[Denemo-devel] The ChordsForBar command

[Richard Shann]

I have been working on a command to help working out chord sequences.
The scenario is that you have a melody and want to work out a chord
sequence for it.
Usually you do this by playing it trying chords out and then making a
note of what you decide on.
I thought it might be possible to do this by getting Denemo to play a
bar or two of the music, and then you play the melody adding chords
using a MIDI keyboard. Denemo would track the melody as you play it and
register the chords you have played.
The command d-ChordsForBar does just this. It is in the Input->MIDI
menu, and you launch it with the cursor on the bar of melody you will be
playing.
It creates a staff for chords above and as you play the melody with
chords it notates the chords.
When you have finished the bar it plays the music over and awaits your
next step.
It has some refinements:
      * you can repeat your attempt on the current bar using the pitch
        wheel Down.
      * or you can go on to the next bar by using the pitch bend wheel
        Up
      * you can hit Fn5 whenever you want to hear the context of your
        bar re-played. Currently I have this context fixed at two bars
        of music but it could be more, or, indeed, just the current bar.
      * you can use the foot pedal to do some experimentation before
        entering the chords - what you play is output to the speakers
        until you raise the pedal again. The screen changes color to
        warn you that you are doing this.

Using this I have worked through generating chords for a few dozen bars
of an Oboe sonata by Sammartini. In this case I am playing the bass part
with chords, but it does not know that, I could be playing a melody and
adding chords, were I a good enough pianist.

I would like to hear from you if you give this a try. It is in git now.

Richard