To use the player, enter the chord progression using standard symbols for chords, then click the play button to hear it. If you visit one of those sites that give lists of chord progressions, you can copy / paste the chord progression into the chord progression field and play it right away.

If you need more space for your progression or rhythm then click on the +... button below the text field to bring up a resizable window with large text fields.

Click on the Options tied quaver (eighth note) icon:

to configure the way the chords are played - as chords, broken chords or sequences.

Use the Voices menu to choose what instrument to use to play it.

For the list of symbols you can use so far see Chord Symbols list. You can use = to repeat a chord and you can also repeat a chord by using underscores in the rhythm - see Rhythms (US), or Rhythms (GB)

This is a transposing chord player - naturally preset to play C as C with the standard settings. If you want to transpose the chords then simply use the Pitch window and set the pitch of the 1/1 to whatever note you want C to be transposed to, and all the chords will get transposed as desired, e.g. change the 1/1 to A and all C chords in the progression will be played as chords rooted on A, and all the other chords will be transposed accordingly. You can also micro-adjust the pitch of the 1/1 in this window to intermediate pitches, e.g. a few cents sharp or flat as desired.

top , start of section

Temperaments and just intonation

You can change the scale and hear what your progression sounds like in various temperaments. The just intonation tuning is the one that gives the most harmonious and mellow chords, but chords will only work in certain positions in the scale.

However if you select Retune to chord root, then the scale gets rotated around to match each chord so that all the chords sound good. You will get diesis shifts with this option - shifts in pitch between the "same note" in consecutive chords. You can also explore Out | Retune to J.i.

top , start of section

Fractal Tunes

Once you have found a progression you particularly like, you may like to make it into a fractal tune. To do that go to Tasks | Composer. Then go to Bs | Seed Options | Arpeggios as Chord Progressions. to show your progression - and you will find options there to use it in the tune. To find some example tunes to get started try the 2.4 drop list of fractal tunes, for instance the Greensleeves chords tunes. Just start with one of those and paste your new chord progression and see what happens, and that hopefully will get you started on this option. Note that the option to set a rhythm for the chord progression player is used for playback of the progression only. The rhythm for the fractal tune depends on the seed note lengths and the various fractal tune rhythm options.

Note that at present the seeds are normally monophonic. The harmonies you hear are caused by "passing tones" in the parts. You can make a polyphonic seed however - you do it by setting the sustain to say three notes (for triads) and then you can group notes in threes using time intervals of zero between the coincident notes of the chord (and use 0 for some of the volumes if you want a diad or single note amongst your three note ones). This is a bit clumsy and later I will add in truly polyphonic seeds and a polyphonic seed editor based on a piano roll type interface - it's on the list of things to do in the next beta / release cycle.

Meanwhile, another easier way to fully exploit the chords in the progression is to go to the Parts window and set the parts at intervals other than the octave, but making sure that the intervals are ones that are within the current chord in the progression. You can do this using the Modulate by Arpeggio degree option in the drop list at the top. If you want to have chords on a single instrument then select it into several parts - and then you may want to expore the use of Parts | Order of Play | Other. or Bs | Seed Options | Seed Pos Increment to get more chords in the tune.

All these ideas are used in the example tunes with chord progressions.

top , start of section

Inversions

skip to next section

To play the inversion of a chord you place a full stop before the symbol. So .G7 is the first inversion, ..G7 is the second inversion and so on. You can also use ~ to go the other way so ~G7 would play f g e b in that order. (same as third inversion shifted down an octave in this case). You can also shift up or down by octaves using / (up) or \ (down), so ~G7 is the same as /...G7. Symbols can be repeated as needed so // shifts up two octaves and \\ shifts down two octaves, and indeed these symbols can be combined together in any order.

(One might think that - and + would be a more logical choice to shift up or down to the next / previous inversion. However, I had to use something else because often chord progressions are commonly shown with dashes between the chords so dashes need to be ignored and treated as separators).

Be sure to unselect the Ok to rotate option as it automatically inverts the chord if needed to keep all the chords in more or less the same range of notes. You don't want this done if you want to specify the inversion yourself.

I don't know of any standard ascii way of notating these inversions and octave shifts, so this is a notation that was made up to suit the requirements. If you know of a standard notation that should be used (to include as an alternative now as this one needs to be retained once introduced for backwards compatability) be sure to let me know!

To give a few examples (using the notation where notes in increasing octaves are C'' C' C c c' c''),

/G7 would be g' e' b' f''

/.G7 would be e' b' f''' g''

\~G7 would be F G B d

\~~G7 would be D F G B

An example progression might be:
I ~V I ~IV I

Trouble shooting tip: There must be no spaces at all within a symbol, as the chord progression player uses spaces (alternatively dashes or commas) to distinguish the successive chords in the list.

So \~G7 is correct, but \~ G7 is not because of the space between the ~ and the G.

IDEA, FOR DISCUSSION!

Sometimes you can't use a \ or / or it is confusing, for instance if you use / as a note addition symbol, as in C/7 - there the player will actually understand C//7 as the same chord with the 7th raised by an octave but it isn't so easy to read. Also if you use Sagittal notation then \ and / are used for the syntonic comma.

So as an alternative octaving symbol, you can use [ and ]

It is [ to lower and ] to raise.

