Create your member account (click on Sign Up and follow the instructions).
If you were invited to join an existing band, you just need to respond to the invitation email as it instructs you.
On most screens, if you hover your mouse over a control, help balloons will tell you how to use the underlying control. Usually data is saved as soon as you exit an editable field that was changed.
To create a new band in the system: from the member info page, open the "Bands" section, and click on "New Band". If you create the band, you automatically become the administrator, who can then add new members.
To join a band that already exists in the system, ask the band administrator to add you.
Once you have created your account,(or have been invited to join a band) you have to sign in to use the system. Navigate to the sign-in page (https://bandorama.us) and enter your email address (the one used to create the account) and your password. If you do it right, the system will redirect you to your home page.
When you log in, if you are in more than one band, you will see a list that lets you select which band you want to work with.
When a band is looking for new members, its members can search for musicians who match their criteria: instruments played, vocals, style of music, availability, and willingness to travel to their rehearsal location. If you meet their criteria, a link to your member info page (modified so your location and login info is not displayed) appears in a list, and they can contact you to arrange the next step.
This is where you view information about the band.
There is a table of existing band members, and for each there is a drop down list that displays what that user can do.
There is a list of singers. These do not have to be the same names as the band members, but usually that is the case. You can add singers by typing a name in the blank text field and clicking on Add. You can delete a singer by double-clicking the singer in the list. Before you delete a singer, you should choose a different singer for any songs that singer used to perform.
There is a form that holds contact info, and links to calendars and other social media pages.
Location feature lets you specify your rehearsal location for use in the Musician Search feature. Once you've specified your location, they system can find musicians who are within traveling distance (as they define it) of your location. You can search for them by all the criteria on the Member Info page.
There is a checkbox that indicates if you want your band's info to appear on a Public Page.
There is a button that opens the Rehearsal Scheduler module to simplify coordinating rehearsals
You can also check your account status: how much of your subscription period remains, with a link that will let you extend the subscription, if you wish.
Coordinate rehearsals with ease.
Using elections as a model, the system creates a "ballot" that band members "vote" on to indicate when they can make it to rehearse.
The ballot is created by a band admin, and displays possible dates, a list of invited members, a comment field for location or other notes, and a field where the last day to vote can be specified.
Upon creation ot the ballot, invitees are emailed that there is a new ballot and inviting them to log in and "vote" (i.e. indicate the day(s) that work for them). As they vote, the totals for each date are displayed at the bottom of the column for that date.
Voting ends on the specified date. At any point the admin user can view the ballot and finalize the rehearsal by clicking on the total for any of the dates. This finalizes the rehearsal date.
Finalizing a ballot causes an email to be sent to all invitees informing them of the final date. The upcoming rehearsal will also appear on the Band Info page in the "Upcoming Rehearsals" list.
Musicians can search for other musicians to jam with. Bands can search for musicians to become members of the band, or to work as sidemen.
When you enter member info, you can specify your location and availability so that other musicians and bands can find you. (If you don't want to be listed, uncheck all the availability options.) Bands can specify the location where they rehearse on the Band Info page.
To perform a search, click on the Musician Search button, then "filter" the results by choosing the skills, styles and availability options you want to search for (for example, "instrument(s): lead guitar, rhythm guitar; genre(s):blues, rock; availability: looking to jam". Then click on the Search button. Musician's whose member profiles meet those criteria will display in a list.
To view the details (bio, comments, etc.) of a specific musician or to invite them to contact you, click on his or her entry on the list. Their Member Info page will be displayed, along with a "Send Me A Message" button.
To contact the musician, click Send Me A Message, then fill in your contact information so the musician can get back to you.
If your band has a public page, the musician will be able to listen to any tracks you have made public, to see if it's a good fit.
User names are, as in many social media sites, used to uniquely identify a user. In this system, the unique identifier is your email address.
Your password can be whatever you like, though it is recommended that you use a "strong" password, that you can remember. One way to create a password that is strong is to use a phrase (like 23Skidoo). Passwords are not stored in the system... they are one-way encrypted so even if someone were to gain access to the database, they could not read your password. No financial information is ever stored, so there is little risk from password thieves. Of course, if you are an administrator, if someone gets your password he or she could delete all your hard work... so it is best to keep your password secure.
On the Band Info screen, type the email address of the person you want to invite in the email field. Type the member's first name in the name field. Select the role (what the user is allowed to do -- see the next section) and click on "Add User."
The system will generate an email to the address you entered, inviting the owner of the email to create an account.
Once the new member gets the email (the inviation is good for 24 hours) they simply click on the link in the email (or copy and paste it into their browser) and they will be directed to a screen that lets them enter a new password. After they do, they will be directed to the Band Info page
The band administrator has the right to add and delete members, change band info, and create, update and delete all other data.
CRUD stands for "create, update, delete". The member can do everything an Admin can, except add and delete members.
Edit: The member can edit existing songs, setlists, etc. but cannot create or delete data.
