and Nashville High-Strung), as well as Bass, Mandolin, Banjo, and Ukulele.
Guitar: Use the Guitar Chord Tutor to analyze any song. This feature will play rhythm guitar chords for any song on the guitar fretboard, in your choice of a Jazz, Pop, or Folk perspective.
Guitar: The Guitarist allows you to generate a guitar chord solo for any melody. Band-in-a-Box will intelligently arrange the melody to a guitar chord solo by inserting real guitar voicings throughout the piece. Learning a guitar chord solo can be intimidating, however with Band-in-a-Box you can slow it down, and loop each screen while watching the fretboard and tab.
Guitar and Bass: The Notation and Lead Sheet windows will display tab on the Guitar and Bass tracks, and optionally the Melody and Solo tracks. Guitar Chord Diagrams can also be displayed, with your choice of Pop, Folk, or Jazz style voicings. Guitar Chord Diagrams for Ukulele, Banjo, and Mandolin are also available.
Guitar and Bass: A Guitar Tuner is included with Band-in-a-Box. The Guitar Tuner includes a tone generator to give you an audible tuning reference, as well as a pitch meter, fine-adjustment controls, a hum filter, and more.
Guitar: Band-in-a-Box Add-ons like the Master Jazz Guitar Solos, 101 Essential Riffs for Bluegrass Guitar, 101 Essential Riffs for Country Guitar, and 101 Essential Jazz Guitar Phrases allow you to learn exactly how the pros play.
Piano: The on-screen Big Piano Window can display the notes of any track on a sizable piano keyboard. You can set the range of the keyboard and number of octaves. Also, you can optionally display the note names or guide notes - showing the scale notes of the current key.
Piano: Band-in-a-Box Add-on products like the Master Swingin' Jazz Piano Solos, 101 Essential Riffs for Blues Piano, and 101 Essential Phrases for Jazz Piano allow you to learn the techniques of the pros.
Piano: Study harmonies, for example "Nat Cole Piano (drop 2)", or focus on the piano track of various styles to learn different piano voicing techniques.
Drums: When learning drum technique, start by using the Band-in-a-Box metronome at a slow speed. This keeps your tempo steady and gives you an indication of your progress as you are able to increase the tempo. Then try muting the drum track and playing along with Band-in-a-Box songs. There is a sizable visual metronome that can be used as well, and you can choose to still hear the count-in even if the drums are muted.
Drums: The Chord Breaks feature is great for practicing tempo control. Select the # of bars, and Band-in-a-Box will play for, say 4 bars (selectable), and then will rest all instruments for the next 4 bars. During the silence, you keep playing (comping, drums, melody, etc.), trying to stay in tempo.
Drums: You won't be able to get enough of the RealDrums - choose a style, then solo the RealDrums track and hear precisely how a professional musician plays the drums in any style. Listen to how the drum technique changes at different tempos. Get ALL of the RealDrums styles in the SuperPAK or UltraPAK!
Horns: For transposing instruments such as saxophone, trumpet, and clarinet, you can set a visual transpose so that the chords and notation are written in the correct key for your instrument.
Horns: An excellent way for a horn player to practice sight-reading is to start with a single line melody, use the MIDI harmony feature to add a harmony (over 200 different harmony types are available), then view the track in the Lead Sheet window. You have control over each individual harmony voice, for example you could mute the voice that you want play. The Harmonization feature also gives you a great opportunity to study how harmonies are made.
You can easily make and print out a custom fakebook of all of your tunes with selectable margins, portrait or landscape (sideways) views, and paper size. You can also transpose parts to print out for trumpet /sax players, etc.
Band-in-a-Box can print out full Lead sheets of all of the instrument parts within a song for practicing or performing away from the computer. You can print only chord and melody in a typical lead sheet style, or print multiple tracks of Notation on the same sheet.
If you've got a song with lyrics, Band-in-a-Box can print out a multiple chorus lyrics sheet or print out the lyrics along with the notation. You can add "section text" throughout the song (e.g. statements like "Solo starts here").
