Chordmap Designer

A chordmap is a collection of chords that provides multiple potential chord progressions to a musical piece. Chord progressions are generated from a chordmap and inserted into the Chord Track of a segment, either at design time or at run time.

By using chordmaps, you can create different segments from a common set of chords. You can also design segments that are able to play with different chord progressions each time they play. For more information, see Using Chordmaps with Segments.

The chords in a chordmap and the underlying scales for those chords are designed to evoke a particular tonality, an emotional mood, or a set of related keys. You can design chordmaps with as much or as little detail and complexity as you choose. Because chordmaps are extensible, you can create a simple chordmap, begin using it, and later add more chords and chord paths without losing the music content you have already created.

The chords in a chordmap are organized sequentially, with each chord leading to one or more other chords. The following illustration shows a chordmap containing numerous chord paths.

Chordmaps add great variability to music because there are many paths to choose from as a piece moves toward a destination chord. Each time a new chord progression is generated, parameters for beginning and end chords, and for phrase length, are taken into account, and suitable paths from one chord to another are selected. If more than one path is possible, a suitable path is selected at random.

The Help for Chordmap Designer is organized into three broad areas:

Overview

• Using Chordmaps with Segments
• Chord Names
• Chord Paths
• Beginning and End Signpost Pairs
• How Chord Composition Works

Using the Interface

• Chordmap Properties
• Signpost List
• Chord Path Window
• Chord Palette

Miscellaneous Topics

• Maintaining Chord Consistency
• Segment Key Changes and Chordmaps

For information on how to create and manage chordmaps in the project tree, see Managing Components.