So [G7 is G7 lowered by an octave and ]G7 is G7 raised by an octave.

top

Rhythms (US)

skip to next section

I've done two versions of this section as it was just too confusing to keep writing quarter note (or crotchet) and so forth throughout. Many GB users will have no idea about how the US system of note sizes works and most US users don't know the GB system either, so there is no choice but to use both. For comparision charts see the on-line page British vs. American Musical Terms posted by Nina Gilbert.

Users of the GB system - see Rhythms (GB).

Basic rhythm, Chord strumming, Tied notes, Rhythm symbols, Triplets, quintuplets etc, Introduction and Count In

Basic rhythm

You can set a rhythm for your chord progression too.

Select Set Rhythm. A text field will show up for the rhythm.

You can enter the individual note durations in beats as e.g. 1, 2, 1/2 (meaning half a beat) etc. However there is also an easier way to do it - to use a special shorthand notation for the rhythm.

You can paste these examples into the rhythm field to hear how they work.

Example

Just plays quarter notes - same as not setting the rhythm at all.

The rhythm repeats for as long as the chord progression continues.

Now for eighth nots:

O O O o o

is the rhythm that you count as 1, 2, 3, 4 and 1, 2, 3, 4 and ... I.e. three quarter notes followed by two eighth notes.

The chord changes for every chord played. So for example if you have Em7,=,=,=, | Am7,=,=,=, as your chord progression (where = means to repeat the previous chord)

then the rhythm would be played like this:

Em7,=,=,=, | Am7,=,=,=,   
O   O O o    o   O O O

The progression moves forward to the next chord on every note played in the rhythm. so the first Am7 is played on the eighth note - where surely the user wanted it to be played on the next quarter note. It is done this way because sometimes someone may want to change the chords on the eighth note so the notation has to allow for that possibility.

To set the chord to change at every quarter note in this rhythm, you can use an underscore - see the next section Chord Strumming for details

Em7,=,=,=,    | Am7,=,=,=,
O   O O o _ o   O   O O O

This means to play the same chord for the second eighth note. See the next section for details of this notation.

Use an asterisk to play rests:

Em7,=,=,=,     | Am7,=,=,=,
O   O O *o _ o   O   O O O

The * indicates that the note following it in the rhythm is a rest and shouldn't sound.

You can vary the volume like this:

v 100 O v50 O O o _ o

which plays the first beat in a four note bar at full volume (100 percent) then changes the volume to 50 percent for the remaining beats of the bar.

top, start of section

Chord strumming

Often maybe one wants to strum the same chord several times in succession. We can do this in the chord progression (using '='s), or in the rhythm. To do it in the rhythm, place an underscore before a note to say that you want to use the previous note's chord again, like this:

O _ O _ O _ o _ o

All the notes after the first one use the same chord. Then when it cycles around back to the start of the rhythm, it changes to the next chord in the progression, and so on.

The underscore bundles notes together and all of those notes play the same chord - maybe a bit like a phrase mark. If you leave out the underscore then you move on and use the next chord in the progression to play the next bundle of notes

O _ O _ O _ o _ o O _ O _ O _ O

Here the chord changes after the two eighth notes because there is no underscore to bundle them together with the quarter note that follows..

If you want to do a rhythm that runs over several bars, you can use | as a bar line sign. This is purely visual at present and doesn't affect the rhythm; it is just to remind you where the bars are:

O _ O _ O _ o _ o | O _ O _ O _ O

Here I have added a bar line symbol at the chord change - it happens at the bar line - but the bar line doesn't make it change by itself because you might want a chord to continue over the bar line. The chord changes there happens because there is no preceding underscore to bundle that note to the previous one.

Using this method we could equally well have done the example before as:

Em7               | Am7
O _ O _ O _ o _ o | O _ O _ O _ O

which has the same effect as

Em7,=,=,=,    | Am7,=,=,=,
O   O O o _ o   O   O O O

Here is an example to show how a chord change may happen in the middle of a bar:

O _ O _ O _ o _ o | _ O _ O O _ O

Chord carries through to the middle of the next bar and changes after the second quarter note in the second bar.

Later I may add an option to use the rhythms and volume variation effects in FTS which let you speed up or slow down the rhythm and change the volume depending on the position in the bar. If I do that then the bar line will have rhythmic significance as it will indicate how long the bar is and so let FTS find out the current position in the bar for the volume and rhythm varations. But meanwhile it is purely visual.

Maybe you would like to hear a chords strumming type effect with these progressions. To do that, investigate the broken chords option in the Options window and set the time for each note small say 0.1 or 0.05 if you want a faster strum.. It will vary with the note length so that slower notes in the rhyhtm will be arpeggiated more slowly than fast ones. You can also vary the figuration to get a more complex strumming pattern.

top, start of section

Tied notes

You can tie notes by placing them next to each other as a single symbol with no spaces. This is also the way to make dotted notes. So a dotted quarter note will be shown as Oo which means, a quarter note followed by an eighth note as a single note..

This is how you would notate the typical dotted rhythm you often get in 6 / 8: Oo o O Oo o O

Here is a more complex example, again in 6 / 9 which uses nearly everything covered so far, and also introduces the symbol for the sixteenth note ,which is a full stop:

V 100 Oo v 50 _o _ O _ v80 Oo v 50 _ . _ . _ O

When you wish to tie a note across a bar line, use a circumflex. The ordinary bar line will break them into two separate notes.