There are many other customizable options for Lead sheet printouts including: Title area, Style, Composer, Tempo, Copyright, Bars per Line, Staves per page, Clefs, Chords, Bar #'s, Guitar/Bass Tab, Guitar Chord Diagrams, and Lyrics. You can even print out a blank sheets of music paper.
You can choose the fonts you want to print with. Band-in-a-Box includes an excellent Jazz music font - this font has a "handwritten manuscript" look, and it's a great alternative to music fonts that look too "computerized." Also, Jazz and Pop music often use certain non-alphabetic symbols for chord types, and these can be printed out as well. These include a delta (triangle) for major chords, a circle for diminished, and a circle with a slash for half-diminished.
Band-in-a-Box will automatically make adjustments to attempt to fit your song on 1 page if possible (similar to fakebooks).
A typical lead sheet printout contains 1st/2nd endings, repeats, coda, tag, and sign markings. You can add these repeats to an existing Band-in-a-Box song that has already been entered in "linear" fashion (i.e. without repeats).
You can save your lead sheet as various types of graphics files, including BMP, JPG, and PNG. Choose a BMP file to have an exact rendition of the screen to paste in another application, or choose a compressed format such as JPG or PNG for internet use or emailing.
Here are just a few "real world" examples of how some of our customers are using Band-in-a-Box
Gigging with Band-in-a-Box: Charlie is a piano player who uses his MIDI keyboard with Band-in-a-Box. He has Band-in-a-Box on his laptop computer, and he's playing a one-man-band show at a local restaurant. He would like to play his keyboard along with Band-in-a-Box (Band-in-a-Box will play the rest of the instruments), but also use the keyboard to control the flow of the song. Using the Conductor, he can control song playback by looping sections, extending choruses, and so on - all "on-the-fly".
He sets the conductor to allow his MIDI keyboard lowest note B to turn the Conductor mode on. When he's not pressing the low B note, he can play his keyboard normally. If he wants to pause the song, he holds down the low B note as he presses the MIDI key for pause. The song will pause, and the conductor mode turns off as he lets go of the low B key, so he can resume his piano playing.
Composing songs with the Melodist: Tom is using the Melodist to come up with jingles for a radio commercial. He opens the Melodist dialog, chooses a Melodist from the genre "Light Rock 8ths", and lets the Melodist generate a song with chords and melody. This takes a couple of seconds. He then re-generates a few tunes using the same Melodist until he finds one he likes. This song is royalty-free and he can use it however he pleases.
Next, he goes through the song and adds some of his own touches by changing a few of the melody notes in the editable notation window, and uses the Chord Substitution window to change a few of the chord progressions. To finish up, he Direct Renders the tune to a wave file.
SoundTrack production: Allison is a yoga instructor, and is also working on putting together a 30 minute video with an introduction to yoga techniques. Using Band-in-a-Box, she selects the SoundTrack style "Healing1 - Meditative Soundtrack", then uses the SoundTrack Generator to create a soothing soundtrack for her video, rendering it to an audio file.
Learning chords in MP3's or audio CDs: Justin is 15 years old, and learning to play guitar. He is learning chords, and likes to figure out rock and country songs by listening to his MP3 files (or audio CD's) while he plays along on guitar. With Band-in-a-Box's Audio Chord Wizard, Justin can load in the songs, and it will automatically figure out the chords. He can then play along instantly to his favorite songs. Sometimes he'll display the chords in the Band-in-a-Box chord sheet window, where he can print out a chord chart for the whole song - other members of his band can then learn the tune as well.
Practicing piano comping: Jacques is learning Jazz piano, and has a fakebook with 5 standards that his instructor wants him to practice for next week. He enters the songs into Band-in-a-Box in 1/2 hour (about 3 minutes per song), selecting appropriate Jazz styles for each of them. He then mutes the piano track and plays along on his piano while Band-in-a-Box accompanies him on Drums, Bass, and Guitar. He usually starts off fairly slowly, then gradually increases the tempo. Before his next lesson, to test himself, he sets the Jukebox to play his songs in random order.
