Technical information

Chapter 6: Band-in-a-Box PowerGuide

- Use 3 for a sharp #, e.g. for F#7 type f37.

- Use / for slash chords with alternate roots, e.g. C7/E (C7 w/E bass).

- Use a comma to separate the ½ bar, enabling you to enter 2 chords in a cell. In the example below, we would

type Ab9,G9 to get the 2 chords in the cell on beat 3 and 4 of bar 2.

Note: We're able to type A7#9 as “a739” because Band-in-a-Box knows to use the uppercase of the 3, which is #. The >

indicates a carriage return, or the Enter key.

You can also enter chords from an external MIDI keyboard using the Window | MIDI chord detection… feature.

Play the chord on the keyboard, then press Ctrl+Enter to insert the chord into the chordsheet on the first beat of the

current chord cell, i.e., beat 1 or beat 3 of the bar. Use Ctrl+Shift+Enter to insert the chord on the next beat, i.e.,

beat 2 or beat 4 of the bar.

Copy and Pasting Section of Chords

One of the best ways to copy chords is by pressing Alt+C, which launches the Copy Chords and/or melody dialog.

This allows you to copy chords/ melody/ soloist/ lyrics for a range of bars by entering the From and To locations and

the number of bars to copy. Select the checkboxes for the items you want to include in the copy.

Insert Bars at destination

If selected prior to the Copy bars will be inserted onto the Chordsheet at the destination chosen.

# of times to repeat copy

If set to more than one, multiple copies will be made, optionally with transpositions on each copy. These are all

applied to the first chorus only.

With each copy, transpose ___ semitones

If more than one copy is selected, this will transpose the song with each copy. This is most useful when wanting to

learn a short phrase ("riff") in different keys, or modulating a section of a song.

Random # of semitones

This will transpose the copy a random transposition and would be useful for advanced students who are trying to

master a riff or phrase in all keys.

Copy 1st Chorus to whole song

If set, this will apply any of the copying commands in this dialog to all choruses of the song, not just chorus #1.

This button toggles between [Show More] and [Show Less], depending on whether just the

basic functions or all Copy functions are displayed.