What's New

About the Algorithms: Chords

I'm starting a brief series of explanations on how things works behind the scenes on the site. The first installment here is on how chords are defined and how various aspects are derived from the few bits of data that need to be defined manually.

Even if you don't code, this may be an interesting glimpse into how I've taught the code to understand music in ways similar to how people can learn certain aspects of music theory.

About Page

Learn a little about me and my motivation for this site in my new about page.

Chord Comparison Tool

This week's update brings a new tool for visualizing and better understanding chords. This chord comparison tool helps you to see all chords (of a certain number of notes) for the same root. The scale-degree formula's for each is shown, and these are sorted in a sort of 'ascending' manner that groups chords near their neighbors.

You can also include inversions in the mix and hear the audio for each as well. Hopefully this gives you a new perspective on a familiar topic so that you can learn something new!

Examples:

• Chord Comparisons

Chord inversions (Part III)

Another continuation of the chord inversion work, this time with a closer focus on chord charts. First on this list is chart search by a chord's 'slash chord' name (eg: D/F#). This currently only works when this forms a proper inversion, so a search for A/C won't return anything, but this seems to be fairly rare, so this should help most people searching charts for this style of chord.

The chord chart detail pages now show easier to play inversions when available. These aren't always suitable to play for all songs, but, especially in a band setting, where there are other instruments, this may help you reach that annoying Bb chord more easily.

Examples:

• Search for D/F# (D major - 1st inversion)
• Bb chord chart

Chord inversions (Part II)

This week's update is a continuation of the initial chord inversion work from last week, and now includes inversions for all chords (not just triads).

Search support has been update as well. Now searches for chords by note will return the specific inversion of a chord, rather than just a generic "It's a C Major" sort of response. If you know the chord you are looking for by it's 'slash' notation (eg: D/F#), this works as well, and will give you the correct inversion for that alternate bass note.

For us guitarists, who don't always get to have correct note order, but still care about the bass note, searching by note will give you the most correct approximation of a chord even if it's not strictly correct.

Searching for a chord chart also works to return the correct inversion. 422100, for instance, returns an E major (1st inversion), or an E/G#. More work is needed for full slash chord and inversion support for all guitar chord chart features, so stay tuned for when those are ready!

Examples:

• Search for 'A C F' (F major - 1st inversion)
• Search for D/F# (D major - 1st inversion)
• Search for 422100 (E major - 1st inversion)

Chord inversions (Part I)

This update adds the basics of chord inversions. Any basic (non-extended) chord now has an 'inversions' list that links to each of the inversions of that chord. These inversion pages are just like a standard chord page, allowing you to hear the chord, see how it's constructed and see similar chords and associated scales - These also link back to the chord they are based on.

There's been a lot of foundational work done here that will enable many other chord and chord chart functionality in the future, so stay tuned for more updates!

Examples:

• C# minor chord
• C# minor chord (1st inversion)

Improved audio for 'hear this chord' and drill introductions

Chord detail pages have improved audio. These now use the same guitar audio samples as chord charts. I've also ensured that all of the notes are played in the expected order and octave (something that chord charts don't always ensure). Also, since this audio isn't representing an actual chord chart, chords that are technically unplayable on guitar (like a 13, as it has 7 notes) can be heard as well.

Knowledge drills now have an 'introduction' page, giving some details on what is learned or tested, links to reference pages related to the questions being asked, and notes on what to look for for in these references.

Examples:

• A major chord
• E minor thirteenth
• Scales - Pentatonic I

Chord construction and drilled item reference

Chord detail pages now include the 'interval stack' used to construct the chord, as well as an explanation of how to use either the scale degree formula or interval stack to construct that particular chord. This explanation also includes a visual that should help understand everything that's going on here.

Wrong answers in drills now include a reference link to the item being the question is referring to. If you've just given the wrong answer to a question about the A minor chord, for instance, you'll get a link to the A minor chord detail page to read up on the chord and hopefully better understand what you may be missing.

Finally, I've written a short post about these interval stacks and how they help me to see things differently.

Examples:

• C major chord
• Blog - A Dominant 9th

Interval Reference

Added a new intervals reference, showing the common names, symbols, example note spans, as well as an audio sample of each interval.

Examples:

• Intervals Reference

Multiple Choice Drills

Added multiple-choice answer support to the knowledge drills. This makes newer or more difficult topics easier to start with and provide a ramp-up to the full freeform entry version of each drill.

Not every drill will have both freeform and multiple choice, but when they do you'll see a 'I' or 'II' indicating the easier (multiple choice) and harder (freeform text) versions of the same content, respectively.

