Hi, I am new to music theory and as part of the learning and being a programmer I wrote a little .net app to make things clearer. I am still working on it but would really appreciate it if people could try it out. Please let me know of any bugs and in particular any music theory mistakes! Any additions you would like to see as well please let me know. Once it is done I will make it available free. Later I will convert it to a midi effect VST but I want to get the theory code working correctly first.

It is probably more a tool for people new to theory, what it does:

- shows all the chords in the current key with roman numerals for degree (you switch key by clicking on the circle of fifths)
- sound (you can click on anything that is blue to hear it plus on the key to hear the scale). If you get sound depends on what midi output device you have. This may be an area where it goes wrong!
- has a scratchpad to allow you to drag chords into to assemble progressions
- shows a good chord to go to next (press the S button)
- allows you to edit a chord and add sevenths

So if you could give it a go I would really appreciate it. It would be really good if there were suggestions for improvements as well as I am making this to be available free so what works for you.

Oh almost forgot the link. You can get it here: http://www.toymaker.info/musictheoryhelper.html


thanks
Keith
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Nobody? I had thought this might have been of interest.

It sure looks interesting.

I tried to install it in sandboxie (I just don't install anything on my pc without precaution) and I didn't succeed.

Then I wanted to install it outside sandboxie and I installed framework.net 4.0. After restarting, my sandboxie didn't work as I was used to and the boot time was much longer.

I uninstalled and reinstalled sandboxie but even without sandboxie, startup was very long, especially the connection to the internet.

1 hour and several restarts later I gave up. So I haven't even installed your app because I don't like framework 4.0.

I know this is not your fault but I'm a noob concerning stuff like framework and when I see that an update doesn't do any good to my pc, I uninstall it. Thank God I have Revo Uninstaller.

Hi, thanks for trying anyway. I know the .net framework can be a bit of a beast. I would not use it but it is a very quick way to knock up an app and iron out the design before then converting to C++

Will it be converted to C++ in the future? I'm interested!!

Yes indeed that is the idea, I want to make it as a midi VST plugin. Thing is not being fully confident yet in my theory I want to get that right before transferring it over.

Hi there

Sorry not many people have replied on your topic - I'm getting started with making music and have been giving your software a whirl this evening. Its a great start! Don't be discouraged as there aren't enough of these sort of tools.

I love the fact you pick a key and you can see the piano keys to press; this is very handy in starting to get the hang of chords and what fits in each key. I need to try the MIDI route out to Ableton to try playing some VSTs, but I'll be putting this on my laptop to help me get some tunes together.

I did manage to crash it once, but it didn't kill the software. I could carry on using it like nothing had happened. Unfortunately I've not managed to crash it again so can't tell you what the error was.

Good work! Looking forward to updates.

It's a shame you haven't got a mac version otherwise I'd happily test it out for you.

-> Awesome! Very helpful and intuitive! Can I use this app to find chords like F6, etc?

-Steven

Just had a play with it and I'm very impressed.

As I'm very new to music theory I'll find it very helpful . It reminds me of this book
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias% 3Daps&field-keywords=chord+wheel+book&x=0&y=0
but with minor scales more accesable.
The midi out doesnt work with Reaper on Win 7. It sees a virtual midi port but the data doest get into Reaper. Works well with the M
I dont know if its a bug when you click the 7th button on a minor chord you get Cmm7 ...should it be Cm7?
The cycle button looks like an arrow on the program but a 'cycle' type arrow on the instructions.
Suggestions for songwriting version
Would it be possible to add an empty square to the scratchpad or replace a chord with a rest?
If the scratchpad was lower (just above the keyboard) with the controls above it it could show 16 chords at a time.

Any chance of an iPad version?
Happy to beta test any new versions.

+1

Hi Keith,

I'm also very impressed after noodling with your app for a bit.
It's running here on Windows 7. I have not vetted the app for accuracy with regard to the underlying theory (not my forte).

A few potential issues:

If I change the active key while playing a progression, the choices in the chord picker and chord degrees change appropriately, but the active progression does not; it would be nice if it automatically changed the progression to the new key as well.

On my machine the cycle button looks like an airplane.

If I press the trashcan button while the app is playing, I get a Windows error, but it allows me to continue using the app.

When I first opened the app there were a number of empty spaces in the list of progressions. After using the app awhile, I noticed that new progressions had appeared at the bottom of the list. This may be intended, but the progressions that appeared were not ones I had built.

A few suggestions:

More options for chord variations, beyond inversions and sevenths would be nice.

For beginners a longer list (scrollable?) of common progressions might be useful. Also, it would be great to be able to show an alternative list of the user's favorites, or a list of user-created progressions.

In the Circle of Fifts selector, it would be helpful to have a special color for the selected key.

I've got a high resolution monitor, and the red text against the gray background of the scratch pad is a bit hard to see (for me). A lighter color (orange?), perhaps with bold font, might work better.

Any plans to enable export to MIDI?

A vst version of this, with appropriate midi ins and outs, would be handy indeed. Sign me up to test it, if you ever build the vst.

All in all, this is a great start on a very nice app. Great job! I'll be watching closely to see where you take this.

Regards,
Chris

Mac version FOR THE GLORY!