User Guide

Chapter 2: QuickStart

Creating music with Band-in-a-Box is as easy as 1-2-3! In this chapter, you’ll see how easy it is to get started with

Band-in-a-Box.

Step 1 – Typing in the Chords

There are numerous ways of entering chords into Band-in-a-Box, we’ll discuss six of them:

1. Using the computer keyboard.

2. Playing directly on a MIDI controller keyboard.

3. Using the Chord Builder feature.

4. Importing chords from a MIDI file.

5. Importing chords from an audio file (WAV, MP3, WMA, WMV) with the Audio Chord Wizard.

6. Loading an existing Band-in-a-Box format song.

On the main screen of the program, you’ll see an area called the chordsheet.

Band-in-a-Box main screen showing chordsheet.

Each of the numbered cells on the chordsheet represents a bar. In this example, we see that there is an E chord in

the first bar of this song, an A chord in bar 5, and later in the song, an E7 in bar 12. 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 click on any bar with 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, to add (or

change) a chord in bar 10, you would highlight bar 10 on the chordsheet. Next, type in your chords. If you want an

A chord at bar 10, type the A key on your keyboard, and press [Enter]. Notice that when you use the enter key, the

highlight cell moves to the second half of the bar. You could then enter another chord at beat 3. Chords names are

normally 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, Solfeggio, and Fixed Do

(popular in Italy and other parts of Europe).

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. Play a chord on your

MIDI keyboard, and then type Ctrl+Enter. The chord will be entered into the chordsheet at the current highlight