Guitar Theorist

The Guitar Theorist application was developed to be a professional level guitar chord, scale, interval, and note computation program, that adapts to string detunings, and placement of a capo. Chords and scales may be computed from user defined families, or from a large selection of predefined families.

User data is organized into documents, which may be edited, filed, and printed. An intuitive fretboard and music notation interface, allows intervals and notes to be found instantly, and simplifies data entry. Chords, scales, and intervals, may be played through a sound card, or MIDI port. The program's chord analysis feature allows chord names to be derived from groups of notes. Charts mirror for left handed guitarists.

Data created by Guitar Theorist is organized into documents. The document management system allows this data to be viewed, edited, filed, and printed. Multiple documents may be open simultaneously. The editor functionality, is similar to that of a conventional text editor. Standard keyboard navigation commands are incorporated, as well as cut/copy/paste editing of items.

Chords are computed from user defined families, or from any of 92 predefined families, and may be computed over any of 21 roots. They may be displayed in both standard music notation, and as charts, which are shown with complete fingering positions. Chord charts are not produced with look-up tables. All possible patterns are calculated (over 4 fret windows), and the playable ones are displayed.

The predefined families produce 178,371* subset-free chord charts, with standard tuning and no capo. The same chord chart computation algorithms are used when user defined families are computed, and when a capo or alternate tuning is used. A chord chart editing feature, allows notes to be deleted from charts, and finger numbers to be changed.

* All 92 families, computed over all 21 roots, over the full range of the fretboard (0-23), with the 'Show Interior Mutes' option active, and the pitch deletions set to 1,3,5.

Scales are computed from user defined families, or from any of 33 predefined families, and may be computed over any of 15 roots. They can be displayed in both standard music notation, and as full fretboard charts. Charts may be plotted with note names, scale degrees, or generic designators. A scale chart editing feature, allows display of selected scale degrees.

Guitar Theorist has a fretboard and music notation interface, that allow notes and intervals to be found instantly. Click a position on the fretboard, and the note is displayed in music notation. Click a note, and its position(s) is displayed on the fretboard. Meanwhile, intervals are computed and displayed automatically, as notes are selected. You may also find a note, that is a given interval from another note. Full fretboard note reference charts may be produced, and added to a document.

Guitar Theorist adapts to placement of a capo, and detuning of strings. Each string may be detuned independently, over a one octave range. All data generated by the program is affected by the capo and tuning settings.

Chord names may be derived from groups of notes. The notes are entered by clicking on a fretboard, or music notation interface, and the analysis results are listed in a document window. The program finds all possible ways the group of notes could be interpreted. Filters may be used to reduce the number of possibilities.

Chords, scales, and intervals, may be played through a sound card or MIDI port. Timing, and other MIDI parameters, such as strum rate, note durations, velocity, channel, and patch number, may be set up by the user.