How many different chords does Chordhopper go up to?

[petew83]

How many different chords does Chordhopper go up to?

[aruffo]

Perhaps this answers your question?

[Andi]

Wow!
Looks as if I could be playing for years
Even if you already got AP --> how would it be possible to remember all those icons?

[aruffo]

You've essentially hit the basic principle underlying the method (which I discussed to some extent on the main page)-- according to the "Magical Number Seven" article, by adding new dimensions into our evaluative process, we can expand the number of identifiable objects.

So, perceptually, you'll train yourself to recognize the chords by discovering new characteristics of the chords which distinguish them from each other.

Conceptually, the little pictures should help by providing a grapheme to represent each chord's unique identity-- that is, to boil down the series of binary decisions involved in judgment into a single representation.

[petew83]

umm...wow

Guess I should start doing 2 rounds a day instead of 1 so I can finish in this lifetime

[etaxier]

I'm a bit curious about the 7th list... why six chords and not three? Unless those last chords are missing a note or something, or are minor?

[aruffo]

Hey wait a minute.. are those last few chords identical? I seem to remember noticing that before. I'd better double-check the original diagram (which, being created in 1982, was hand-drawn)...

Hm. It appears as though this is correct-- but now I'm wondering, too, how there can be identical chords. It's obvious from the page that they're in different key signatures, but that doesn't help tell one from the other when they're mixed among all the rest.. I'll have to look into it a bit further.

[etaxier]

I also wonder how all of those would fit on the keyboard (or the screen for that matter)...?

Did you have to draw 70-something unique pictures?

[allthumbs]

I just bought the program yesterday and am a little confused. Chordhopper doesn't actually name the chords.
Also the first chord is a C 1,3,5. The second is only the donut and fox which is a perfect fourth, 1 and 4. Not a chord. On the main page it says the second chord is C.F.A or 1,4,6. Would that make it a Csus4+6. My head is spinning. What am I missing??

[aruffo]

I did have to draw 70+ unique pictures (it took a while).

I'm not sure why you wouldn't be hearing the lock for the second chord, but it is there along with the doughnut and fox.

[Daniel]

Chris,

Not sure how it would fit into your applications yet, but of all the possible chord structures, I'd really like to see the following two critical families incorporated.

Each example implies all of the other flavors of chords created via alteration. E.g. Cm7, C7, CmMaj7, etc., etc., for the drop-2's, and Cmaj, Cmin, Caug, and Cdim for the open triads)

"Drop-2" seventh voicings*, e.g...

Code: Select all

B     G     E     C           
E     C     B     G
C     B     G     E
G     E     C     B


...formed by taking the second note from the top of each inversion and dropping it to the bottom

Code: Select all

B      (becomes)        B
G     ----------->     ( )
E                       E
C                       C
                        G


"Open" voiced triads

Code: Select all

C               E               G
                                C
E                               
                G
G               C               E


Lot's of other important chord voicings exist to get in the ear (e.g. "quartal" harmony fourth voicings in particular, next. Triad over root note. Drop-3. Ninth "no- five" voicings. Etc., etc.), but these very common and important structures matter a lot to me up front.

Why include all of the drop-2 variations? Most of the "weirder" voicings play multiple "not-so-weird" enharmonic roles when you put them over different roots. E.g. Bmaj7b5 over a G bass note yields G7#5#9, and Emin7 over a C bass note gives Cmaj9, etc. Here's the complete list (arbitrarily omitting the oddball dimM7) as I'm thinking about it...

Code: Select all


Cmaj7
Cmaj7b5
Cmaj7#5

C-7
C-7b5
C-7#5

C6
C-6

C7
C7b5
C7#5
C7sus4

Cdim7

C-M7



Thanks!


*I discovered the "drop 2" method of constructing voicings the missing link between the most common guitar voicings and the more exotic ones as used by Bill Evans and Allan Holdsworth, et al. Though applicable to all instruments, guitarist might want to try them on the middle four strings of the guitar. See Bret Willmott's harmony, theory, and voicing book for an exploration of the concept.