Chords and Chordmaps

A style-based segment, or one containing a pattern track, also needs a chord track so that the notes in the patterns can be transposed according to a chord progression. A chord track can be either hand-crafted or generated from a chordmap, which is a map of alternative pathways through a set of related chords. The number of distinct routes through the chordmap can be very large.

When the chord track is composed, a single route through the chordmap is selected automatically. The choice of routes is partly random and partly governed by the signpost track, which defines groups of chords that are valid at every point in the segment where the chord can change. A chord track can be composed from a chordmap either at design time within DirectMusic Producer, or at run time in a DirectMusic application.

Related concepts

• Segments
• Styles
• Tracks

More information

• Chordmap Designer
• Chord Track
• Chordmap Track
• Signpost Track