finding chords

[mte]

Hi,

I started to listening to and transcribing some a little more serious stuff such as jazz and I have some trouble finding out all the harmonies and chords. I get pretty close on keyboard/piano by ear, but sometimes don't know how the chord is named so I don't know what to write on paper. Is there any program which would show the name of the chord after "clicking" the "keys" which are part of the chord on "keyboard"?

Thanks,

Matej

[Rod S]

I don't know if such a program exists, but I would imagine for something as complex as jazz chords it would go wrong or at it have to be good enough to give you a couple of possilibities so you can then pick the right one based on context.

 

For 4 note chords that include the root I'm assuming this is a possibility, but jazz goes way beyond this.

 

Here's a website that does the opposite, I haven't used it (just an old bookmark), but it seems neat.

 

http://www.oddrealm.com/piano/sub-topics/vpc.htm

[Tedly Nightshade]

If I had a program like that, I'd spend all my time trying to mess it up and make it look bad. I'm like that, for some reason.

 

Of all the notes in the chord, see if you can decide which one is the root, based on how it sounds. Once you've settled that to your satisfaction, proceed from there, counting to see what's the third, ninth (same as second), etc.

[The T Dot]

The program does exist.

 

Get it here: http://www.kettering.edu/~bfriday/archives/ZIPFILES/NUTCHORD.ZIP

[Byrdman]

Originally posted by mte:

Hi,

I started to listening to and transcribing some a little more serious stuff such as jazz and I have some trouble finding out all the harmonies and chords. I get pretty close on keyboard/piano by ear, but sometimes don't know how the chord is named so I don't know what to write on paper.

You will learn more by spending some time learning the chord notation. There are actually several variations but I don't believe it matters which you learn first. The only thing that differs is some of the symbols used.

 

Thing is that this is pretty easy to learn but if you don't know it you will keep bumping up against it forever and that will make your life difficult. A few hours spent now will save you a large amount of frustration later.

 

(Learning to read the chords and play them "in real time" with nice voicings is, of course, a lot more work than learning the notation. Its learning the notation that just takes a few hours)

[mte]

thank you all very much, especially for the program, it's really exactly what I need...

thanks,

Matej