This update also includes multiple-choice versions of the existing interval, scale, and chord drills.

Finally, there's a new post on the blog, reflecting on the benefits of practicing fundamentals that might not seem immediately useful.

Examples:

• Intervals - Major, Minor, Perfect I
• Scales - Pentatonic I
• Chords - Three or fewer notes I
• Blog - Chords, Intervals, and the Circle of Fifths

Scale Construction and New Blog

One thing I noticed while using the scale drills is that I don't have any good details on how scales are constructed in the scale reference. The only way, given here, to begin learning these was to memorize the notes in each scale at each root. This is inefficient and fails to show the patterns in how one two scale relate to one another.

This update fixes that. Each scale page now has the familiar W/H (whole-step/half-step) formula as well as an explanation and helpful diagram showing how this can be used to construct the scale with the root note and the type.

Along with the changes to the scale detail pages, I've also added this scale formula to the hints that come back on wrong answers for the scale drills. Since the scales already had a hint on wrong answers, the selection of which to show will be random.

Unrelated to scales or drills, I've also setup a blog for long-form content about the site. I've started things off with an introduction to me and the project, and I plan to do a new post every month or so about overall goals, thoughts on learning music, and discoveries make on my own musical journey.

Examples:

• Notes in scale - Diatonic
• C Major Pentatonic
• MajorMinorPerfect Blog - Introduction

Drill Difficulty and Interval Drills

Added a difficulty rating to each drill set and updated the drills listing to be arranged into easy, intermediate, and hard drill sets. With many more types of drills planned, this will help keep things sane and easy to navigate.

In addition, and in keeping with the theme of moving to covering foundational topics, I've added a couple interval drills. These test your ability to determine the next note given a starting note and an interval.

Examples:

• Next Note - Major, minor, and perfect
• Next Note - Diminished and augmented

Chord Formulas and Scale Drills

Continuing the theme of knowledge drills; chord-to-notes drills now produce a useful 'hint' on a wrong answer, showing the chord formula (like 1-3-5 for major chords, for instance). Knowing these, the root note, and the scale notes will help you to formulate any chord.

Speaking of scales, this update also includes scale-to-note and note-to-scale drills to help you test and memorize these as well. Wrong answers on the scale-to-note drills will also produce a hint usually mentioning the mode number and the main scale this is related to.

The scale degree formula (chord formula, mentioned above) has been added to the chord detail pages as well, and some chord definitions have been updated slightly after seeing the formula generated for each - some of these may have had the correct notes, but defined at the wrong octave - this should be resolved now.

Examples:

• Notes in chord - three or fewer notes
• Notes in scale - Diatonic
• Scale by notes - Diatonic
• C major chord

Chord Knowledge Drills

This is the first release of interactive drills! This update includes 'notes in chord' drills that you can use to learn and memorize (and test yourself) on the notes that are in each chord. You'll get a score at the end to show how you've done.

Each drill set includes a random sample of the questions available for that particular drill category, so you can run through these repeatedly and get different questions each time.

Many more types of drills are planned, but this first update includes much of the work involved in making more of these in the future.

Please give these a try and let us know if there is anything that would make these better.

Examples:

• Notes in chords - three or fewer notes

Arpeggio and Scale Chart improvements

The theme this week is more arpeggio chart updates, or more specifically, updates to anything with a melodic chart. Many of the changes here are to address any issues that were mentioned in the last update, but there are also a few others. Here are the highlights:

• Updated the melodic chart algorithm to skip strings when the next note is not available on the next string. This brings a bunch of benefits, but mainly helps to find better short charts, and also charts in weird tunings.
• Refined selection of 'short' and 'long' arpeggio charts. The 'short' charts now almost never require movement along the fretboard.
• Group the by-scale arpeggios by the type of chord that the chart is for. This makes it generally easier to find things, rather than having just a big pile of charts to sort through.
• Fixed display issues with the new arpeggio chart collections feature - this should look generally nicer and more polished now.
• Added arpeggio chart collection (by scale) to the main search results. Search for 'A minor' (for instance), and you should see these represented now.

Examples:

• C major short triads for extended chords

Arpeggio Chart Collections By Scale

This week's change is a bit of a beta release. It's the initial release of arpeggio charts by scale - things are working, but not as complete as other features here; the rest will come at a later date. For now, here's what's available

• 'Short' arpeggios for scale triads
• 'Short' arpeggios for scale extended chords
• 'Long' arpeggios for scale triads
• 'Long' arpeggios for scale extended chords

Examples:

• A major short triads for extended chords

Chord chart difficulty and easier alternatives

This week's theme is chart difficulty, with two main visible changes:

• Added the list of 'easier to play' charts to the chart detail page. This will give you alternatives when there are other charts available that might be easier to get your fingers to cooperate with.
• Fixed an issue with chord charts that was considering charts like 555550 (Am11) to be easier than 555555 - which is obviously not true. This is resolved now.

