The big update to the song editor that I’ve been working on for awhile now (as discussed in my last developer’s log) is finally ready for you to try out!
Highlights of this beta release:
New chords: maj7, 6, sus2, sus4, and augmented (more to be added according to demand)
Slash chords: change the bass note of the chord.
Subdivide beat: cram multiple chord changes into a single cell.
Editing interface improvements: multi-select, copy/paste, custom line breaks, better enharmonic handling, more intuitive (I hope) controls, etc.
The help docs haven’t been updated, so if you try it out, I would be very curious to hear how intuitive things are. Was there any confusion in how to use any of the features? Anything feel clumsy or annoying?
I’m very, very open to all your feedback and constructive criticism – now is the time to refine the interface, because once I release this update to the main site and mobile app I want to keep it as stable as possible.
Thanks so much for trying it out! Hope you enjoy the new features.
Can’t wait to try out these new features. Augmented chords, plus changing the bass note, will make your product so much better for us Texas style players!! Very excited
Yes, we’re making progress on my goal of eventually supporting full-on Texas style playing. I don’t play Texas style fiddle backup so I’m coming from some level of ignorance, but here’s a prototype I put together of a Texas-style Sally Goodin:
Will sound better once there’s a muted vamp strum available. In putting that together, I realize there are times where it might be handy to be able to specify the octave of the bass note, i.e., to make the in the middle octave, not the low E string. Hmm…
Played around with 7b5 and half-diminished chords a bit… couldn’t get them sounding good but maybe that’s because they’re inherently dissonant chords. @HenriLamiraux, what’s an example of a tune you’d like those chords for? Would you play them down the neck? Maybe this is a chord I should save for when I introduce up-the-neck playing, jazz-style vamping, etc…
Cole Porter’s What Is This Thing Called Love has a nice double dose of m7b5…done here in the gypsy jazz style which would be a fantastic addition for your site (using a version of 4 to the bar Freddie Green style chords.
I’d like to use 7b5 chords on Jitterbug Waltz, but since they weren’t available, have managed w/o. Here’s what I’d like to be able to do Jitterbug Score
How about adding diminished chords?.. not standard bluegrass, but useful in many songs
to add some jazz-like feel. And that would do a lot for some songs already available… for example,
Deep River Blues… I went to edit up the existing version, and ran into the wall right after the
VII chord at the beginning. Just to add to the list…
Press the letter “O” key, which is used because the symbol for diminished chords is a little superscript “o”.
Note also that all diminished chords in Strum Machine are played as dim7 chords (1-b3-b5-6), not just a diminished triad (1-b3-b5). This mirrors most real-world usage of the diminished chord.
Also, since this thread was discussing half-diminished or m7b5 chords, I’ll say for the record that these are also available. The “o” with the slash through it is the symbol for that.
Thanks a lot, Luke! I got right after them, thanks to your response, and
am delighted with all the chords available… I just hadn’t found them, my
mistake!
There have been times when I wanted to have a “don’t play the first time” intro option in the intro- outro box.
For instance, I have an intro section, but when the songs starts over, I would like to have an abbreviated intro section that does not play the first time, but every time after the first.
There may also be a need for an outro “don’t play the last time,” but I haven’t found it yet.
