2012 (Macintosh)

Chapter 6: Band-in-a-Box PowerGuide 57
Shortcut Chords.
If you enter a lot of songs, you'll appreciate these shortcut keys:
- J = Maj7
- H=m7b5 (H stands for Half diminished)
- D=dim
- S=Sus
Example: To type CMaj7, just type CJ (it will be entered as CMaj7)
Add your own chord shortcuts.
Have you found a chord that Band-in-a-Box doesn't recognize? If so, add it to
your chord shortcuts file, and Band-in-a-Box will allow you to type in that chord
in the future. You can also define chord “shortcuts,” one-letter abbreviations for
longer chord names (“J” for “Maj7” etc.).
To add your own chords and shortcuts, make a text file called shortcut.txt in
your Band-in-a-Box folder. Note that this file doesn't ship with Band-in-a-Box;
if it did it would overwrite your file! Shortcuts supplied by PG Music are in a
file named pgshortc.txt, which should be used only by PG Music.
If you find a chord that Band-in-a-Box won't accept like Csus2, when it expects
C2 instead, you can enter this as a single line in shortcut.txt, “sus2@2” (without
the quotes). Band-in-a-Box will then enter the chord C2 if you type in Csus2, in
other words you can type in Csus2 and the program will accept it. You can also
use it for shortcuts, just as j@maj7 lets you type Cj for CMaj7. See the file
pgshortc.txt for examples of shortcuts.
MIDI Chord Recognition
Another way of entering chords is through MIDI chord recognition. Play any
chord on your external MIDI keyboard or MIDI guitar controller and Band-in-a-
Box will recognize it instantly and insert it onto the chordsheet. This allows you
to enter an entire song without having to type any of the chords. It’s also a good
way to find the right name for a chord.
To use this feature, select the menu command M | Insert current MIDI chord, or
press the Ctrl+Return keys. The last chord you played on your MIDI keyboard
controller will be automatically inserted into your song (chordsheet or notation
view) at the current cursor location. Then, Band-in-a-Box is ready for the next
chord. You can insert up to two chords per bar in this fashion.
Erase Chords
To erase chords, place the highlight cell over top of the chords you would like to
erase. Press the [spacebar] once. Then move your cursor to the right or left, or
mouse click on another measure, and the chord(s) will be erased.