Examples:

• Am11 chord chart
• Am chord chart

More arpeggio and scale charts.

The algorithm for finding arpeggio and scale charts has been updated to do a more exhaustive search. The result is more charts with some higher-quality options for both arpeggios and scale charts. You should still see everything that was there before, but with some better options available now.

Examples:

• A Minor 7 Arpeggio Charts
• A Minor Scale Charts

Improved chart progression functionality.

Chart progressions have been reworked to allow for interactive selection of charts per chord. An initial search will now always provide the 'default' chart for each chord, but now allows you to 'edit' each chart - providing options for higher, lower, or easier charts.

These have also been updated to use the new 'hear this' functionality, as well as displaying fingering for the charts in the progression.

Improved 'hear this' functionality.

Chord charts (and now scale and arpeggio charts!) have been updated to play acoustic guitar samples rather than a synth when you click on them. The samples account for which string is played (not just the note), so that you hear a realistic representation of what this chord (or scale, or arpeggio) would sound like on a real guitar.

Improved arpeggio charts and more!

We've added a full-fretboard view of arpeggio charts, as well as the selection of a 'preferred' arpeggio-chart; you'll still see all of the charts we are generating, but this brings focus to the chart that's easiest to play.

Other updates include some visual cleanups, most noticeably in each of the 'related items' blocks.

Arpeggio Charts!

Learn to play arpeggios on the guitar with our new arpeggio charts feature! Much like scale charts, you can see arpeggio charts for various positions in every tuning and chord supported on the site.

Examples:

• A Minor 7 Arpeggio Charts

Configurable Chord Chart Collections!

Chord chart collections can now be refined in the same way as the chord chart search. You can now do things like: see all chord charts for a particular scale but past the 6th fret, or only playing 3 strings per chord, or even limit the number of frets you'll have to stretch your fingers across to play these (and more!).

Improved scale-charts

Initial support for scale-charts only generated fixed-position charts, meaning the chart wasn't allowed to 'drift' up or down the fretboard. This works for many scales in standard tuning, but is often too restrictive for some alternate tunings or more exotic tunings.

This update also generates scale-charts that are allowed to move in one direction or another, creating a sort of diagonal line, in some cases, on the fretboard. This provides some more creative scale-charts that allow you to cover more of the fretboard, and also gives more options for alternate tunings and exotic scales.

Added "New Standard Tuning"

This small update adds the "New Standard Tuning" to the list of predefined tunings to select from. This tuning, as well as every other tuning, applies to all chord-charts and scale-charts.

Chart collection improvements

This update includes a number of small visual improvements to the chord chart collections pages, but most importantly will now group chords into groups within the major categories of triads and extended.

Triads, for instance, are now broken into 'primary triads' (for modes of the major scale), and 'other triads'. Extended chords are now broken into groupings like 'Seventh Chords', 'Ninth Chords', etc. This should make it easier to find what your looking for in these collections.

Preferred Scale Chart

Scale charts now show a 'preferred' chart that is determined to be a good position to play the scale for whatever tuning is selected. I've attempted to prioritize ease of play, followed by number of strings played.

Improved scale details

Scale detail pages now include a separate section for 'primary triads' that will indicate the main traids that belong to the scale along their scale degree names.

These are currently only available on the modes of the major scale, but will be added to other scales where applicable in the future.

Improved scale charts

Scale charts now show the root of the scale (as a red dot). This small change should help you keep your bearings better while learning these scale charts.

Browse / Explore pages

We now have easy to navigate pages for each reference type: Chords, Chord Charts, Chord Chart Collections, Scales, and Scale Chart Collections. Each of these allow you to select a root note and a chord (or scale) associated with each item.

Guitar scale charts!

We now have guitar scale charts (in a nice, printable format). These show any scale across the entire fretboard, and also in various playable positions. These charts are available in all alternate tunings.

Examples:

• A Minor

Hear the chords / chord-charts

You can now hear what each chord or chord-chart sounds like! Simply click (or tap) on any chord chart to get an idea of what this chord sounds like.

Arbitrary alternate tunings!

The tuning configuration (in the top right of the screen) now supports custom tunings; if the tuning you are looking for isn't one of the presets we've defined, you can now set the tuning note-by-note to exactly what you need.

