Band-in-a-Box: Makes Great Computer Music

By Thomas E Rudolph, Director of Music, Haverford Township Schools

Band-in-a-Box by PGMusic is a fascinating program that has many applications for the jazz ensemble at all levels. Think of Band-in-a-Box as a MIDI sequencer that can generate rhythm section parts, harmonies, and solos at the touch of a button. The cool part about Band-in-a-Box is that it was designed by professional jazz musicians and sounds great. The program is versatile and can be used in many ways. In this article I will feature some of my favorite applications using Band-in-a-Box (BIAB).

Warm-up Tool

One of my staff members called BIAB the coolest metronome ever invented. I often begin my jazz ensemble rehearsals with a call/response activity where I play licks and the students answer me back. I enter the chord changes for the warm-up in BIAB, select the appropriate style and tempo and begin. When my drummer is ready, I mute the drums in BIAB and let him play along. Gradually, I mute the rest of the rhythm section parts until the entire band is playing live.
I also use BIAB when teaching my jazz improvisation class. It allows me to select any style and to change the tempo and key at will. Also, since songs can be saved to disk, I now have more than 200 tunes that I can re-use from year to year.

Creating Music-Minus-One Recordings

Before I had BIAB, I used to hire a rhythm section to come and record the rhythm tracks for my tunes so students could have a practice tape. Now I use BIAB and simply type in the chords and select the appropriate style. I can then create practice recordings for students on cassette or CD. I make cassette tape recordings for students by plugging the output of my MIDI keyboard into the input of the tape deck.

Printing Rhythm Section Parts

BIAB can also print out any of the parts it creates including bass, piano, melody, and drums. BIAB is not a full-feature notation program, but it has many basic printing capabilities. Every time I come across a chart that requires a written out walking bass part, I can save time using BIAB. First, I type in the chord changes and select the appropriate style. I select the appropriate style, in this case Jazz Swing. This will create a walking bass part. When I press the play button, BIAB instantly creates the parts. To print out the bass part, I select Notation and then B for Bass. The part can be transposed up so it reads in the correct octave and printed out. Other parts such as the piano part and the melody can also be printed.

Creating Solos

BIAB also has an innovative Soloist feature. With this you can select from dozens of Jazz artists and BIAB will create an original solo in the style of the artist over the chord changes entered in the tune. Often, I use this to create solos to print out for sight-reading and for practice. For example, I recently rehearsed a chart and wanted to print out some solos and licks. I entered the chords into BIAB and then selected the Soloist feature. I choose Miles Davis. BIAB then created an original solo in the style of Miles Davis over the chord changes I had typed in.

It is also possible to limit the range of the solos using the Soloist editor. This is an excellent feature for younger performers. For my trumpet students, I often limit the range from C below the staff in the treble staff to F on the top line. This can be done by remembering the MIDI note number 60 equals middle C. If I want to limit the range from C to F top line, I enter the numbers 60 and 77 into the Soloist editor range box. BIAB will now create a solo in the style of Miles Davis limited to the range entered. I print out these solos and use them for sight-reading and for students to study and analyze.

Composing Arrangements

Another fascinating feature of BIAB is the harmonization capability. This feature works similar to the Soloist. A variety of harmonized styles can be selected, for example, Fred Shearing Piano or Super Sax. This can be a neat feature to demonstrate chordal harmonies and styles. First enter the chords, record the melody, and then select the appropriate harmony style.

If you write jazz arrangements, consider using this feature to save time in the scoring process. For example, I frequently want to create a 5-part hamronization of a melody. This can be done in BIAB and then the file can be exported to a notation program such as Finale or Sibelius for editing. The first step is to enter the chord changes. Then record the melody. Next, select the Melody Harmony feature and then the style you want to use. For brass parts I often use the drop 2 four-part voicing.

After listening to the example and if it is satisfactory, I then save it as a Standard MIDI file and open it in my notation program (such as Finale or Sibelius). When I import the file, the BIAB harmonized parts are each on a separate staff. I then select the proper transposition and print out the parts. Using BIAB, an arrangement can be constructed in a fraction of the time it takes to create by hand.

Students Composing Chord Progressions

BIAB is easy to use. Students can learn to enter chord changes and improvise solos and print them out for study and analysis. I show my jazz improvisation students how to enter chords and encourage them to compose variations on chord progressions we are learning. They can experiment with chord substitutions and then play and improvise over the changes.

Summary

BIAB is a fabulous tool for jazz instruction, practice, and arranging. There are many ways to use the program by teachers and students. Once you've spent some time using BIAB you will find countless ways to enhance your jazz curriculum.