View: The member can see all the data, but cannot change anything (good for guests or prospective members.)
The Admin user can change any other member's role at any time. There must always be at least one Admin for a band.
All the songs you created are displayed in a sortable list. .
A filter lets you type any text and only rows of the table that contain that text will display. It's the fastest way to find a song if you have a lot of them. Just type the first two letters.... Or, type "wip" to see only the songs you're working on.
If you click on any sortable heading (the ones with the icon), that column becomes the sort column (for example, you can sort by singer to group songs by singer, or you can sort by key to see all the songs grouped by key) If you hold down the control key when you click, you can sort on multiple columns. For example you can sort by singer, then by key
If you have uploaded mp3 files for a song, the most recently uploaded track can be played by clicking the arrow in the Play column.
If you click on a title, the full data for that song is displayed in a new window or tab (depending on how you configure your browser)
If you click on a tempo, a metronome will launch. Click on the rectangle to start it, or click + or - to make small adjustments, or Tap twice to input the tempo you want on the fly and have it displayed for you.
Click on the view link in the lyrics or chart columns, to display the that information for that song in the "prompter" screen... where the data will scroll if you click on the screen. There are a couple of ways to set or adjust the metronome on the prompter screen.
Status show which songs are ready to perform, works in progress, or possibly of interest (maybe).
Click on New Song on the menu of the Songs page, and a form will be displayed into which you can enter all the info about a song the system stores. You do not have to enter all the data for the song at one time, but a title is required to save the song.
You can enter lyrics as plain text. Each line will be displayed in the prompter as a single line (which scales to fit the screen, and adjusts dynamically if you resize the window, or re-orient a mobile device).
You can also enter lyrics / arrangement in the ChordPro file format. When displayed in the prompter you can choose to see any combination of chords, lyrics, and comments.
Performance Notes allows you to save a brief message that can be printed on set lists. For example, you might indicate which instrument takes the first solo.
Use the metronome to help determine the best tempo. It will also display on the Songs and Prompter pages.
If you store a link to the original recording (for example a youTube video), members can click on the go button to launch that medium in a new window.
Status is a way of indicating if a song is ready to perform, a work in progress (wip), or a song the band might want to consider (maybe).
You can upload rehearsal or recorded TRACKS of your songs, subject to copyright considerations (which you are responsible to manage, per the user agreement). You can also upload jpg images of chord charts or arrangements, as well as .pdf files of related material.
Space limitations: there are no predefined limits to how many tracks you may upload, but this service is not intended to provide unlimited data storage. Do NOT use it to store copyrighted material to which you do not possess the necessary rights.
You may store multiple "takes" for songs, so you can compare versions or monitor your progress as a band.
The File Upload feature is best used on a desktop or tablet that permits the browser to access local file storage.
Coming: HTML 5 browsers may enable streaming of video and/or audio. When they do, Band-O-Rama will endeavor to capture audio and upload it to the system, just like any mp3 file, using the hardware built in to many mobile devices, tablets and pc's.
When you click on "Shows" your most recently created show is displayed as a list of sets. You can click on any song and the Prompter for that song's lyrics will display.
To see other shows in this format, click on the "options" icon in the upper right corner of the screen. A popup will display a list from which you can select other shows to view, and a button to click if you wish to create a new show using the Show Builder screen.
On Show Builder, you see an alpabetical list (the master list) of all songs with a status of "ready".
To put songs into a set, drag any song from the master list into one of the sets. When you see a "drop" target appear, you can release the dragged song and it will drop into the chosen set. You can also reorder the songs in and between sets.
A control panel icon (the gear at the upper right of the screen) displays a control panel which contains:
Open a scrollable display of lyrics or a scrollable chart. Prompter is a great replacement for song books and lyric sheets.
A variety of control options exist.
Scrolling speed is adjusted to the tempo of the song, using the assumption that a line of lyrics requires 4 bars of music. You can add time for solos and intros by inserting blank lines in the lyrics field for a song... or you can just start and stop as necessary.
You can display the scrolling lyrics for your songs as part of a performance (if you have a projector, an internet connection, and a laptop. This works great on a tablet, too, and there are mic stand mounts for those....
Build a list of all the venues you want to contact for bookings. There are many sources for possible venues: local newspapers, Facebook events, mailing lists from other bands, etc. No matter how you find venues, use the Manage Gigs feature to manage future bookings and regular contact.
Use the "Last Call" and "Next Call" fields to remind you when you need to call again.
Make notes about the venue, your last gig there, or any other relevant information.
Divide the workload if your band is also your agent, by assigning venues to different members.
This page is accessible from the home page. It requires no login, so anyone can see it. It displays:
Add chords and comments to your song's lyrics:
You can enter any text you want printed between brackets and it will be output, but if you enter chord names using the format [A-G]{#|b}{m|dim|maj|sus}{digit}{/[A-G]{#|b}} then future updates may be able to display guitar chord images, too.
[G]I've been workin' on the rail-road, [C]All the live long [G]day).