Home   Log in

Practicing Jazz Standards With a Computer

August 20th, 2008 by Todd | Filed under Gear, Technique.

Back in the day if you wanted to work on your II-V-I technique or some Jazz standards you would pick up an Aebersold* CD or tape. But times have changed! With a couple of computer programs you can get access to an entire fakebook worth of musical accompaniment, change the key at will, speed it up, slow it down, add or remove instruments, and loop any section for as long as you like.

Sorry Windows users, this article focuses on the Mac, but most of the information should carry over to similar windows programs. The process is pretty simple. Here is the short summary:

  • Get good instruments for Garageband (optional, but recommended.)
  • Download “Band in a Box” standards off the internet.
  • Convert the files to Midi format.
  • Play them in GarageBand using good instruments.

Here is a demonstration:



  • One of literally dozens of websites with Band in a Box Jazz standards is Les Gorven’s Midistudio.
  • Ben Boldt offers a bunch of high quality instruments for Garageband if you don’t want to pay for one of the instrument packs, he requests a donation, but doesn’t require it.


Be sure to search on Google for more places that have Band in a Box files, because many of them are different, and some are much better in terms of accompaniment and melody. Have fun!

* Jamey Aebersold’s work is still great, and highly recommended.

« Cool Music: Project
Loudness, feedback, and a balanced sound. »

7 Responses to “Practicing Jazz Standards With a Computer”

  1. Blake | 21/08/08

    Continuing the conversation regarding Fakebooks and software, the RealBook Software is worthy of inclusion. It is the beloved RealBook in all four transpositions (Bass Clef being one of those!), done up in software so everything is sortable and findable by style, tempo, artist song etc. What’s more, each song is mated with original audio recordings, so you have both the chart and an audio representation of it. As a bonus, tons of Band In A Box Files as well as MIDI’s are included. There are PC and Mac versions. the web address is http://www.RealBookSoftware.com

  2. Todd | 22/08/08

    Hi Blake,

    It is pretty apparent that the site you posted and you aren’t with Hal Leonard–even though you are advertising their book in electronic format.

    So My guess, and correct me if I am wrong here, is that you went around and found all this stuff–ignoring copyright–and decided to sell it on the internet? I don’t want to sound hostile, but since you want to use my blog to advertise I feel I am in my right to ask: What exactly are you trying to sell? Just a bunch of Hal Leonard torrents that you downloaded, or is there a legitimate product here?

    I don’t expect that I will hear back from you, but I wanted to post this for any people who happen to read the comments–watch out for people like this. Don’t get me wrong I am all for making a buck, just don’t steal from someone else to get there.

    P.S. I forwarded your website address on to the Hal Leonard folks, I am guessing that they will find it as interesting as I.

  3. Blake | 22/08/08

    Hi Todd,
    This is not the Hal Leonard product. As you pointed out that is copyrighted material and would certainly be an infringement. This, is the Original 5th Edition not the Hal Leonard 6th edition, so you might send a follow up email to them informing them of the error n the previous email.
    It is a legitimate product through and through, with its own copyright as well.
    Thanks for your concern all the same and informing your readers of your thoughts. If you had suspicions, then others might have them as well. I hope this dispels any doubts that you or they might have had.
    Thanks
    Blake

  4. Blake | 22/08/08

    P.S - It does mention on the website that this is not the Hal Leonard product or the Sher Publishing versions.

  5. Todd | 22/08/08

    Dude, that’s cool and I hope you are really the copyright owner of the charts in your software. As a side note, I did watch part of your screencast for the software, and although the UI could use some touching up, it does appear to be useful software–definitely filling a niche. I was off my meds last night and unduly hostile. Sorry about that.

    Good luck with your project Blake.

  6. Blake | 22/08/08

    Thanks Todd. The screencast was actually done during version 1.0 of the program so several versions have come out since - the current being 2.01. So needless to say, there have certainly been improvements since that early version. Eventually I’ll get around to re-doing that video with the current version.
    Thanks for the hospitality here on the blog. Looks like it is going to have a nice future!

  7. Maurits Malherbe | 19/01/09

    Thanks Todd! I am also a double bass (and electric) player and your blog helped me a lot,
    changed my way of practising.

    regards

    Maurits Malherbe, netherlands

Share Your Thoughts