As with all of our alternate tuning support, your tuning preference will be honored in all chord charts or anything that involves the fretboard.

Improved chord-chart search results

When searching for a chord-chart, we now show a grid of chart graphics rather than a table listing the chart signatures (eg: 002010). This makes it easier to quickly find what you are looking for.

Examples:

• Am7 Chord Chart Search

Pentatonic Scales

Added the Pentatonic scale and all associated modes (Major Pentatonic, Suspended, Blues Minor, Blues Major, and Minor Pentatonic).

Examples:

• C Major Pentatonic
• E Minor Pentatonic

Perfect 4ths tuning

Added 'perfect 4ths' alternate tuning. Check it out by changing your preferred tuning in the top-right of the screen. Once this is changed, be sure to search for chord charts, or chord chart collections to see how things look in this new tuning!

Examples:

• Example search for 'C'

Happy New Year!

Added the minor-major 7 chord type.

Beyond this, the bigger work in this release is some behind the scenes bugfixes and groundwork for bigger things to come. Stay tuned!

Chord Chart Collections

We've added collections of chort charts that can be printed for easy practicing. There are collections available for triads and extended chords for each scale. As with everything else, these will honor your selected tuning and select the appropriate charts and fingerings to match.

Examples:

• A Minor Triads
• C# Phrygian b4 Extended Chords

We're on X!

Follow us on X @MajMinPerfect for notifications of updates to the site and @ us with any feedback you have.

Alternate tunings!

For now we have a few well-known tunings supported, but we plan to add support for arbitrary tunings soon. Check the top-right of your screen to see what the tuning is currently set to, or to change the tuning. All searches and pages that care about tuning will automatically adjust to apply to the tuning you've selected.

New look on the chord chart detail pages.

We've made some changes to the styling and layout on a few pages, specifically on the guitar chord chart detail pages. These changes should make it easier to see what's important and find related resources.

Added recommended fingering details to guitar chord charts.

As long as we're able to find a fingering, we now show where to place each finger on chord charts. If we find more than one way to play a particular chord chart, we also list these other - usually more difficult - variations on the chart detail page.

New difficulty metric for chord charts.

This is based on the new algorithm described in the previous update, and is used in many places throught the site. The most noticable is in the ranking of chord charts - difficulty, along with number of strings played and position on the neck - are used used to select the first chart to show in search results.

This update should make for a more well rounded selection sorting of results and produce less edge cases of hard-to-play charts showing high in the list.

Filtering of chord charts that are unplayable from search results.

This is accomplished with a new algorithm we have to determine possible ways to play each chord chart (where to place each finger). Our first use of this algorithm is this filtering, but future uses of this will be to show alternatives of where fingers should be placed on the chord charts, as well as updating our chart difficulty metric to be more accurate.

Reworked chord chart progression support.

Search results now show chart diagrams (like the standard chart results), can be filtered to help you find exactly what you are looking for, and generate faster than before.

Added support for "unknown chord" page (showing the member scales and similar chords for chord types that aren't in the database.)

Added the separate 'What's New' page showing all changes.

Added support for scale searches by list of notes.

Added support for chord and chord-chart searches based on descriptive chord names such as 'A Minor 7th' and 'G dominant 9th'.

Added support for 'unknown chord' chordchart search (searching for charts based on chart signature or list of notes - even if the chord is not known to the website)

Added powerchords to the list of known chords.

Added seven more chord types (half-diminished 7th, dominant 6th, major 7th sharp 9th, major 7th flat 9th sharp 11th, dominant 7th sharp 9th sharp 13th, altered dominant 7th, and augmented 7th).

Added search-support for lesser-used note names B#, Cb, E#, and Fb.

Small improvements to the chord-chart detail view.

Added chord-names to chord-chart summary and detail views.

Added support for 2nd and minor 2nd chords.

Added diagram view of chord charts! Check it out by searching for a chord chart and selecting 'Details' link that shows in the result card.

Added a detail view for chord charts. There isn't too much extra to see here right now, but this will give us a place to drop additional information that won't fit on the list or summary views.

Added detail view for scale search results.

Added detail view for chord search results. This allows us to give greater detail about a given chord in a format that is easier to read and explore. To see this in action, search for a chord and select 'Details' from the search results.

Added support for 7#9 chords.

Added new 'Feedback' feature as a way to communicate to us when things are broken, wrong, or even great about the site!

Fixed several bugs with the site's navigation

Improved sitewide performance and stability.

Support more flexible input for chord-chart progressions.

Added this 'What's New' feature! Watch here for more details on new features and functionality that has been added.

Added 'examples' feature. This will show a random selection of the types of searches you can do with this tool.