User Guide

Chapter 2: QuickStart Tutorial
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Chapter 2: QuickStart Tutorial
Creating music with Band-in-a-Box is as easy as 1-2-3! In this tutorial, you’ll see just how easy it is to get Band-
in-a-Box making music for you.
Step 1 – Enter the Chords
There are numerous ways of entering chords into Band-in-a-Box. We’ll discuss five fast ways of entering chords:
1. Using the Computer Keyboard
2. Playing directly on a MIDI Controller Keyboard
3. Using the Chord Builder
4. Importing Chords from a MIDI file
5. Loading an Existing Band-in-a-Box Format Song
On the main screen of the program, you’ll see an area called the Chordsheet.
Each of the numbered cells on the Chordsheet represents a bar. In this example, you can see that there is an F6
chord in the first bar of this song. Similarly, one row down, you can see an F6 chord in bar 5, and later in the song,
a G7 in bar 7.
Notice the box in the first half of bar 1. This is the highlight cell, and it represents the bar you are currently working
on. You can move the highlight cell around using the cursor keys, or select a specific bar using the mouse.
Enter Chords Using the Computer Keyboard
To enter a specific chord, move the highlight cell to where you want to place the chord. For example, if you wanted
to add (or change) a chord in bar 20, you would highlight bar 20 on the Chordsheet. Next, type in your chords. If
you want an F7 at bar 2, type F and 7 on your keyboard and press Return. Notice that when you use the Return
key, the highlight cell moves to the second half of the bar. You could then enter another chord at beat 3. Chords are
commonly typed using standard chord symbols (like C or Fm7 or Bb7 or Bb13#9/E), but you can enter them in any
of the supported chord symbol display formats like Roman Numerals, Nashville Notation, and Solfeggio.
Enter Chords Using a MIDI Controller Keyboard
If you have a MIDI controller keyboard, you can use it to enter chords into Band-in-a-Box. First, you must make
sure that your cables are properly connected and you have the correct input drivers selected.
If you play a chord on your MIDI keyboard, and then press Ctrl+Enter, the chord will be entered into the
Chordsheet at the current highlight cell position.