O O O O|O O O O

So insead, do it like this:

O O O O^O O O O

This is intentional - the player automatically ends the previous note at the bar line if you use the | symbol. It's done that way because users will naturally expect to be able to use bar lines as note separators just like commas and punctuation. So a special tied bar-line symbol helps and is more practical than to try to use the same symbol to serve both purposes. We don't have any tied graphic here as one has in a conventional score so the cirumflex represents a bar line with a tie across it..

The O^O is treated as a single note because they are all joined together without spaces or punctuation or ordinary bar lines. So indeed would anything else, such as O~O etc as that has no meaning yet for the rhythm. You could put any character in there that isn't yet defined for the rhythm, apart from punctuation.

However, I recomend using a circumflex for future use Later when (hopefully) I add in the option to be able to vary the rhythm and volume by the position in the bar then a method is needed to show where all the bar lines are in the rhythm (as bars needn't be all the same length of course). If we do it like this, then it will be able to search for a circumflex or a vertical bar and so be able to work out the length of each bar in quarter notes in the original rhythm before it varies the rhythm

top, start of section

Rhythm symbols

= whole note (has to be two half notes in length),
- half note
O quarter note (= beat)
o eighth note,
. (full stop) sixteenth note

Also if needed
" (double quote) for thirty second note
' or ` (single quote) for sixty-fourth note.

top, start of section

Triplets, Quintuplets etc

The notation for these works like this:

[3 o o o], [3 Oo . . O] etc.

where [3 o o o] means do three eighth notes in the place of two. [3 o. " " o] similarly means to do that rhyhtm which has the same duration as the previous one, in the place of two eighth notes.

You must use square brackets here for this notation. The reason is that just possibly someone might want to mix it in with the way of notating note lengths using numbers, and the numbers for the note lengths can be defined using formulae such as 2/(3*5) with round brackets or braces, so they are reserved for that - formulae can also use square brackets but of course they are dissallowed for formulae in this particular context..

{5 o o o o o] means do five eighth notes in the place of four. [5 O o O] would do that rhythm which again adds up to five eighth notes, in the place of four.

The way it works is that the [3 ... ] just multiplies all the times within the square brackets by 2/3 - and [5 ...] etc multiples the times by by 4/5 - if you work it out you find that this amounts to the same thing as the conventional triplets and quintuplets for the cases covered by the conventional notation. Note though that there is no need to make sure that the notes within the bracket add up to a whole number of beats. This is also valid in the notation: {5 Oo . .] [3 o o o o o] and so forth. I don't know how useful that is, but it comes for free, and it is valid if one does use it..

If you want other multipliers of the note length, you can also notate them as [5:2 o o o o o] which means to do five of whatever you have in the brackets in the time normally allocated for two, i.e. multiply the times by 2/5.

The triplets and quintuplets etc. can be nested as in: [3 [3 o o o] [5 o o o o o]] which would play a triplet of eighth notes in the place of two, for the first beat of the outer triplet and then a quintuplet for its second and third beats. Then the whole thing gets played in the time for four quarter notes instead of six. So the whole phrase therefore would last for a whole note.

top, start of section

Introduction and Count In

You can set an introduction to count into the chord progression like this:

Count O O O o o Start v 100 O v50 O O o _ o

That is 4/4 of course. Similarly you can use Count O O o o Start for 3/4 or whatever, any rhythm you like to use for the count in.

The count in is played once only, then from then on the rhythm cycles back to the Start.

The instrument used for the count in is the high wood block. To change it, use the Instr instruction:

Count Instr Claves O O O o o Start v 100 O v50 O O o _ o

Or if it is a two word instrument, use tildas for spaces in the name:

Count Instr Low~Bongo O O O o o Start v 100 O v50 O O o _ o

The DcAlFine and DcAlCoda of the flow directions go back to the Start position if defined.

You can also set a start to the endless repetition without need for the Count, like this

v 100 O v50 o _ o V90 O v40 o _ o Start v 100 O v50 O O o _ o

would play one bar as v 100 O v50 o _ o V90 O v40 o _ o before going on to play v 100 O v50 O O o _ o for the rest of the progression.

Or combine both:

Count O O O o o EndCount v 100 O v50 o _ o V90 O v40 o _ o Start v 100 O v50 O O o _ o

top, start of section

Rhythms (GB)

skip to next section

I've done two versions of this section as it was just too confusing to keep writing quarter note (or crotchet) and so forth throughout. GB users normally have no idea about the US system and US users don't know the GB system either, so there is no choice but to use both. For comparision charts see the on-line page British vs. American Musical Terms posted by Nina Gilbert.

Users of the US system - see Rhythms (US).

Basic rhythm, Chord strumming, Tied notes, Rhythm symbols, Triplets, quintuplets etc, Introduction and Count In

Basic rhythm

You can set a rhythm for your chord progression too.

Select Set Rhythm. A text field will show up for the rhythm.

You can enter the individual note durations in beats as e.g. 1, 2, 1/2 (meaning half a beat) etc. However there is also an easier way to do it - to use a special shorthand notation for the rhythm.

