For my program MIDI Keyboard I've been adding chord functionality. I want to make sure that my chords are correct before updating my download with them. So what I need is: 1) are these chords all correct? 2) are there any other chords that should be added here?

Major			C E  G
Minor			C Eb G
Augmented		C E  G#
Diminished		C Eb Gb
Sus 4			C F  G
Sus 2			C D  G
5			C G
Dominant 7th		C E  G Bb
Major 7th		C E  G B
Minor 7th		C Eb G Bb
Minor Major Seventh	C Eb G B
6			C E  G A
Minor 6			C Eb G A
9			C D E  G Bb C2
Minor 9			C D Eb G Bb C2
Major 9			C D E  G B  C2
Minor Major 9		C D Eb G B  C2
11			C D E  F G Bb C2
Minor 11		C D Eb F G Bb C2
Major 11		C D E  F G B  C2
Minor Major 11		C D Eb F G B  C2
13			C D E  F G A Bb C2
Minor 13		C D Eb F G A Bb C2
Major 13		C D E  F G A B  C2
Minor Major 13		C D Eb F G A B  C2
add 9			C D E  G C2
Minor add 9		C D Eb G C2
6 add 9			C D E  G A  C2
Minor 6 add 9		C D Eb G A  C2
Dominant 7th add 11	C E  F G Bb C2
Major 7th add 11	C E  F G B  C2
Minor 7th add 11	C Eb F G Bb C2
Minor Major 7th add 11	C Eb F G B  C2
Dominant 7th add 13	C E  G A Bb C2
Major 7th add 13	C E  G A B  C2
Minor 7th add 13	C Eb G A Bb C2
Minor Major 7th add 13	C Eb G A B  C2
7b5			C E  Gb Bb C2
7#5			C E  G# Bb C2
7b9			C Db E  G  Bb C2
7#9			C D# E  G  Bb C2
7#5b9			C Db E  G# C2
m7b5			C Eb Gb Bb C2
m7#5			C Eb G# Bb C2
m7b9			C Db Eb G  Bb C2
9#11			C D  E  F# G  C2
9b13			C D  E  G  Ab C2
6sus4			C F  G  A  C2
7sus4			C F  G  Bb C2
Major 7th Sus4		C F  G  B  C2
9sus4			C D  F  G  Bb C2
Major 9 Sus4		C D  F  G  B  C2

Thanks! [Edited by - H_o_p_s on January 22, 2006 3:49:19 PM]

If there are any more chords I dont think it would matter much.

Let the user define his own chords - even if you haven't missed any "real" chords, he may enjoy adding his own (e.g. nutty power chords, etc).

Quote: Original post by rileyriley
Let the user define his own chords - even if you haven't missed any "real" chords, he may enjoy adding his own (e.g. nutty power chords, etc).

That right there is a great idea.

Thanks!

I agree largely with letting the user define their own chords. If you want some other research material I would suggest:

http://www.guitargrimoire.com/products.htm

I used the scales and chord books back in the day when I was studying jazz. At the end of the day it becomes less about an exahaustive list of chords and more about how harmonies and melodies blend together to make actual chord voicings. You can get into some very wierd areas very quickly when you see things in that manner.

For your tool, I would recommend the literature not as a means to enumerate possible chords but to chart out the names of chords and voicings when a user assembles one (which is uber-cool, make the chord and the name of it is generated. You can also provide some means to generate a chord from a name). I am sure you could develop the rules pretty easily.

You could also then provide suggestions for scales and modes to be played over various chords and passages. This would also be very cool, as it is typically one of the most difficult aspects of improvision (but the most fun imho). Think of having dots on the keyboard which signifies the scales you want to play over a passage, and have them fade or blend colorwise when you are moving into a different key or progression.


Hope that helps...


#dth-0

Yeah, having the chord scales would be cool, the only problem is that usually the chord scales depends on the analysis of the progression, not just one chord... But creating the rules for naming a chord sounds like fun...

Thanks again.

I'm assuming you want this program to show the notes on the keyboard for a given chord symbol. With that in mind, here are a few notes:

- You may omit the root an octave above for the basic spelling of a chord. It is not necessary.
- In both dominant and major 9 and 13 chords, the 11th is usually omitted because it clashes with the third and obscures the quality of the chord.
- Upper tensions (9ths, 11ths, 13ths) are usually voiced above the 7th. You might want to do this by default since it is most common. This is why the notes are not referred to as 2nds, 4ths, and 6ths.

Following the above notes, your chord spellings would look like this for 13th chords:

13            C E G Bb D Amin 13        C Eb G Bb D F AMaj 13        C E G B D A

...likewise for 9th and 11th chords.

Hey,

I don't think I saw a diminished chord in the list (1-min3-dim5-dim7, or C-Eb-Gb-Bbb). Also, my theory teachers always told me that a diad (i.e., your "5" chord type) is not a chord - a minor theoretical point, IMO, but since most people double up the root at the top of 5 chords, I guess you might as well add the octave in there.

That's one cool little app, by the way!!! :-)

Peace,
Al.

[Edited by - alk509 on February 1, 2006 5:37:48 PM]

There are a lot of other chords. It might be useful to be able to build the chords. Such as C...then major or minor....then major or minor 7....then tensions...etc. The user would have to know something about the way the chord functions in the song to know the "correct" way to build it up.