Working Out Backing Chords

Subject: Working Out Backing Chords
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 08 May 00 - 07:24 PM

Regardless of whether you're a beginner or a more experienced musician there are times when you can't quite figure out what chord is being used in a piece of recorded music. Reference was made at the ABC Users Group about a shareware program called Transcribe which analyses the frequencies and relative volumes of a one second audio snapshot to give you the possible notes in the chord. While not claiming to be perfect it does appear to take into account factors such as drum noise in order for the musician's brain to make the final judgement. It's available at http://www.seventhstring.demon.co.uk/xscribe/index.html

Regards, John

Subject: RE: Working Out Backing Chords
From: Jon W.
Date: 09 May 00 - 10:55 AM

I just downloaded it and it looks like it will be a great help in figuring out tunes from recordings. You can select a section to play continuously, slow it down, speed it up, etc. besides having it analyse the frequencies to give you an idea of the notes or the chords. They want $30 US or 20 pounds Sterling to register it. That seems reasonable for a program with this much power.

Subject: RE: Working Out Backing Chords
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 09 May 00 - 08:45 PM

And one very important point for Tony in Darwin and all other Macophiles - this program is also Mac Friendly.

It's getting very favourable reviews from the hardened members of the ABC Users Group who seem to be very committed Mac and Linux users.

While I won't have a chance to try it out for a while the program has a built in Wave File recorder which then allows you to mark the spot(S) with the unknown chord and it displays the notes via a visual spike on a piano keyboard graphic. You then pick up your favourite instrument and keep adding the progressively less prominent notes as displayed until you reach the right sound or you run out of fingers.

I would warn others though - I've spent time in the past looking for chord exotica to fit a particular song only to find that I'd overlooked something as simple as (say) A Minor. It can be a bit deflating! On the other hand it may help to solve friendly disputes over 'what chord is he/she playing on this track?'.

Regards, John

Subject: RE: Working Out Backing Chords
From: Racer
Date: 09 May 00 - 10:21 PM

This is a little off the subject, but it sort of relates:

I recently found myself working out chord progressions for Irish music for the first time. I don't have recorded versions for the tunes I'm working on, so I'm working from scratch. All I have is sheet music for melody lines.

It's going alright so far, but I keep painting my self into corners, so to speak.

Does anyone know of a site that I might go to that already has the chords worked out?

If not, does anyone have some advice for going through this process? I've already figured out that a I/V chord progression works for almost anything, but I was hoping to be a little more diverse.

Thanks in advance for your help.

-Racer