You can paste these examples into the rhythm field to hear how they work.

Example

Just plays crotchets - same as not setting the rhythm at all.

The rhythm repeats for as long as the chord progression continues.

Now for quavers:

O O O o o

is the rhythm that you count as 1, 2, 3, 4 and 1, 2, 3, 4 and ... I.e. three crotchets followed by two quavers.

The chord changes for every chord played. So for example if you have Em7,=,=,=, | Am7,=,=,=, as your chord progression (where = means to repeat the previous chord)

then the rhythm would be played like this:

Em7,=,=,=, | Am7,=,=,=,   
O   O O o    o   O O O

The progression moves forward to the next chord on every note played in the rhythm. so the first Am7 is played on the quaver - where surely the user wanted it to be played on the next crotchet. It is done this way because sometimes someone may want to change the chords on the quaver beat so the notation has to allow for that possibility.

To set the chord to change at every crotchet in this rhythm, you can use an underscore - see the next section Chord Strumming for details

Em7,=,=,=,    | Am7,=,=,=,
O   O O o _ o   O   O O O

This means to play the same chord for the second quaver. See the next section for details of this notation.

Use an asterisk to play rests:

Em7,=,=,=,     | Am7,=,=,=,
O   O O *o _ o   O   O O O

The * indicates that the note following it in the rhythm is a rest and shouldn't sound.

You can vary the volume like this:

v 100 O v50 O O o _ o

which plays the first beat in a four note bar at full volume (100 percent) then changes the volume to 50 percent for the remaining beats of the bar.

top, start of section

Chord strumming

O _ O _ O _ o _ o

All the notes after the first one use the same chord. Then when it cycles around back to the start of the rhythm, it changes to the next chord in the progression, and so on.

The underscore bundles notes together and all of those notes play the same chord. Perhaps a bit like a phrase mark. If you leave out the underscore then you move on and use the next chord in the progression to play the next bundle of notes

O _ O _ O _ o _ o O _ O _ O _ O

Here the chord changes after the two quavers because there is no underscore to bundle them together with the crotchet that follows..

If you want to do a rhythm that runs over several bars, you can use | as a bar line sign. This is purely visual at present and doesn't affect the rhythm; it is just to remind you where the bars are:

O _ O _ O _ o _ o | O _ O _ O _ O

Using this method we could equally well have done the example before as:

Em7               | Am7
O _ O _ O _ o _ o | O _ O _ O _ O

which has the same effect as

Em7,=,=,=,    | Am7,=,=,=,
O   O O o _ o   O   O O O

Here is an example to show how a chord change may happen in the middle of a bar:

O _ O _ O _ o _ o | _ O _ O O _ O

Chord carries through to the middle of the next bar and changes after the second quarter note in the second bar.

top, start of section

Tied notes

You can tie notes by placing them next to each other as a single symbol with no spaces. This is also the way to make dotted notes. So a dotted crotchet will be shown as Oo which means, a crotchet followed by an quaver as a single note..

This is how you would notate the typical dotted rhythm you often get in 6 / 8: Oo o O Oo o O

Here is a more complex example, again in 6 / 9 which uses nearly everything covered so far, and also introduces the symbol for the sixteenth note ,which is a full stop:

V 100 Oo v 50 _o _ O _ v80 Oo v 50 _ . _ . _ O

When you wish to tie a note across a bar line, use a + sign. The ordinary bar line will break them into two separate notes.

O O O O|O O O O

So insead, do it like this:

O O O O+O O O O

Read it as a tie across a bar line.

It's done this way because users may well expect to be able to use bar lines as note separators just like commas and punctuation. So it lets you do this sort of thing:

O O O O+O O O O |O O O O| O O O O

The + stands out as a tied note.

Not so obvious in:

O O O O|O O O O |O O O O| O O O O

So a special tied bar-line symbol helps and is more practical than to try to use the same symbol to serve both purposes. We don't have any tied graphic here as one has in a conventional score so the cirumflex represents a bar line with a tie across it..

In any case, the O+O is treated as a single note because they are all joined together without spaces or punctuation or ordinary bar lines. So indeed would anything else, such as O^O or O~O etc. - anything apart from punctuation or symbols that already have a meaning for the rhythm.

However, I recomend using a + sign for future use. This will mean that later on there will be a standard way to search the rhythm for bar lines (as + or |) to find out the length of each bar in quarter notes (they needn't all be the same length of course). That will be useful when, hopefully, I add in the option to be able to vary the rhythm and volume by the position in the bar.

top, start of section

Rhythm symbols

= semi-breve (has to be two half notes in length),
- minim
O crotchet (= beat)
o quaver,
. (full stop) semiquaver

Also if needed
" (double quote) for demisemiquaver
' or ` (single quote) for hemidemisemiquaver.

top, start of section

Triplets, Quintuplets etc

The notation for these works like this:

[3 o o o], [3 Oo . . O] etc.

where [3 o o o] means do three quavers in the place of two. [3 o. " " o] similarly means to do that rhyhtm which has the same duration as the previous one, in the place of two quavers.

{5 o o o o o] means do five quavers in the place of four. [5 O o O] would do that rhythm which again adds up to five quavers, in the place of four.

