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In Lesson Six you'll learn to use the Chord Help dialog; edit chord qualities; play a set of songs; print a lead sheet; export songs as Standard MIDI Files; change the countoff pattern; display a song in one key and play it in another; simulate slash chords; scale MIDI velocities; and calculate song durations.

Chord Help

The Chord Help dialog displays the twenty-eight different jazz chord qualities you can use in MiBAC JAZZ and serves as the reference dictionary for chord spellings. You can listen to any chord quality, on any root pitch, in either open or closed voicings. You can also paste a selected chord back into the active measure in the main window.

Click the Chord Help tool to open the Chord Help dialog

Chord reference dictionary

If you get a chord error while you're writing a song, you can use the Chord Help dialog to verify the chord spelling. For example, this "c7#5#9" chord is flagged as an error:

In the Chord Help dialog picture shown above, the quality is spelled as "7+#9" (Dominant Qualities - right column - number 6). The chord quality spellings shown in the Chord Help dialog are always definitive.

Note: You can change the "7+#9" quality to "7#5#9" using the Edit Chord Qualities command that will be discussed shortly.

Listen to chords

If you want to hear what each chord quality sounds like, check Play On Click, and then click a chord quality name. You can choose Open or Closed Voicings. You can also change the chord root by clicking a root name below the qualities. In the Chord Help dialog picture shown above, the minor root is set to D, the dominant root is set to G, and the major root is set to C. By clicking one chord each from the Minor, Dominant, and Major groups, you can listen to several variations of a basic ii-V-I chord progression.

Note: There are no diatonic nine or 13 chords listed, because MiBAC JAZZ sometimes adds diatonic 9ths or 13ths to a generic 7 chord, just like a real jazz keyboard player does.

Copy and paste chords

You can copy and paste chord qualities from the Chord Help dialog into the active chord measure of the main window (the measure with the blinking text insertion cursor). In the Chord Help dialog, click a quality name to select it, and then click the Close N' Paste button. The selected Chord Help quality will replace the quality in the main window. If the Paste Root checkbox is off, the chord root will be left unchanged. If the Paste Root checkbox is on, the chord root will be changed to the chord root selected in the Chord Help dialog. If the active chord measure contains two chords, and the text cursor is located in the second chord, the quality will be pasted into the second chord; otherwise, it will be pasted into the first chord.

Edit Chord Qualities You can edit chord quality names using the Edit Major Qualities, Edit Dominant Qualities, and Edit Minor Qualities commands in the Edit menu. Each command opens a dialog where you can edit the quality names. Here's the Edit Minor Qualities dialog:

When you click a chord quality name, the Rename Quality dialog will appear. For example, you could click "minor 7" and change the quality from "m7" to "-7."

Play a Set of Songs

You can use the Play Multiple Songs menu command in the Play menu to play up to ten songs in a row. This is a great feature for practicing a set of songs, or for recording a set of songs.

Play / Play Multiple Songs

Choose Play Multiple Songs from the Play menu. When the Open File dialog appears, select your first song and click Open, then select your second song and click Open, and so on for up to ten songs.

When you've finished selecting the songs you want for the set, click Cancel and the Play Multiple Options dialog will appear.

Enter the amount of delay time you want between songs, select the display view, and click OK. The songs will be played in the order in which they were selected.

Note: If any of the Play Multiple songs you selected has its loop setting enabled, that song will continue to loop until you stop it.

Stopping songs in Play Multiple mode

1. Press the space bar to stop the current song. Press it again to continue with the next song.

2. Click the Stop tool. This will stop the entire Play Multiple sequence.

Print a Lead Sheet

Click the Print tool or choose Print from the File menu

Macintosh users will see the Lead Sheet Print Options dialog.

Windows users will see the Print Preview dialog.

Click the Print button to print the lead sheet, the Cancel button to close the dialog without printing, and the Setup button to open the Lead Sheet Print Options dialog.

Lead Sheet Print Options

In the Lead Sheet Print Options dialog, on both Windows and Macintosh, you can select and enter the information that you want to appear on the lead sheet.

If you click the Set Fonts button, the Lead Sheet Font Options dialog will appear.

Lead Sheet Font Options

Use the Lead Sheet Font Options dialog to set different fonts, styles, and sizes for text elements that appear on the lead sheet.

Click any one of the seven text element radio buttons and use the popup menus at the top of the window to set the font, size, and style for that text element. The figure above shows some possible combinations of fonts, sizes, and styles. Set the font, size, and style you wish to use for each element, and then click OK.

Export a Standard MIDI File

File / Export

Choose the Export command from the File menu to open the Export Standard MIDI File dialog and save the current song as a type one Standard MIDI file that can be opened by most sequencing and notation programs.

You can choose which instruments to include, whether or not to quantize the piano and bass (checked for notation, unchecked for playback), and whether to include the countoff and MIDI program changes. You can also set the value for the divisions per quarter note resolution used in the MIDI file.

Change the Countoff Pattern

Settings / Countoff

Choose the Countoff command from the Settings menu to open the Countoff Options dialog. The Play Options dialog discussed next also affects the countoff.

