[PBG4 User]

I've written a musical scales program for Mac OS X. I don't consider my program complete, but it has enough features to be useable for people studying / writing music.

What you do is pick a scale and scale mode, and my program will show you the scale notes, as well as the different chords that can be made from the scale. My program will also play the chords for you. You can choose to hear the chords or have the chord tones arpeggiated for you.

Here's the link, http://dtibs.home.comcast.net .

Let me know what you folks think of my program! Enhancement suggestions are highly appreciated.

[PBG4 User]

bump.

[spiky_dog]

i'd strongly suggest having the output either in musical notation on a staff or depicted using colors, perhaps, on a keyboard. A C E is not intuitive for those who have spent so many years reading music (nb: this is not equivalent to "reading note names" ).

[PBG4 User]

Originally posted by spiky_dog:
i'd strongly suggest having the output either in musical notation on a staff or depicted using colors, perhaps, on a keyboard. A C E is not intuitive for those who have spent so many years reading music (nb: this is not equivalent to "reading note names" ).

What does nb mean in your parenthetical notation above?

I use this program as a practice tool to nail the chord fingerings on my bass. Displaying sheet music wasn't my goal with this program. That being said, I'm looking into adding sheet music notation just to learn how to manipulate graphics programmatically. You may see sheet music notation in a future release but I'm not going to guarantee it.

Thanks for your comments.

[spiky_dog]

nb via dictionary.com:

no·ta be·ne Â_Â_ Â_PÂ_Â_Â_Pronunciation KeyÂ_Â_(nt bn, bn)
Abbr. NB
Used to direct attention to something particularly important.

[DeathMan]

It looks really nice. I' going to check it out when I get a chance. I think it would be nice to be able to see the notes displayed on a staff. I play guitar, but I've never learned the staff, but with garage band, and keyboards, I'm trying to learn. This would be a great help in my effots to translate the chord on page to an actual chord I recognize from guitar.

[PBG4 User]

I've updated the GUI to take less screenspace, plus I think it's cleaner as well.

I'm working on multithreading the sound playback piece, once I get that working (first time working with multiple threads) then I can get back to adding new features.

New GUI:

[PBG4 User]

OK, I've done some serious updates to my program, enough that I'm calling it version 1.0. I've been working on this update for a couple months and I'm feeling really good about my latest progress.

Here's the latest screenshot:



Major updates include:

Generate scales, chords and modes for Major, Melodic minor and Harmonic minor scale types.

Generate scale based on chord starting note and chord type.

Playback scales as well as chords.

Ability to choose playback instrument.

I've tested this program in 10.3.9 and 10.4.0. It should work in 10.2.8 aka Jaguar. If anyone here could confirm that would be most excellent.

Oh, before I forget, here's the link to the program page. The download link is at the bottom of the page. http://dtibs.home.comcast.net

The source code for this program is included in the .dmg file in case anyone's interested in checking it out.

[PBG4 User]

bump for the Sunday crowd.

[loki74]

a UI tip.. um follow the Apple Human Interface Guidelines to the letter. It'll make your app feel more professional.

Couple more you could add.. Hungarian gypsy minor? dont like that one a whole lot myself, but its an intersting scale. It would be really tite if you could also do more than the seven note scale families. Penatonic maybe?

I thnk with some better notation of scales and chords this could be a very useful tool to help people break away from strict use of the diatonic modes, as well as learn them in the first place.

[SeSawaya]

excellent program. I wish more was out there like this. Very nice.

I wouuld like to be able to control the speed of the playback.