The triplets and quintuplets etc. can be nested as in: [3 [3 o o o] [5 o o o o o]] which would play a triplet of quavers in the place of two, for the first beat of the outer triplet and then a quintuplet for its second and third beats. Then the whole thing gets played in the time for four crotchets instead of six. So the whole phrase therefore would last for a whole note.

top, start of section

Introduction and Count In

You can set an introduction to count into the chord progression like this:

Count O O O o o Start v 100 O v50 O O o _ o

That is 4/4 of course. Similarly you can use Count O O o o Start for 3/4 or whatever, any rhythm you like to use for the count in.

The count in is played once only, then from then on the rhythm cycles back to the Start.

The instrument used for the count in is the high wood block. To change it, use the Instr instruction:

Count Instr Claves O O O o o Start v 100 O v50 O O o _ o

Or if it is a two word instrument, use tildas for spaces in the name:

Count Instr Low~Bongo O O O o o Start v 100 O v50 O O o _ o

The DcAlFine and DcAlCoda of the flow directions go back to the Start position if defined.

You can also set a start to the endless repetition without need for the Count, like this

v 100 O v50 o _ o V90 O v40 o _ o Start v 100 O v50 O O o _ o

would play one bar as v 100 O v50 o _ o V90 O v40 o _ o before going on to play v 100 O v50 O O o _ o for the rest of the progression.

Or combine both:

Count O O O o o EndCount v 100 O v50 o _ o V90 O v40 o _ o Start v 100 O v50 O O o _ o

top, start of section

Flow Directions and repeats

skip to next section

The chord progression and the rhythm can both include flow directions and repeats.

To repeat a section, place braces around it { ... } To play the same section more than twice, set the number of times to play it after the closing brace e.g.
{section to repeat } 3
to repeat it three times

You can use this with a single chord too, e.g. {Em7}8 to play an Em7 chord eight times.

Repeats can be nested (any number of times), e.g.

{ { Em7}8{Dm}8 }3

When you do a chord progression with repeats or flow directions, an Expand button will appear in the main window . You can use it to expand it permanently, or just as a way to see it, to check what FTS has done with your instructions.

You can also use flow directions like DcAlFine

like this:

... Fine ... DcAlFine

(as is usual, all repeats are ignored when it plays the second time around to the Fine).

Note that you have to do it all as one word: DcAlFine, with no spaces or punctuation in it (it doesn't matter though whether you use upper or lower case letters or a mixture of both as here)

You can also use DsAlFine

... Segno ... Fine ... DsAlFine

and DcAlCoda
... ToCoda ... DcsAlCoda Coda ....

and DcAlCoda
... Segno ... ToCoda ... DsAlCoda Coda ....

Example:

Em Segno Dm G7 ToCoda C DsAlCoda Coda F C7 F

would play
Em Dm G7 C Dm G7 F C7 F

The flow directions in the two fields work independently of each other. Easiest to see why this is with a progression of chords and a rhythm for the bar repeated for each chord - the rhythm will repeat endlessly, and the chords will cycle through the chord progression, so that is usually what you want for this case.

Or the other way, one might want to play a chord progression over and over but vary the rhythm through some kind of sequence as you do so.

If the rhythm and the chord both use flow directions, then it is up to you to make sure that the beats in each rhythm repeat or section match with the chords in the corresponding chord progression repeat or section. You need to have the same number of chords and of notes to play, after taking account of the chord '=' notation, rhythm tied notes, and underscore notations - at least if you want the two to synchronise that is.

Here is an example:

{C Am C G}3 Em G F7 Am7 C

{v100 O v50 o o v20 O}3 {V100 O v20 O}2 v100 -

which expands as:

C Am C G C Am C G C Am C G Em G F7 Am7 C

v100 O v50 o o v20 O v100 O v50 o o v20 O v100 O v50 o o v20 O V100 O v20 O V100 O v20 O v100 -

There is no requirement though to synchronise, rhythm can be longer than the chord progression or vice versa. It plays until it gets to the end of the progression, or if it continues endlessly, will just keep cycling around the rhythm and chord, both endlessly, and independently.

top,

Change Instrument

skip to next section

You can change the instrument to play the chords at any point in the rhythm. This has to be done in the rhythm field rather than in the chord progression field at present.

Preset is to use the same one as is used for the PC keyboard -usually the one highlighted in the Parts window when you show it.

To change at any point in the rhythm:

Instr Reed~Organ

changes the instrument to the reed organ. Note that if it is a two word instrument, you use tildas for spaces as here.

This change is temporary. When you stop play for the chord progression, if any changes were made, it resets to the instrument that you had in play before it started.

top,

The roman numerals system

skip to next section

Intro

The nice thing about the roman numerals system is that it is key independent. If you play the same piece of music and transpose all the notes up by a semitione, say, to C# major, you can use the same symbols to describe it, and don't have to go through changing all the note names in it.

You can set the key for the chord progression player by entering it as e.g. Dminor, or C#major etc, all one word.

Like this:

Fmajor I ii V I

You can also change the key at any point in the progression. It recognises some microtonal key signatures too such as D-minor in 31 equal (that's D- minor i.e.D half flat minor) or G#^ major in 72 equal etc. To use these make sure you select the appropriate notation system from the Notations.. window - or else you can use the Conglomerate notation there - see the Accepted note names list.

