anyone using Band in a box to learn?

[Dewdman42]

I am learning bass. I have BIAB UltraPak+ already. What are some good ways to use this program for learning bass (besides just muting the bass track and playing along, which is obviously a great practice feature).

I'm looking at ways to inspect bass grooves that are provided in the program to learn an and play those lines and grooves myself. Well the computer generated ones often seem to be kind of simplistic. There are a couple of bass instrument studies they did where an actual artist played in the bass part, and the notation is there, etc. Those are great but there are only a couple of them.

Wondering about any advice at all for using this software to expand my bass theory and playing, in addition to the fact that I can throw in any chord progression I want and choose from thousands of styles, mute the bass part and see what I come up with.

 

[Snarf]

I used it a TON in a jazz context, mainly in high school. When I went to Big Name Music School, I discovered that if I played with people that didn't play like Band In A Box, I got thrown off pretty easily. Had to correct that, pronto.

If you're using it as a jazz tool, I humbly suggest that you don't. It doesn't sound like you are, but I just want to put that out there for anyone else checking out this thread. It's better to practice by yourself, probably with a metronome. That way you're fully responsible for making the harmony clear through the bass line, and don't have a canned track to fall back on.

I can't really speak for using it with other styles. I just kinda think it's better to learn and play along to existing songs.

 

[longfinger]

Re: "Real Styles" - Check out all the afro-cuban bass parts and the bass parts in many ballroom styles.

Have BiaB make the PDF of bass notation and you can use that to read the music as you play with the program and bass, and with the bass part muted.

Great reading exercises, as well as learning basics of a multitude of styles.

Only do that with the "Real Styles", and maybe the "Super MIDI" styles. Forget the old ZZ styles or the regular ones.