The countoff note will be played on the drum channel. You can set its MIDI note number (Middle C = 60 ) and velocity (127 = loud, 50 = soft). You can change between a long and short countoff pattern. The long countoff uses the following two bar patterns:

Style	Countoff Pattern
Jazz 4/4
Latin
Slow 4 12/8 Blues
Slow 4 Two Beat Swing
Slow 4 Four Chord Ballad
Jazz 3/4

The short countoff uses a one bar countoff consisting of all quarter notes (dotted quarters in Slow 4 12/8 Blues, and half notes in Slow 4 Two Beat Swing) that can be repeated from one to four times.

Play Options

Play / Play Options

Choose the Play Options command in the Play menu to open the Play Options dialog.

The Use Animated Display option controls whether the Chorus, Measure, and Beat counters in Chord Entry View, or the animated rectangle in Chord Display View, are updated during playback. It is normally turned on, but could be turned off on a slower computer if the playback is uneven. The Chord Roots in Uppercase option displays the chords in uppercase in the Chord Display View regardless of how you entered them in the Chord Entry View. The two countoff options control whether a countoff will be played at the beginning of each song, and whether a countoff will be played for a group of selected measures. The All Notes Off on all 16 MIDI channels will send a series of note off commands to all 128 notes on each of the 16 MIDI channels. When unchecked the note off commands will be sent only to the piano, bass, drum, and solo channels.

Display a Song in One Key, Play It Back in Another Key

Let's say you're playing a Bb trumpet, but the chart you're playing from is notated in the key of C. In MiBAC JAZZ you can type the chords in the key of C, write the song, select all measures, and then use the Transpose Measures command in the Detail menu to transpose the piano and bass instruments down two half steps. Now the chords on the screen will be in C, and the song will play back in the key of Bb, in tune with your trumpet.

Simulate Slash Chords

Many jazz tunes use slash chords, like C7/G. There are three methods you can use to simulate slash chords. Method 1 uses the Write Bass Pedal command. Method 2 uses the bass lines from the Slow 4 Two Beat Swing substyle. Method 3 exports the song as a Standard MIDI File, which then can be opened and edited in a third party sequencing or notation program.

Let's say you wanted to simulate this chord progression that uses slash chords:

If you tried to write the song with the chords shown above, you'd get errors. Instead, two steps are required to simulate these slash chords: first, enter and write the chords without slashes; and second, use one of the three following methods to simulate the slash chords.

Enter the chords without slashes and write the song

Method 1 - Write Bass Pedal

Select the measure(s) with the slash chord, choose the Write Bass Pedal command from the Detail menu, set the bass pedal pitch to the slash chord suffix pitch, select the rhythm pattern(s) and click OK. Write Bass Pedal is discussed on pages 57-58.

Method 2 - Two Beat Swing Bass Line

The Slow 4 Two Beat Swing substyle plays the bass line using two half note beats per measure. You'll enter the pitches you want for the bass notes and then change the bass style to Slow 4 Two Beat Swing.

Enter the slash suffixes for the bass line

Type these notes for the bass line and select measures 1-4.

Change the bass only to the Slow 4 Two Beat Swing substyle Click the Change Styles tool and change the bass only to the Slow 4 Two Beat Swing substyle.

Method 3 - Export the song as a Standard MIDI

File Choose the Export command from the File menu, and save the song as a Standard MIDI File. You then can open the Standard MIDI File in a third party sequencing or notation program and change whichever chords you want. See page 75.

Scale MIDI Velocities

Settings / Scale Velocity Choose the Scale Velocity command from the Settings menu to open the Scale Velocity dialog. MIDI velocity refers to how loudly or softly a note is played. You can use the Scale Velocity dialog to reduce or increase the loudness of each instrument. You can also balance the relative loudness between instruments. For example, you could make the piano softer than the drums, and the drums softer than the bass, in every song you write. When you click the OK button, the MIDI velocities in the current song will not be affected; however, all future songs that you write will be. Click the Permanent button to remember these settings the next time you use the program.

Note: Three dialogs in MiBAC JAZZ affect the sound volume: the Scale Velocity dialog, the Change Dynamics dialog (see pages 67-68), and the Set Instruments dialog (see page 8). Each of these dialogs works slightly differently. The Scale Velocity dialog affects the MIDI velocities of every note as it is written to the song file. The Change Dynamics command alters the MIDI velocity of every note in a group of selected measures after a song has been written. The Volume setting in the Set Instruments dialog affects the overall playback volume of each instrument, but does not change the MIDI velocities in the song file.

Calculate Song Durations

Settings / Calculate Song Durations

Choose the Calculate Song Durations command from the Settings menu to open the Calculate Song Durations dialog. You can calculate the durations of up to ten songs at once. This feature can be very useful if you are recording a group of songs and need to know if their total duration will fit on the recording media.

When the dialog is first opened, the current song is displayed in line one. Click the Open button to calculate the durations of songs you've already written and saved. You can also enter the measure lengths, tempo, and time signature manually and then click the Calculate button. A manual calculation is shown in line 8; the song title is "[User Calculation]." The total accumulated time of all songs in the list is displayed below the list. Click the Refresh button to reset the list, and click the Cancel button to close the dialog when you are finished.