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*** CHORDMASTER - Unregistered Version 1.4 Chord Chemistry Program for Guitar Copyright (c) 1991 by Robert Watson All Rights Reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ............................... 1 INSTALLATION ............................... 2 CHORD ENTRY ................................ 3 IDENTIFIERS ............................. 3 NOTE ENTRY .............................. 4 ERRORS .................................. 4 SCREEN FORMAT ........................... 4 FRETBOARD COMMANDS ...................... 5 DISPLAYING CHORDS .......................... 6 OPTIONS MENU ............................... 7 DISPLAY ................................. 7 TUNINGS ................................. 7 PLAY .................................... 8 FILES ................................... 8 PRINT .................................. 10 RESOLVE ................................ 11 *** INTRODUCTION CHORDMASTER is state-of-the-art chord chemistry software designed specifically for guitarists. Though it was created with guitarists in mind, the concepts explored can be applied to a variety of musical instruments. CHORDMASTER is designed to be a educational aid and reference, useful for a variety of educational and compositional purposes. CHORDMASTER VERSION 1.4 FEATURES - Enhances fretboard visualization by showing all notes of a chord on the fretboard. Fretboard views can be shifted to show a specific area. Two fretboards can be viewed simultaneously. Chords can be played by a MIDI device or internal speaker. Notes for two chords can be overlayed on one fretboard, allowing analysis of similarities and differences. Chords can be viewed either as notes or scale sequences. Chords can be input by name or by specifying notes to be resolved to a known chording. Obscure inputs can be resolved to proper chords, i.e. Amaj add7 = Amaj7, A C# E G# = Amaj7. Chords can be resolved to up to five chord synonyms. Chords libraries are provided, allowing for the display of thousands of individual chordings. (Restricted in unregistered version). User chord libraries can be maintained for custom chord display capabilities. (Unavailable in unregistered version). Individual chord display can be limited to certain string and fret ranges. Context-sensitive HELP screens. Mouse and printer support. CHORDMASTER VERSION 2.0 CHORDMASTER version 2.0 is already in the works! It will include many additional features that we expect version 1.x users to suggest, as well as sequencing capabilities necessary to make CHORDMASTER a true interactive compositional tool! - 1 - *** INSTALLATION CHORDMASTER requires about 100 Kbytes of disk space, and can be run from either a floppy or hard disk. Versions distibuted on floppy disk can be run as is by logging the floppy drive and executing the program. Example: A: <enter> (logs the drive) CHORDS <enter> (executes the program) A floppy disk version can easily be installed onto another disk or hard drive by copying the CHORDMASTER files and directories to the desired drive. Example: C: <enter> (logs the drive) CD\ <enter> (start from root directory) MD CHORDS <enter> (create chord directory) CD CHORDS <enter> (log the chord directory) COPY A:\*.* <enter> (copy CHORDMASTER from floppy) CHORDS <enter> (executes the program) BBS versions of CHORDMASTER are distributed in ZIP format and require PKUNZIP to install. Here's a sample hard drive installation that assumes that the CHORDS10.ZIP file is in the current directory. Example: MD \CHORDS <enter> (create chord directory) PKUNZIP CHORDS10 \CHORDS <enter> (unzip CHORDMASTER) CD \CHORDS (log the chord directory) CHORDS <enter> (executes the program) - 2 - *** CHORD ENTRY After the opening screens the program will display a blank fretboard and the cursor will blink, prompting you for chord entry. You have several choices at this point. You can enter the name of a chord to be displayed, enter a chord by notes(pg.4); or abort the entry to explore the OPTIONS menu. Use the following format for entering a chord by name: [A-G][#,b(optional)] [chord identifier options] At the very least you must enter an uppercase letter in the range of 'A' through 'G'. Optionally, you may indicate that the note is to be sharped or flatted by adding a '#' for a sharp or a lowercase 'b' for a flat. Why the preoccupation with upper and lowercase? Consider a B flat chord. It looks fine as 'Bb', but kind of silly as 'bb', 'BB', or 'bB'. So you must enter the key or root of the chord you want to work with. If this is all you enter it is assumed that you are looking for a major chord. To specify