ChordEase / Blog: Recent posts

The latest version of ChordEase includes a new mapping function for a system of tonal palettes, called the "Numbers" system. This system purposefully limits the number of scale tones in use at any one time, in order to facilitate melodious intervals and allow consistent management of dissonance.

Input notes are mapped to a four-note subset of the current heptatonic scale, called a group. Seven different groups are available, and they gradate smoothly in their tension or distance from the tonal center. Each group has two variants, one for major chords and one for minor chords.... read more

The latest version of ChordEase introduces several new harmonizer features, including chord constraint and harmony groups. Chord constraint lets you restrict a harmony line to a user-specified set of chord tones. Harmony groups are useful for avoiding note collisions in multipart harmony. Example patches that demonstrate multipart harmonization are included in the distribution.

This version also improves the handling of MIDI devices. For example, the missing device dialog now has a retry button, giving you the opportunity to plug in the missing device and try again. Also the app now does a better job of locating MIDI devices that were moved to a different USB port. Many other minor new features and bug fixes are included, such as coloring the piano dialog's keys in order to indicate scale tones.... read more

The latest version of ChordEase (1.0.12) lets you specify the chord via continuous controllers, without having to load a song. This was achieved by adding a Chord bar containing drop lists for the current chord’s root, type, bass note, scale, and mode, all remotely controllable via MIDI. If no song is loaded, these new parameters affect the default chord instead. The ability to change the default chord while playing enables a new usage scenario in which tonality is determined spontaneously by navigating a multi-dimensional parameter space, instead of by stepping through a preset chord progression. The tonality can also be automated via functions e.g. periodic waveforms or randomness, provided you have a synth or other device that contains such functions and can output MIDI messages corresponding to them.... read more

Mission accomplished! ChordEase was successfully demonstrated at the New Interfaces for Musical Expression conference, held this year at LSU in Baton Rouge LA. The accompanying paper, ChordEase: A MIDI remapper for intuitive performance of non-modal music, is now officially published in the conference proceedings. The demo was surprisingly popular and elicited many enthusiastic, even effusive responses. For photos, see the ChordEase Facebook page.

ChordEase 1.0.11 adds some major new features, including:

• Tagging: Spontaneous repetition of one or more measures.

• Tap tempo: Enter tempos via tapping instead of numerically.

• Adaptive arpeggios: Arpeggios that span a chord change adapt to the new chord, by combining notes from both chords to create hybrids.

• Chord dictionary dialog: A full-featured editor for editing the chord dictionary.

Various bugs were also fixed in this version; for a complete list, and links to documentation of the new features, see the release notes.... read more

I'm almost done with the ChordEase documentation, but I keep getting distracted, not only by the internet, but by something much harder to resist: other programming projects! Programming problems are like catnip to me. The catnip that tempts me the most lately is the foundation of atonal music, AKA Pitch Class Sets: "Pitch Class Sets are a method for describing harmonies in 20th century music. These notations and methods can describe and manipulate any type of chord that can be created within a 12-tone (equally tempered) scale."... read more

ChordEase now has a demo video! More videos are available on the ChordEase YouTube channel, and others are in the works.

ChordEase is a new type of musical instrument: a meta-instrument. It isn't a physical instrument, it's software that uses artificial intelligence to enhance ordinary MIDI instruments, so that they can be approached in a new way. It's especially useful to performers who approach music rhythmically, because it can translate rhythmic input into harmonic and melodic output.... read more

The latest version of ChordEase (1.0.09) can be synchronized with an external device. Timing synchronization is implemented via MIDI clock messages, combined with the Start, Stop, Continue, and Song Position MIDI messages. ChordEase can be a slave or a master. For details, see Patch Bar/Sync in the documentation.

This version also adds a "Thirds" non-diatonic notes rule, which causes successive white keys to form the cycle of thirds. This makes it much easier (and more fun) to play arpeggios. Interval distances are greatly reduced: each input octave spans two output octaves. This facilitates the playing of melodic lines that are unusually wide in terms of range. It also could be of interest to people with physical limitations that might otherwise prevent them from playing wide intervals.... read more

Collaboration between computers and people is the essence of the ChordEase project. The idea is to create a cybernetic organism, in which a performer cooperates with a machine in order to acquire new degrees of freedom that would otherwise be inaccessible. In this narrow sense, a person driving a car also constitutes a cybernetic organism. The car and the person cooperate to achieve a new degree of freedom, i.e. the person can now move around at 60 MPH. All tools have an element of cybernetics, but especially tools that embed information, control systems, sensors, feedback etc. By enabling a person to extend his or her power, tools create a new more powerful organism, a kind of meta-human or cyborg. So in the same way that a person using a portable vacuum becomes a vacuuming cyborg, a person using ChordEase becomes an improvising cyborg.... read more

ChordEase is much more difficult to market than most products. Most products address an already existing need, and consequently have plenty of competition, but also an obvious built-in market. By comparison ChordEase is a new invention, and thus has no competition, but no easily accessible market either. The hardest problem in marketing is creating new needs, i.e. persuading people that they should try something that they never wanted or even imagined. This is harder still when the new thing is complex and takes effort to understand.... read more

