User Guide

Table Of Contents
Chapter 2: QuickStart Tutorial
15
Loading an existing Band-in-a-Box format song
Press the [song] button. The first time you use this button, Band-in-a-Box will offer to build a song
list for you. We’ve included many demo songs for you to use, and they are listed in the song list.
You could also load a pre-existing song by using the File | Open song… menu item, or by pressing the F3 function
key, which will launch the familiar Macintosh file dialog. Note that most songs will automatically load a “Style,”
which we’ll learn about in the next section.
Going to the next step …
Now that you have chords on your chordsheet, you are ready to move on to Step 2 – Choosing a Style.
Step 2 – Choose a Style
Band-in-a-Box creates backing arrangements based on the chords you type in, applied to a particular Style.
What’s a Style?
A style is a set of rules that determine how Band-in-a-Box creates music using your chords. By adjusting the rules,
we have created hundreds of styles that are appropriate for everything from Country to Bebop. Some style examples
would be Jazz Swing, Blues Shuffle, Hip Hop, Country 4/4, Pop Ballad, Waltz and Medium Rock to name just a
few. If you don’t find a pre-made style that suits your tastes, create one from scratch using the StyleMaker. Making
custom styles with the StyleMaker is explained in detail in the full documentation.
Four Fast ways to Open a Style
Method 1: From Disk
To open a user style from disk, you can use the menu command User | Load Style From Disk or type Command+U.
You will be presented with the Open Style dialog from which you can select a specific style from the Styles folder.
Method 2: The StylePicker
You can use the StylePicker window to select your style. Select the [Style] button above the
Chordsheet to open the Select Style window.
Selecting a Style using the StylePicker.