other chords you must add one or more chord identifier options, separated by spaces. The following are legitimate identifier options: FIRST GROUP maj maj6 maj7 maj9 maj11 maj13 minmaj7 minmaj9 min min6 min7 min9 min11 min13 dim dim7 5 6 7 9 11 13 aug aug9 aug11 noroot SECOND GROUP add or / sus + or - (followed by numbers 2 - 13) Identifiers may be combined, separated by a space, in any combination that is musically sensible. Now, what is musically sensible may vary according to whose rules you are following. For the most part you will use one of the identifier options in the first group, optionally followed by one or more of the identifier combinations in the second group. The identifiers in the first group are common in describing chords. See a book on chord theory for an explanation of these identifiers. The identifiers in the second group are less common and are often written in different ways. Here is brief explanation of the second group: add or / - Used to add a tone to tone to a chord. These are useful in creating common and exotic chords and scales. The catch is that the tone to be added must not have been described in a previous identifier or an error message will result. sus - Generally used to add a 2nd or 4th tone to a chord at the expense of the 3rd. + or - - used to add an altered tone, or alter an existing tone, to an existing chord. - 3 - *** Entry can also be accomplished by specifying the notes to be used in the chord. CHORDMASTER then attempts to identify the chord. Note entry is particularly easy with a mouse. Non-mouse users should use the RESOLVE - NOTE ENTRY item in the OPTIONS menu (pg. 12). IMPORTANT : A chord entered by notes cannot be properly identified unless all notes in it's formula are part of the entry. NOTE ENTRY with a mouse: Enter a chord notes by clicking on the desired fret positions on the active fretboard. Clicking on a previously selected note will de-select it. Once the desired notes have been selected, click on the word PROCESS which will appear above the active fretboard. If the notes can be identified as a chord, its name will be displayed. The lowest note selected will be considered as the primary root for the resulting chord. Now let's describe some of the errors that can be encountered during chord entry: ILLEGAL - What you typed is nonsensible. STEP ALREADY EXISTS - Your trying to add (add or /) a tone that has already been established. TONE SPECIFIED IS > 13 - You've tried to add or alter a tone that is greater than 13. ILLEGAL TONE SPECIFIED - You've tried add or alter a non-numeric entity. Once a valid chord has been entered, all the notes in the chord are displayed on a fretboard and the notes are sounded through the system speaker. Additionally, a display appears above and to the right of the fretboard showing the relationship of the notes in the chord to the tones in a scale. I call this display the chord formula header. For instance, if 'A' is entered; the chord formula header will display the following: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 A C# E This indicates that the 'A' major chord that was entered has three tones in it; a 1st or root, a 3rd and a 5th. Therefore, an 'A' major chord has a formula of 1, 3, 5 . The established spacing of these notes is function of established music theory and will not be discussed in this section. It is not necessary to fully understand these mechanisms to begin using and enjoying CHORDMASTER. An additional line of text appears immediately below the fretboard, this is called the RESOLVE line. If you entered 'A', as in the example above, this line would simply read 'A MAJ'. This may seem kind of redundant at this point, but as you will see as you read on, the RESOLVE line is one of CHORDMASTER's most powerful features. Let's look again at the fretboard. If you have entered the simple example chord shown above, the fretboard shows all the notes in an 'A' major chord scattered about the fretboard. This is a powerful visual tool. It allows the user to visualize an entire section of fretboard. In this case, any fingerable combination of notes that contains at least one 'A', one 'C#' and one 'E', is a legitimate 'A' major chord. Don't worry, CHORDMASTER can also display individual chord fingerings as we will see shortly. - 4 - *** If you have been following along, a word should appear in the center of the screen. This is actually one of a series of possible choices called the AUTOMENU. If you strike the SPACEBAR repeatedly, alternate selections will appear. A selection is executed by striking ENTER. Let's take a look at each of these selections: REENTER - This