In Lesson Three you'll learn about selecting text and selecting measures. Selecting text makes it easy to copy and paste chords and chord qualities from one measure to another. Selecting measures makes it easy to copy and paste chord progressions from one section of the song to another. You'll master these techniques by writing a twelve bar blues with six choruses that modulates through the keys of C-G-D-Bb-F-C. You'll copy and paste chord text, copy and paste chord progressions, transpose chords, rewrite a specific chorus with new chords, and use the Chord Display View during playback.

Open the Six Step Blues First you'll modify the Six Step Blues you created and saved in Lesson One. If you didn't save the Six Step Blues, you can easily go back to Lesson One and recreate it.

File / Open Choose the Open command from the File menu. If another song is active, you will be asked if you want to save it; respond appropriately. When the Open File dialog appears, navigate to the directory where you saved "Six Step Blues," then select the "Six Step Blues" file, and click the Open button.

The chord progression for the Six Step Blues you just opened should look like this:

You're going to modify these chords, but first you need to know how to select text and select measures in MiBAC JAZZ.

Selecting Text

In the following picture, the "ab7" chord in measure 8 is selected. You can use the standard cut, copy, paste, and delete commands on the selected text.

Selecting Measures

The following two figures show you how to select measures 2 through 7. To begin the selection, position the arrow cursor within the staff lines of measure 2. You must start the selection within the staff lines.

Hold the mouse button down, drag to measure 7, and release the mouse button. Selected measures are highlighted in black. To turn off the selection, click anywhere in the Chord Text Area outside of the selection.

The Semicircle Blues

Follow the steps below to transform the Six Step Blues into a six chorus blues modulating through the keys of C-G-D-Bb-F-C. Let's call it the Semicircle Blues after the circle of fifths motion of the key changes.

1. Erase the ab7 chord in measure 8 Select the "ab7" chord in measure 8.

Include the space between the two chords in the selection. Then press the delete key to erase the selection.

2. Change measure 1 to the c7#9 chord and then select the #9 quality

3. Copy the #9 quality and paste it into measures 4 and 10

While the "#9" is selected in measure 1, choose the Copy command from the Edit menu. Then click to the right of the "c7" chord in measure 4 to reposition the text cursor, and choose the Paste command from the Edit menu. Do the same in measure 10. The following picture shows the text cursor positioned to the right of the "g7" chord in measure 10 just prior to pasting the "#9" quality.

4. Extend the chorus length to 36 measures and change the tempo to 160

Click the Form tool to open the Song Form dialog. Set the Chorus Length to 36, the Total Choruses to 2, and the Tempo to 160. Click OK.

Your finished song will have six blues choruses, each twelve bars long, contained within two song form choruses, each thirty-six bars long. Here's a chart of the song.

Blues Chorus	Key	Screen Measures	Screen Chorus
1	C	1-12	1
2	G	13-24	1
3	D	25-36	1
4	Bb	1-12	2
5	F	13-24	2
6	C	25-36	2

There are now thirty-six measures on the screen. You may need to resize the window or use the scroll bar to see all thirty-six measures. Measures 1-12 will contain the chord progression and measures 13-36 will be blank.

In steps 5-8 you'll transpose the chords to the key of G, copy them, return to the original key of C, and then paste the transposed chords into measure 13.

5. Transpose the song to the key of G

Click the Transpose tool When the Transpose dialog opens, select the key of G. Click OK, and the chords in measures 1-12 will be transposed to the key of G.

6. Select and copy measures 1-12

Click and drag from measure 1 to measure 12. When all twelve measures are selected, copy the chords by choosing Copy from the Edit menu.

7. Return to the key of C

Click the Transpose tool. When the Transpose dialog opens, select the key of C. Measures 1-12 will return to the key of C, and measures 13-36 will be blank.

8. Paste the chords into measure 13

Click in the text area where a chord would appear in measure 13. The text cursor should be blinking in measure 13 to indicate where the measures you're about to paste in will appear. Choose Paste from the Edit menu. Measures 1-12 will be in the key of C, measures 13-24 will be in the key of G, and measures 25-36 will be blank. In steps 9-12 you'll transpose the chords to the key of D, copy them, return to the original key of C, and then paste the transposed chords into measure 25.

9. Transpose the song to the key of D

Click the Transpose tool. When the Transpose dialog opens, select the key of D, and click OK.

10. Select and copy measures 1-12

Repeat step 6. This time the chords you copied are in the key of D.

11. Return to the key of C

Click the Transpose tool. When the Transpose dialog opens, select the key of C. Measures 1-12 will return to the key of C, measures 13-24 will return to the key of G, and measures 25-36 will be blank.

12. Paste the chords into measure 25

Click in the text area where a chord would appear in measure 25 to set the paste point to measure 25. Then choose Paste from the Edit menu. Measures 1-12 will be in the key of C, measures 13-24 will be in the key of G, and measures 25-36 will be in the key of D. The completed song should look like this:

13. Write the song

Click the Write tool to write the song. Chorus 1 and 2 will each contain three twelve bar blues choruses in the keys of C-G-D.

14. Save the song

Now's a good time to save the song. Choose the Save As command from the File menu. When the Save As dialog appears, name this song "Semicircle Blues" after the circle of fifths motion of the key changes, and click Save.

15. Transpose blues choruses 4-6 to the keys of Bb-F-C

Blues choruses 4-6 are in the keys of Bb-F-C. You can do this in one step by transposing song form chorus 2 to the key of Bb. Click the Transpose tool. When the Transpose dialog opens, select the key of Bb. Measures 1-12 will be in the key of Bb, measures 13-24 will be in the key of F, and measures 25-36 will be in the key of C.

16. Select all 36 measures

17. Rewrite chorus 2

When all 36 measures are selected as shown above, click the Write tool. If any measures are selected when you click the Write tool, the Rewrite Measures dialog will appear. Set This Chorus Only to 2, and click OK.

18. Return to the key of C

You need to do this step because the Transpose dialog not only affects the chords displayed on the screen, it also changes the playback key. In this case you want the Transpose dialog key to match the Song Form dialog key, which is the key of C.

19. Switch to the Chord Display View

Click the Chord Display View tool The staff lines will disappear, and the chord progression will be displayed on the screen in a new format.

In the Chord Display View each chord will be outlined with an animated rectangle as it is being played. The chords on the screen will change to the keys of Bb-F-C when playback reaches measure 37, the beginning of blues chorus 4.

20. Change the Chord Display View font and size

You can change the font, the font style, and the font size used in the Chord Display View. Choose the Set Font item from the Play menu.

Windows

When the Set Font dialog appears, choose the font, style, and size used in the Chord Display View.

Macintosh When you switch to Chord Display View, a Fonts menu will appear in the Menu Bar with the standard Font, Size, and Style commands.

21. Play the song Click the Play tool to play the song.

Each chord will be outlined with a rectangle as it is being played.

22. Save the final version of Semicircle Blues

You'll use the Semicircle Blues again in Lesson Four, so choose the Save command from the File menu. You don't need to use the Save As command, because the file has already been given a name.