You can also use the Pitch window to transpose your progression to other keys without changing the chord progression. If you have done that then of course the key gets transposed accordingly. The key signature here sets the key to play when you have the Pitch of the 1/1 set to C.

There are two systems in general use - the classical roman numerals system and a popular one. If you want the classical one then unselect Use Popular Roman Numerals.

Many chords are notated the same way in both systems, but they differ in the way they treat sevenths, and triads in minor keys. The basic distinction is that in the classical notation, chords have to remain within the diatonic scale - while they don't have to in the popular notation. I hope I'm describing these accurately - at any rate this is how FTS is programmed to play them at present. If you find any errors in this exposition of the two systems, I will appreciate hearing about them.

For chord progressions in roman numerals in the popular notation, see Olav Torvund's Chord progressions for Guitar

For the classical notation, see TonalityGuide.com

top , start of section

Popular Roman Numerals

This is quite easy - let's keep to C major for our examples. Then you use the roman numerals for 1,2, 3 etc for the chords on C, D, E etc, as I, II, III etc.

Now there is a subtlety here because, if you keep all the notes within the diatonic scale, some chords such as C E G are major, and others such as D F A are minor. The convention is to show the major chords in upper case and the minor chords in lower case. So the sequence is

I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi

Here, I have left out vii as it needs further discussion. The triad in this position in the diatonic scale has a diminished fifth rather than a perfect fifth. In C major its fifth is B to F. The diminished fifth, or tritone, is three whole tones in size and exactly splits the octave in two. It's not a particularly concordant interval and has a strong feeling that it needs to be resolved.

In the classical notation vii simply plays a diminished fifth, though often notated as viio to indicate that it is diminished. In the popular notation however, vii is just another minor triad. If you want to play a diminished fifth you can use viidim5 or just viidim.

You can also play the other chords, for instance II instead of ii. Since II is a major chord, it will play D F# G in C major. Chords like this with sharps or flats that don't belong to the key of the piece are known as chromatically altered chords.

You can also play chords rooted on the sharps or flats, for instance, in C major again, IIIb would be an Eb major triad.

In popular notation the distinction betweeen minor and major doesn't affect the notation for the chords. So if you want a triad on the minor third of the minor key you need to notate it as IIIb

You can use the shortcut %I or %II in FTS where the % there says to use the diatonic triad, major or minor, whichever it is (this isn't standard notation, just something I invented for the player).

Those basic symbols describe the normal major or minor triads, the basis of modern Western music harmony. Often they get transformed, and one common change is to add an extra note above the major chord to make a dominant seventh. In roman numeral notation you notate it as I7 or V7 etc, add a 7 there to say that it has a seventh in it. The seventh here is a minor seventh, a whole tone below the tonic (up to octave equivalence). For instance a I7 has an added Bb.

You might wonder at the reason for this - surely the seventh of C major is B rather than Bb. Well indeed, in classical notation that is how it is done and I7 does indeed have a major seventh.

However, the popular notation for seventh chords is based on the V7 chord such as G B D F as its model, with the F there a minor seventh above the G. All the other seventh chords are then tuned the same way. The I7 in popular notation in C major is the V7 for F major in classical notation.

This chord is used a lot because if you play the chord progression V7-I then you get a much stronger feeling of resolution than you do if you play V-I, so it is very useful as a way to bring a melody line to a strong conclusion.

With the minor chords: ii7, vi7 etc the seventh is in the same position - again a minor seventh above the root. So for instance in C major, ii7 is D F A C (with the C a whole tone below the D).

Then there is another important seventh chord, the diminished seventh, which is unusual as it also incoroporates a tritone. It is constructed from minor thirds as in C Eb F# (the tritone) A C. This chord has a very unresolved feeling to it and can go to almost any other chord. You can notate it as dim7, e.g. idim7. The dim there means to diminish the fifth and seventh and the i makes it a minor third (though if you diminish the chord then FTS will convert e.g.Idim7 to a minor third idim7 anyway, since in popular notation it seems it is often written in upper case as Idim7).

If you diminish the fifth but not the seventh you get the half diminished seventh which also incorporates a tritone. The vii7 chord is a half diminished seventh naturally, because the interval for the fifth is a diminished fifth, e.g. B to F in C major. So in the classical notation system it is notated as vii7, but in the popular notation system it has to be vii7dim5.

For a list of interval names, Intervals (from Acorn University music theory pages). Note that a diminished third is the same as a second in classical notation. Or, see the music theory pages about intervals at Teoria | Online Music Theory Reference | Intervals

The dominant seventh is based on the harmonic series actually - which runs (in C) C C G C E G (Bb) C ... where the Bb there is a septimal minor seventh. If you keep going, the next note is a D, so you get harmonic series chords using alternate members from then on,V9 as C E G Bb D, and V11 (if you like) as C E G Bb D F where the F there is actually a quarter tone or so flat, mid way between an E and an F at 11/8 if you do a justly tuned harmonic series chord.