selection only appears if there was an error in the most recent chord entry. OVERLAY - Allows entry of another chord, whose notes will appear in combination with those already on the active fretboard. On a color monitor, the results may be particularly revealing. SWITCH - Opens a fretboard on the opposite half of the the display for chord entry. CLEAR - Clears the active fretboard for chord entry. OPTIONS - Displays the OPTIONS menu. QUIT - Exits the program. The OVERLAY and SWITCH functions provide added power in fretboard visualization; allowing the user to view various chord patterns together, or side by side. There are several quick key combinations available when the AUTOMENU is active, they are: <- or -> - Shifts the fretboard view range left or right. At any one time 16 frets are visible, over a range of 25. P - Repeats the playing of the tones in the chord. - or + - Changes the timing of the playing of the tones in the chord. D - Displays individual fingerings for the entered chord. MOUSE USERS : To cycle through AUTOMENU choices, position the cursor in the center of the screen and click the right mouse button. Click the left mouse button on the desired selection to execute it. Chord entries equivalent to the OVERLAY, SWITCH, CLEAR and REENTER can be initiated by clicking the left mouse button over the desired input area. The OPTIONS menu can be accessed by clicking the left mouse button at the top of the screen. - 5 - *** DISPLAYING CHORDS Once a valid chord is entered on fretboard, individual chordings can be displayed. This can be accomplished by pressing a 'D' on the keyboard or selecting DISPLAY from the OPTIONS menu. During DISPLAY the following keys are active: <- and -> previous and next chords + and - to change play timing p repeat chord play ESC to quit DISPLAY Use basic chord entries to test the DISPLAY system. If all attempts to DISPLAY result in file errors it is likely that CHORDMASTER is improperly installed. Be sure that the chord files (.CFD) in the CHORDS directory. CHORDMASTER's unregistered version cannot display chordings for every entry. In this version, new chord types cannot be added, and the display of individual chordings is severly limited. If you purchase the registered version of this program, chord types can be added, and a nearly infinite number of individual chordings can be displayed. This chart demonstrates the difference in the number of individual chordings that can be displayed by the UNREGISTERED and REGISTERED versions. The REGISTERED version includes files for another 50 additional types of chords, which will result in thousands more chord possibilities. The performance of registered version can be further enhanced by additional chordings that can be added by the user via CHORDMASTER's integrated chord file editor. UNREG. VERSION REG. VERSION CHORD ENTRY DISPLAY COUNT DISPLAY COUNT maj 72 225 maj7 11 91 maj9 19 147 maj13 7 100 6 33 199 7 19 117 9 30 330 11 14 63 13 4 121 min6 5 133 min7 19 192 min9 24 137 min11 6 124 minmaj7 9 46 minmaj9 16 95 aug 28 59 dim7 5 107 aug9 124 aug11 17 52 ---- ---- TOTAL 338 2462 - 6 - *** OPTIONS MENU Let's examine the various features in the options menu. We will work through the drop-down menus left to right. DISPLAY The DISPLAY drop-down menu consists of three items. The first choice, DISPLAY is equivalent to pressing the 'D' key after chord entry. This choice initiates DISPLAY of individual chordings within the parameters specified by the second choice, DISPLAY SETUP. DISPLAY SETUP This menu selection brings up the DISPLAY SETUP menu. The DISPLAY SETUP menu allows the user to specify the fret range, strings, and number of notes allowed for the chords to be displayed. Move from from field to field by pressing the up or down arrow keys, TAB or ENTER. When the setup is as desired press F7 to save. Press ESC to exit and ignore changes. For each STRING enter 'Y' or 'N' to indicate whether it should be used for DISPLAY. If too many strings are disabled an error message will appear. The number of strings required will vary according to the formula of the most recently entered chord. Specify the fret range over which chords should be displayed by adjusting the LOW FRET and HIGH FRET entries. Remember, not more than 16 frets can be diplayed at one time. However, individual chordings may be displayed over a smaller range of frets. Select the MINIMUM and MAXIMUM number of notes in chords to be displayed. The MAXIMUM number of notes depends on how many strings are used, the MINIMUM number of notes is determined by the formula of the chord. Select which tone in the chord should be the BASS