Learning to improvise: Xavier is learning tenor sax, and is practicing improvising over common chord progressions in all keys. He loads in the file "2-5-1 progression - cycle of 4ths" from the Jazz Practice folder, selects the Soloist "JHenderson Tenor Sax", and lets Band-in-a-Box create an original solo over the whole song. Then he opens the notation window, slows the tempo right down, and analyzes the solo track, learning parts of it by looping the screen. As part of his routine, he'll practice other 4 bar chord progression by typing the chords in himself in a single key and then have Band-in-a-Box transpose them to all 12 keys. Using the Practice Window, he can keep a special 'Practice Folder' of the exercises he creates, and easily transpose the notation for tenor sax.
Learning Rhythm Guitar: Greg is interested in learning some rhythm guitar techniques, so he loads in a FreddyG Rhythm Guitar style and demo song, and opens the Guitar Fretboard window. Step-Advancing chord-by-chord while watching the on-screen fretboard is an easy and intuitive way for him to learn the guitar chords.
Recording a song from a MIDI keyboard: Danielle has a MIDI keyboard. She has never learned to read music, but has composed a complete song on her keyboard that she wants to put on her website. Using Band-in-a-Box, she selects a blank style (so Band-in-a-Box doesn't play an accompaniment), and records her song from her MIDI keyboard using the metronome.
After recording, she uses the graphical (no music notation) Piano Roll window to correct a few wrong notes. She finds a (third party) VSTi synth with an amazing piano sound, so she uses this synth in Band-in-a-Box to play her recorded song. She then directly converts her song to a WMA (Windows Media Audio) file and uploads the file so that it streams from her website.
Practicing tunes with any instrument: John (age 57), wants to practice his trumpet, rehearsing for 20 tunes that he will be performing with his band at a show. So he types in the chords for the songs (a typical song can be entered in 3 minutes, so that takes him an hour). Then he transposes the notation for his Bb trumpet so he can see the notation in the correct key. He has a 3 year old desktop computer and doesn't have any special soundcard or MIDI keyboards. For sound output, he chooses the Roland VSC DXi software synthesizer (included with Band-in-a-Box) which gives him great sound to practice along with.
Sight-reading Classical tunes: Eileen is learning to play classical flute. She has the Band-in-a-Box Classical MIDI Fakebooks, containing hundreds of classical tunes. She mutes the Melody track, and with the Lead Sheet window open, plays the melody part herself. She loops and slows down difficult sections of the song so she can learn them.
Full production of your own audio CD: George sings and plays guitar for country songs that he loves to write. He wants to make a CD of his songs. He selects a country style, then records a vocal track using a microphone connected to his computer. He then uses the Audio Harmonizer to add audio harmonies to his vocals during the chorus sections. Next, he overdubs his vocals with a guitar track, and adds a touch of reverb to the audio track. Finally, he renders his song and burns an audio CD using the included CD burning software... all done entirely within Band-in-a-Box.
Learning to play drums: Tracy is learning drums. Her technique is to start by using the Band-in-a-Box metronome at a slow speed. This keeps her tempo steady and gives her an indication of her progress as she is able to increase the tempo. She'll then mute the drum track, playing along with regular Band-in-a-Box songs. She sometimes uses the Chord Break feature to practice keeping time, or isolates the RealDrums track (mutes all other tracks), allowing her to hear precisely how a professional musician plays drums in any style.
Learning new guitar riffs: Carlos (age 32) has been playing Bluegrass guitar for many years, and wants to add some great sounding generic riffs to his arsenal. Using the Band-in-a-Box add-on 101 Essential Riffs for Bluegrass Guitar (which was included in his UltraPAK), he learns each 4-bar riff by looping, watching the fretboard, and slowing it down.
Practicing vocal harmonies: Arron (age 48) has started a Barbershop group with some friends and wants to practice singing the tenor part in a Barbershop 4-part harmony. He has some MIDI files of songs that he wants to practice, and so he imports the melody and chords into Band-in-a-Box. He selects the Melody Harmony "Barbershop Qt. close harmony", and opens the lead sheet window so he can study each of the harmony voices independently. First, he listens to all of the harmony voices together - then he mutes the tenor voice and practices singing along. He has also purchased the Barbshop Quartet, and he uses the Practice Window to open this program directly from Band-in-a-Box.