Tools for chord selection

I am considering purchasing iReal b for Mac OSX. This is a feature request to assist folks like me who don't know chords, aren't trying to learn to play an instrument, and just need a compositional tool to help me duplicate the music I hear in my head into a reproducible file. iReal b seems to go most of the way, but not quite; I think it could go a lot closer.

It appears to be easy to choose a chord if you know what chord you are looking for. But what if I don't know, and just want to listen to particular different chords before I choose the one I want to use? It would be nice if there were a chord preview feature.

The minimal feature for me to purchase would be to be able to hear a chord as I select it from the drop-down menus. That is if I change the dropdown from either C major or D harmonic minor to C harmonic minor, the program would play one C harmonic minor chord immediately so that I could hear whether that is the chord I intended. But it could be so much easier.

If I am building a song from scratch, it's tedious to have to choose chords from a pair of drop-down menus, then choose the current, preceding and following measures for looping, then choose another chord if the chord I chose turns out not to be to my liking. It would be nice to be able to choose chords from a grid.

That is C C# D etc along one axis, Major, Harmonic minor, etc. along the other axis.
Clicking the button at the intersection would provide a preview of that chord. Then, once I find the chord I want I could either double-click or click an Insert button. I have a desktop; I have room for such a grid.

Finally, it would be good to be able to choose to preview with the immediately preceding and following chords that are already in the song, not as part of a song with the repeats but just to be able to hear the three chords in a row before I click to insert that new chord into the song.

The ideal would be have the option to do an A/B test alternating between
previous chord, proposed chord, following chord
and
previous chord, current chord that would be replaced, following chord
so that I can compare whether it would be an improvement or a detriment.

I understand that this is not an existing feature, but I wonder whether it would be feasible to insert this feature into the product. Accomplishing this kind of preview in the existing product would seem to involve a lot of mouse clicks, and I don't like to click a lot.

1. The fundamental reason for iReal's existence is as an educational aid for musicians who want to practice playing their instruments.

2. It's a misconception to think iReal plays the same each time. Actually it's programmed to more closely simulate a live rhythm section by producing slight variations of chord voicings, basslines and drum patterns during playback.

3. While composing and previewing charts with iReal OSX is, in my opinion, very VERY easy, "folks like me who don't know chords, aren't trying to learn to play an instrument, and ... don't like to click a lot" may not find that it suits their specific requirements.

I do not think iReal Pro is suitable either.
I found this app (admittedly for iPhone) and I have seen other ones similar to this that might be more suitable.
https://itunes.apple.com/app/simple-...310708734?mt=8
This one is mainly for iPad (perhaps they will eventually produce a Mac version.)
http://sessionbandapp.com
I assume you want an app for your Mac however but at least you know software developers are aware of what you want.
Have you looked at GarageBand, where you can move measures around to change the order then play it to hear what it sounds like?

If you find anything suitable, post a link back here if you like, so others can follow it up also.
If I find anything else useful I will post back here too.

dflat - Thanks for being up-front about what your product does and doesn't do. Yes, I'm looking specifically for a Mac program, not iOS.

By the way, the "live" variation sounds like a way-cool feature.

I'll check out GarageBand, although it still looks like you have the only Mac app out there that lets you create chords and export them to MIDI. Three clicks per chord by name and type is still probably easier than picking the notes out individually in GarageBand. So I might still give this a try, maybe using it together with ChordMaestro Light to get the preview feature, and consider myself fairly warned that it might not meet my needs.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cbelov

It appears to be easy to choose a chord if you know what chord you are looking for. But what if I don't know, and just want to listen to particular different chords before I choose the one I want to use? It would be nice if there were a chord preview feature.

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cbelov, I have had read through what you are wanting to do again and had another think about it. In the Mac version, which is what you want, you can play the song (from any measure) in Song Edit mode (this is a reasonably new feature). You can start a measure with the chord combination you want to try out (elsewhere could be a combination you want to compare it to), click where you want playback to start from and listen. If you want to change a chord quality, click on it and change from the drop down menu (or change the chord itself easily).
If you are working forwards from measure 1 to compose, then you can use the area below for any ideas, comparison measures with different chords or chord qualities etc. and construct from the top. Clicking on any measure starts playback from there, so it would be easy using this are to compare. And you can copy/paste as you decide on what you want.
I think this method would work for you, probably not exactly how you would want, but near enough. If you know anyone who has the Mac version, have a little play with it to see if it will work.
Attached: Mac Song Edit, click on the Chord in a measure and click to show the qualities options.
Post back here if you have more questions.

Thanks, dflat. I did wind up getting it.

And the first thing I did was make myself a chord chart, with one measure each of each chord for C. (And since you thoughtfully included a transpose feature, I now have the chart for each chord.) Of course, I can't listen to the chord chart and a song I'm composing at the same time, but it will help me become more familiar with the various chords and when I might want to use them. I've printed the chord chart out and can make notes on it as to which chords I like and don't like and why.

But the method you mention would work too, although it took me some figuring out that I needed a blue selection as opposed to a gray selection to do copy and paste.

And as for the click/menu selection issue for choosing chords, I discovered I can type in most of the chords (m, as in Cm, doesn't seem to work, and I can't figure out to type in an o with a slash through it), but that totally solves the clicking issue I was concerned about.

Finally, as I expected, the variations feature is way cool and keeps the MIDI output from sounding like it was made by a computer.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to playing with this. Thanks for the cool tool.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cbelov

... Of course, I can't listen to the chord chart and a song I'm composing at the same time...

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While in edit mode, you can click the mouse in the measure you want to play from then click the play button at the bottom to play from there. This might help when composing and listening to your chord options.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cbelov

And as for the click/menu selection issue for choosing chords, I discovered I can type in most of the chords (m, as in Cm, doesn't seem to work, and I can't figure out to type in an o with a slash through it), but that totally solves the clicking issue I was concerned about.

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You use the hyphen key on the computer keyboard which is used for minor, although actually an m will playback as minor (but best is the hyphen.)
For half-diminished, use option-o (lowercase letter o.)

Thank you for letting us know how you are working it all out. I hope you find it useful for your needs.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dflat

While in edit mode, you can click the mouse in the measure you want to play from then click the play button at the bottom to play from there. This might help when composing and listening to your chord options.

You use the hyphen key on the computer keyboard which is used for minor, although actually an m will playback as minor (but best is the hyphen.)
For half-diminished, use option-o (lowercase letter o.)

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Works as you said, thanks. I found it a bit disconcerting that the display switches between m and - depending on whether I am in edit mode or not, but it works.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cbelov

...I found it a bit disconcerting that the display switches between m and - depending on whether I am in edit mode or not, but it works.

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In Prefs is a setting for changing the - (hyphen) to an m. Originally we only had hyphen and then added the m preference. Entering an m should in theory, work in all minor chord qualities for the player (although I have not checked this recently to see if it is true). I still use hyphen for minors in song edit because I know it will work with them all and you can see the font enter in black to indicate it is an accepted chord quality.