NOTE. Most commonly '1' would be entered to select the root note as the bass. However, more chords will be displayed if '0' is entered, indicating no preference. The NOTE BLINK selection toggles the blinking of notes in a chord as they are displayed. MOUSE USERS : Click on a field to move cursor, click on a command to execute it. TUNINGS The TUNINGS menu allows fretboards to be tuned in a variety of manners. Tuning changes affect subsequent chord entries on. Menu items allow for a quick change to STANDARD, OPEN A, OPEN C, OPEN D, OPEN E or OPEN G tunings. The final menu item provides for CUSTOM TUNING, in which any string can be altered from the standard tuning up to four half steps in either direction. NOTE : Individual chord DISPLAY is only available for standard tuning. - 7 - *** PLAY This menu consists of several ON/OFF type functions. These include: PLAY ON ENTRY - Chord play on entry PLAY ON DISPLAY - Chord play on DISPLAY MIDI PORT - Play on MIDI port channel '0' SPEAKER - PLAY on internal system speaker The TIMINGS selection controls the ATTACK and DURATION timings of the chords being played. Units of time are defined as system ticks; appproximately eighteen per second. DISPLAY FILES This drop-down menu consists of several items used to maintain the chord library and other support files used by CHORDMASTER. APPEND FILE This function is used to add records to an existing chord library file. NOTE : This function is not supported in the unregistered version of CHORDMASTER. NEW FILE This function is used to create a new, or overwrite an existing, chord library file. NOTE : This function is not supported in the unregistered version of CHORDMASTER. EDIT FILE This function allows the user to enter or modify an existing chord library file record by indicating the fret to be fingered on each string. Note that a chord must be entered in the key of 'A' before its chord library file can be edited. Valid fret entries are numbers 0 to 24. Unsounded strings should be indicated by blanks (spaces). Move from from field to field by pressing the up or down arrow keys, TAB or ENTER. When record is as desired press F7 to save changes. PGUP and PGDN previous and next records F8 clear the current record F9 insert a record F10 delete the current record Press ESC to save the file and exit when done. MOUSE USERS : Click on a field to move cursor, click on a command to execute it. - 8 - *** The records in a chord file determine which chords can be diplayed when the DISPLAY option is selected. Certain records may have no effect on DISPLAY depending on the DISPLAY SETUP. Not only is each record in a chord file displayable, but subsets of each record, that are still legitimate chordings, can be displayed. As chord records are entered they are analyzed for legitimacy and redundancy. The following error messages may appear during entry: ILLEGAL CHORDING The attempted entry either consists of tones that are not part of the chord, or does not have tones that necessary to form a legitimate chord. CHORDING IS A SUBSET The attempted entry is a subset of an existing entry, and is therefore redundant, remember that each entry is dissected into all legitimate chordings. While the editor will warn you that a proprosed entry is a subset of an existing entry, it does not warn you that the entry may be a superset of an existing entry. For this reason the following is recommended; once records in a file have been added or altered, step through the records from the beginning, pressing F7 at each one. This will alert the user of any existing subsets, that can then be deleted. While DISPLAY will prevent them from being displayed, this will avoid unneccessary processing of duplicate chordings. As far as what constitutes a legitimate chord, the following rules apply: TONES IN FORMULA RULES 3 At least one instance of each tone must be present. 4 At least on instance of each tone must be present, excepting the 3rd may be dropped in the presence of a 2nd or 4th. 5 The root or 5th may be dropped. The 3rd may be dropped in the presence of a 2nd or 4th. 6, 7 The root and 5th may be dropped. The 3rd may be dropped in the presence of a 2nd or 4th. SAVE CONFIGURATION The selection saves information about current program settings in a file called CHORD.CFG. The settings saved in this file are restored every time the program is started. FACTORY SETTINGS Restores program settings to the original settings distributed with the program. - 9 - *** ADD CHORD Adds the text and tone offsets of the most recently entered chord to the RESOLVE library. This is necessary before elements of a chord library file for the