Guitar Chord Finder

Root:

the root of the chord

Chord:

the program comes with a list of pre-defined chords

These are stored in the file "chords.txt". Choosing a chord will automatically set the check-boxes in the groups Tones and Essential Tones. Look at the bottom of the list where you can find chord families (such as tonic major chords, altered dominant chords): this is the type of search that one needs most often in jazz guitar playing.

Tones:

here you can specify which tones CAN occur in the voicings

Essential tones:

these are the tones that MUST occur in the voicings

Melody note:

the highest note in the voicing (you can leave this unspecified)

Bass note:

the lowest note in the voicing (you can leave this unspecified)

No. of frets:

choose 'normal (4 frets)' if you prefer 'comfortable' fingerings;

choose 'wide (5 frets)' if you don't mind stretching your hand a bit

Doubling tones:

jazz guitar voicings rarely double a note in a higher octave, so the default setting is 'off'

Melody string:

the string playing the melody note (you can leave this unspecified)

Muting patterns:

by default the program will search for voicings using one of the most typical string sets which are pre-defined in the file "muting.txt." It is recommended to stick to this standard set, otherwise the program may generate a very high number of voicings many of which are not very useful.

Interval filters:

these are checked by default and reflect standard practice; you can uncheck them but then be prepared for some really weird sound

Find! button:

click on this button to start the search for possible fingerings

Voicings found:

voicings are displayed in this box in a tab-like notation: for each of the six strings either a fret number or an x (muted string) is shown

Fretboard display:

this is where the voicings are displayed graphically