You can also make notes which are rather more exotic as they have other notes in the place of e.g. the third - Isus2 for instance has a suspended 2, so it playes a D instead of an E in C major - it will play C D G instead of C E G. Iadd2 will play both notes: C D E G. These chord symbols are used in Jazz. Or you can add in such a note to the triad, e.g. Iadd2.

top , start of section

Classical Roman Numerals

This time all the seventh chords have to contain notes from the diatonic mode.

So I7 has a major seventh, and V7 has a minor seventh, for instance, because that is how they get tuned in those positions in the scale.

Then when it comes to minor keys, the notation is based on the tuning of the minor ascending mode. The symbol o is used for diminished chords.

So the chords in A minor are

i, iio, III, iv, v, VI, VII VII. where the III there for instance is based on the C, the minor third above the A. In C minor then, III would be rooted on the Eb.

Then the chords on the descending mode are viio and vio, where the o there can be omitted. So in A minor, VII will play Bb D F, while vii or viio will play the diminished triad B D F.

There is a possibility of confusion of the o of viio with the o of the overtone (otonal) tuning notation. If you use Classical roman notation, then the o of viio gets removed so if you want to use the overtone notation to specify the tuning of a classical roman numeral chord, you need to add an extra o, as in viioo10 or whatever.

In the major scale, vii is a diminished triad, and vii7 is a half diminished seventh. You can notate the diminished seventh on other roots such as say the I as i7dim5 where the dim there works forward only (because it isn't placed immediately after the roman numeral) and diminishes the fifth, and the third is already diminished because it is minor.

top , start of section

More about the roman numerals notation

These symbols tell you what notes to look out for, but don't say anything about which octaves they have to be in. For instance, any chord which has A C and F in it in any octave will count as a IV chord, - these all sound recongnisably like the same chord.

However every chord has a "root" position. The lowest note of the chord in that position is the one that gives it its name (F or IV in this case).Usually the chord includes a note which is a fifth above the root which then marks it out distinctively. In chords with diminished fifths though, the root isn't so clearly markedout - indeed in a diminished seventh, one could consider any of the notes of the chord as its root, so a diminished seventh can be notated in four different ways depending on which note you consider to be its root.

A fair number of chord progressions remain within the diatonic scale and use the diatonic non chromatically altered chords I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi and possibly viidim (viio) in various orders. The most common way they get linked together is by motion of the root up or down by a fifth such as G to C or D to G. E.g. I ii V I, that kind of a thing. You can also move up or down by thirds (weaker) or seconds. Often the progression dips down to IV at the end: I V IV I or I V I IV I. At least - in ordinary twelve tone tunings motion such as III to I is weaker than V to I - the strength of the various chord progressions may depend on the tuning used.

top , start of section

The note names system.

skip to next section

The other method is to use note names. This is just the same except that you use note names. E.g. C instead of I, and G instead of V in C major. But you can use many more names than that too for microtonal scales. See the Accepted note names list

If you want a minor chord, then rather than use the lower case of the roman numerals system, you add an m, as in Dm, or Am7.

top

Chord Symbols list

skip to next section

Intro - examples - rules - pedal notes - special situations - tuning - use in chord progressions - unrecognised symbols

Intro

These symbols can be used with Tasks | Chord Progression Player, and in the fractal tunes chord progression - any of the tune smithying tasks then Seed Options | Chord progressions.

You can also use them to make chords in a Bs2 | Arpeggio window or in the tasks that have arpeggio fields in the main window - by entering the symbol in the Arpeggio description after "#chord", for instance #chord C7 will make the arpeggio 0 4 7 10 12 in twelve tone tunings (and will choose the appropriate scale degrees for it in other tunings) to make the usual dominant seventh chord.

top

Examples

Here are some of the symbols you can use so far (listed for C):
C, Cm, Csus2, Csus4, Cadd2, Cadd9, Cadd4, Cmadd2, Cmadd9, Cmadd4, Cadd2add4, Cmadd2add4, Caug, Cdim, Cdim7, C5, C6, Cm6, C6/9, Cm6/9, C6/7, Cm6/7, Cmaj6/7, C7, Cm7, Cmaj7, C7sus4, C7sus2, C7add4, Cm7add4, C9, Cm9, Cmaj9, C9sus4, C11, Cm11, Cmaj11, C13, Cm13, Cmaj13, C13sus4, Cmmaj7, CmM7, Cmmaj9, CmM9, C7#9, C7b9, C7#5, C7b5, Cm7#5, Cm7b5, Cmaj7#5, Cmaj7b5, C9#5, C9b5, C7aug9, C7dim9, C7aug5, C7dim5, Cm7aug5, Cm7dim5, Cmaj7aug5, Cmaj7dim5, C9aug5, C9dim5.

You can make up many more symbols following the same rules:

top

Rules for the chord symbols

m (lower case)anywhere in the chord symbol makes it a chord with a minor third instead of a major one.
e.g. .Cm
M (upper case) or maj sharpens the seventh. You can use mM for mmaj
e.g. .CmM7
# or aug raises pitch of next number by a semitone. If no number is given it augments the fifth.
e.g. .C7aug5
b or dim lowers pitch of next number likewise.
dim diminishes the fifth and flattens the third to a minor third, also lowers pitch of next note by a semitone (ir given)
e.g. .Cdim7
add or / or - adds a note
e.g. Cadd4
sus replaces the minor or major third with the following note,
e.g. Csus2.