ChordEase elicits a wide range of reactions. It's fair to say that people are sometimes horribly offended by it: I narrowly avoided getting beaten up after a jazz show a few months ago, just for talking about ChordEase. In general the people most upset by ChordEase are professional musicians, and in my experience they usually make one or more of the following points:

1. ChordEase could put them out of work
2. ChordEase is cheating and/or laziness
3. ChordEase isn't an instrument because it eliminates choice ... read more

ChordEase 1.0.08 is released, and includes comprehensive context-sensitive help. The help was a major effort (21,721 words but who's counting?) which mostly explains why the release took two months. The same documentation that's in the help file is also available at the ChordEase website, and on the ChordEase Wiki. 1.0.08 also supports Impro-Visor lead sheet (.ls) files. Impro-Visor is a free (SourceForge-hosted) notation and accompaniment program that's popular with jazz musicians. The release notes are here.... read more

ChordEase 1.0.7 features several enhancements to the MIDI learn feature. In MIDI learn, the target parameter can now be selected by clicking directly in the parameter's corresponding dialog control, if it has one. The MIDI learn operation is now simplified to the following steps: left-click in the desired control, enable MIDI learn (a green border appears around the control), twiddle the MIDI controller, and disable MIDI learn again. For most targets, it's no longer necessary to use the MIDI target lists unless you need to adjust the controller range. However there are a few targets that don't have dialog controls associated with them, e.g. Play/Stop and the other transport-related functions, and these must still be assigned via the MIDI target list.... read more

ChordEase 1.0.6 was released today, and includes several enhancements. One is that recording now works even while the song is stopped. Previous versions only recorded while the song was playing. Introductions played before the song starts, or endings played after it stops, are now captured. It's also possible to perform an entire song in free time, without ever pressing play, and this too is now captured by the record function. ... read more

Version 1.0.5 is up, and it adds two nice features: an output notes bar, and the ability to play through ChordEase using a continuous controller to generate notes, as opposed to a keyboard.

The output notes bar is a piano control, but unlike the virtual piano, it doesn't accept input; its purpose is to let you see exactly what notes your input notes are being mapped to in real time. It has filtering capability, i.e. you can show output notes only for a specific device and/or channel, though by default all output notes are shown, except for the metronome, which has its own special filter setting.... read more

Regarding non-diatonic note handling, I discovered a fourth mapping mode mode, which will be very useful when using a continuous controller (e.g. a theremin) to generate input notes. In this new mode, which I call "Skip", the non-diatonic notes are skipped over instead of merely being disabled. This effectively normalizes the diatonic scale, and makes the diatonic notes evenly spaced in controller steps. On a keyboard, the mapping looks like this (for the chord scale of C Lydian):... read more

The next version will feature an Output Notes bar. Unlike the piano dialog, it doesn't accept user input; its only purpose is to show the output notes. It has the following features:

• dockable bar
• changes to vertical orientation automatically, depending on aspect ratio
• supports filtering by port and/or channel
• metronome notes are filtered out separately (this behavior is optional)
• piano size is selectable: 49, 61, 76, 88, or 128 keys
• optional key labels showing MIDI note names
• handles multiple instances of the same note, e.g. from different ports/channels
• handles bar being shown while notes are active, no dropouts

Version 1.0.4 of ChordEase allows songs to be edited directly in the chart view, instead of editing them as text files. This greatly increases usability and makes the software considerably more intuitive, particularly for first-time users. As part of this change, the song and the patch now have separate undo histories.

With this release, all essential features are now in place, and thus the status of ChordEase has been upgraded from alpha to beta. In the next version the primary focus will be on documentation.... read more

ChordEase 1.0.3 was released today. It adds new features, and also fixes some bugs. The piano keys can now be configured to show the chord tones and tensions for each chord, dynamically updated as the song plays. This is done using the piano dialog's context menu. The MIDI Device bar now includes the state (open or closed) of each device, and a MIDI Note Mappings dialog was added, which summarizes how input notes are mapped to output notes.... read more

ChordEase 1.0.2 was released today. This version includes a virtual piano, which allows people to try the software even if they don't have a MIDI keyboard. The piano also shows what notes are being played, and what notes they're being mapped to. There's also a demo command (Help/Demo), which makes it much easier to understand what the software does and why it's useful.

... read more

It dawned on me yesterday that ChordEase needs a virtual piano interface that you can play via the mouse and/or the PC keyboard. This would allow people who haven't got a MIDI instrument to try out ChordEase, using the Microsoft software synth that's built in to Windows. This feature would also be very handy for debugging in cafes. :) And, it should be possible for the virtual piano's keys to show which notes they're mapped to at any given moment, which would allow you to see how the chord scale is changing as you proceed through the song.... read more

ChordEase lets you play music with difficult chords easily on any MIDI instrument. It's primarily intended for jazz, but it can be also useful for any type of music that modulates frequently. ChordEase ensures that all your notes are harmonically correct, but their sequence and rhythm are up to you. In other words, ChordEase handles the rapid music theory calculations, so you can relax and concentrate on groove, feel, and aesthetics. If (like me) you're a musician who struggles with improvising to jazz or similarly harmonically challenging music, you owe it to yourself to try ChordEase.... read more