chording can be displayed. NOTE : This function is disabled in the unregistered version of CHORDMASTER. PRINT This drop-down menu consists of several selections which initiate printing of fretboards. Printed output is sent to the standard print device. - 10 - *** RESOLVE The RESOLVE drop-down menu consists of selections that control the way chordings are resolved and displayed. RESOLVE performs two important functions. First, RESOLVE can take an awkward chord entry and show a more eloquent method of achieving the same result. For instance, if you entered 'A MIN /2 /7', RESOLVE would "correct" your entry by responding with 'A MIN9'. This is a useful educational tool, helping to reinforce the user's understanding of chord chemistry. Secondly, RESOLVE's perform is critical to the DISPLAY of individual chordings. This is very important, so it should be emphasized that DISPLAY WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE FOR A CHORD UNLESS IT IS RESOLVED TO A CHORD WITH A ROOT, AND A CHORD FILE EXISTS FOR AT LEAST ONE RESOLUTION. For instance, if 'A MIN7 /13' is entered, the notes will be shown on the fretboard, but the RESOLVE line would be blank with the factory setup. An attempt to DISPLAY this chord would result in an error message. If RESOLVE settings were altered a NOROOT chord (D9 NOROOT) would be found to be a perfect synonym, however, as no chord library files exist for NOROOT chords. Display of this or any legitimate entry can be achieved with the registered version of CHORDMASTER which supports updating of the RESOLVE library. RESOLVE is capable of revealing chord synonyms. Factory settings limit the RESOLVE line display to three resolutions, but by altering these settings up to five synonyms or near matches can be displayed. These synonyms may or may not include NOROOT chords depending on the settings. This has implications in DISPLAY mode; if a chord is resolved to more than one perfect match by RESOLVE, chord library files for both chords would be combined and the resulting chordings DISPLAYed. While this increase in DISPLAYed chordings is usually modest, it does provide a means by which NOROOT chords can be DISPLAYed, despite the fact that no chord library files exist for them. To see this mechanism in action use the RESOLVE dropdown menu to set RESOLVE as follows DISPLAY ON, SET COUNT=2, PERFECT ONLY ON and NO ROOT OFF. Obtain a clear fretboard for entry and enter 'A MIN6'. The RESOLVE line now indicates 'A MIN6 F#MIN7 -5'. With the registered version of CHORDMASTER this would result in chord files for both chords being combined in a subsequent DISPLAY. However, with the unregistered version DISPLAY is still a means of seeing some of CHORDMASTER's display mechanism. DISPLAY would show two windows in this situation; a blue window showing success in finding the file for the 'MIN6' and a red window indicating a problem finding the file for the 'MIN7 -5'. When you see this message you will usually want to strike 'a' for abort, and let the program continue. If you purchase the registered version of CHORDMASTER you will be well rewarded; not only are the existing chord library files larger, there are more of them. The unregistered version of CHORDMASTER comes with about 20 chord library files, limited to 4 entries each. The registered version contains nearly 70 chord library files of up to 80 entries apiece. The registered version also supports the incorporation of special 'user' chord library files which can be used to DISPLAY your chords alone or can be combined with the included chord files for expanded DISPLAY capability. There are other perks involved in purchasing the registered version, see the included README.DOC file for more info. - 11 - *** Here's a description of the RESOLVE menu functions: RESOLVE - Resolves the most recently entered chord according to the current RESOLVE settings. DISPLAY - Enables or disables the display of the resolve line. Either way RESOLVE still occurs and the results affect DISPLAY. SET COUNT - Sets the number of resolutions RESOLVE will attempt to achieve. PERFECT ONLY - This setting decides whether or not non-perfect chord synonyms will be resolved. On the resolve line perfect synonyms are shown in reverse video. NO ROOT - This setting decides whether NOROOT chords will be resolved. NOTE ENTRY - Provides a means by which individual notes of an unknown chord can be entered and then resolved to a known chord. Notes should be entered separated by a space. Note Entry can be more easily accomplished using a mouse (pg. 4). The first note entered will be considered as the primary root note for the chord. - 12 - ***