You can use # or b with the add and sus symbols - before the number to be adjusted - so for instance, Caddb9 will add a d'b to a c chord.

Then there are some more options that are useful if you want to build up chords with no fifths in them:

no or ( ) leaves out a note.
E.g. Cm6no5 omits the 5th from that chord. as does Cm6(5).
1 (numeral 1)after the note name, makes a chord consisting of just the root note, to which you can add extra notes. 1 anywhere else in the chord also erases everything before it leaving you with just the root of the chord.
e.g. C1add3 for a major third diad
0 (numeral 0)after the note name, makes a chord with no notes at all, to which you can add extra notes. 0 anywhere else in the chord also erases everything before it leaving you with just the root of the chord.
e.g. C0add3add5add8 is an alternative way to do the first inversion of the C major chord

You can make inversions of the chords or shift them up or down by octaves using e.g. ~Em7, .Em7 (prefix with full stop), /Em7 or \Em7 and any number of combinations of those. See Inversions.

Sometimes you may want to transpose individual notes in the chord up or down in pitch by octaves.

\ after an add or sus to drop next note by an octave.
e.g. C7add\4 drops the 4 down by an octave.
/ to raise by an octave similarly

You may also want to specify the order in which the notes are played in the chord if you are playing it arpeggiated - or use the same note several times in the same chord. Normally the chord is played with the notes in ascending order and repeats are omitted. So to set a time order for the notes use an '=' within the chord symbol.

= to play the notes in the order in which they are given from that point onwards.
e.g. C7=sus2add7 would be played with the sus2, and add7 notes played in the order given after the rest of the notes of the chord and with a duplicated add7
C7sus2add7 without the = is the same as C7sus2 as the add7 would get ignored as a duplicated note.
This is different in its effect if you play broken chords.

top

Pedal notes

/ to add a pedal note using the note name system where middle c is c and the octaves are:
C''', C'', C', C, c, c', c'', c'''

e.g.Em7/B'/E

I've made it so that the chord progression player is as flexible as possible if you enter something that stretches the chord notations. So you can also use the / notation as an alternative to add with the numbers such as C7/9 to add a ninth, same meaning as C7add9.

You can use it with the octave shifts as in C7//9 where the second '/' would be interpreted as an octave shift rather than an add. But as that is confusing

@ alternative symbol for add and pedal points
e.g. C 7@9

top

Special situations

You can use sus for chords other than thirds. I don't know if this is normally allowed - see here:

http://www.ibreathemusic.com/article/157/2

but it may depend on the genre perhaps. Anyway FTS will allow it.

sus can be used for any chord. The first sus encountered replaces the third, no matter what note you suspend. Any subsequent sus in the symbol gets changed into an "add".

You can use m to modify notes in the chord other than the third

m after a sus or add makes the next note to be added minor
e.g. susm3 or susm6, simiilarly addm6 etc.
Any m in other contexts in the chord just makes the third minor.

All those can be used with the roman numerals notation too.

You can also put the sharp or flat before the symbol in the roman numeral notation as well as after it, so long as you put it in brackets, so this is a valid chord progression: i - (b)III - (b)VII - i

You can also use various other note name systems to specify the root of the chord. See the Accepted note names list.

top

Tuning

FTS takes twelve equal chords as its reference to decide which notes to play, and plays the closest available pitch in the current scale to the notated pitch treated as a note in twelve equal..

However, if you use scales with fine pitch distinctions, you will need to be able to specify the chords more finely than this. By way of example, you can use e.g. Ejm (add a j) to specify that you want the closest pitches available to a just intonation minor triad rather than an equal tempered one. See Microtonal Chord Symbols for the various microtonal versions of all the symbols.

top

Use of the symbols in chord progressions

The rest of these options apply to the chord progression player particulary - and the chord progressions for the fractal tunes - but don't apply to other areas in FTS where chord symbols get used such as the option to use chords in custom voices or assign them to keyboard keys.

You can repeat an entire chord using = (in place of the entire chord symbol). So for instance Em7,=,=,= is the same as Em7,Em7,Em7,Em7.

You can add in bar lines - these are purely visual and don't affect playback at present though later I may add an option to vary the rhythm according to the position in the bar as it can do with the fractal tunes.

So you can write this sort of thing:. Em7,=,=,= | Em7,=,=,= | Em7,=,=,= | Em7,=,=,= | Am7,=,=,= | Am7,=,=,= | Em7,=,=,= | Em7,=,=,= | etc.

You can include dashes in the progression - they are treated in the same way as white space: i-iv-V is the same as i iv V

top

Unrecognised symbols

If the chord symbol isn't currently recognised then you will get a message in the chord player where the chord played normally gets shown, with the symbol from the unrecognised point onwards. E.g. Em7/Bz/E would show the message Unrecognised "z/E".

I got the basic list shown on this page from the list of jazz chords at Howard's Big List of Guitar Chord Shapes. But you can make up any chord symbol you like using these conventions.

Let me know if you have any special requests for a type of chord symbol that isn't yet supported by the player, and I will see if it can be added - support@tunesmithy.co.uk. Thanks :-).

top

Links

top

Olav Torvund's Chord progressions for Guitar

Howard's Big List of Guitar Chord Shapes