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ThatChord: A Python script for chord diagrams

Created by Tom Conti-Leslie: tomcontileslie.com.

I am grateful for the helpful contributions of:

These files are distributed under a Creative Commons Share Alike license.

License: CC BY-SA 4.0

Build Status

What is ThatChord?

That's exactly the question I ask myself a lot when I'm looking at a chord sheet for a song I'm learning, and the key it's in is bad enough that some pretty obscure chord names are in there. This simple set of interdependent Python3 scripts allows you to copy the name of an unknown chord into ThatChord, and have it output one or several diagrams which show you exactly how to play it.

My motivation to make this script came from the restricted capabilities of most currently available online chord tools, as well as a few idle hours I once had on a plane with no internet. With ThatChord, your chosen instrument's number of strings and tuning, as well as your preferred output diagram format and preferences regarding muted strings and so on are fully customisable, with a number of presets available.

ThatChord supports a large list of chord qualities (see dicts.py), as well as chord alterations and bass notes - and, failing that, custom note-by note input. Strings such as C, Fadd9 and Bmin11(b5)/C are all recognised and on guitar, produce delightfully simple plaintext diagrams such as:

   x
   ===========        x           
   | | | | O |      5 | | | O | O      8 O | | | | | 
   | | O | | |        | | | | | |        | | | O | O 
   | O | | | |        | | O | | |        | | | | | | 
   | | | | | |        | O | | O |        | | | | | | 
   | | | | | |        | | | | | |        | | | | | |

ThatChord can also output equally simplistic, and also rather lightweight, PNG images:

For ukulele For guitar For banjo

These weigh a handful of kilobytes each at most.

ThatChord is smarter than a chord dictionary.

Note that unlike a number of available chord finders, which have a database of common chord fingerings, ThatChord calculates the best way to play the chord you requested on the fly, using the settings you have configured regarding your number of strings, tuning, and your fingering preferences (e.g. how much do you value using few fingers over avoiding stretching your fingers very far?)

When handling a request, ThatChord literally considers every imaginable way of playing your chord, and then keeps only the best options. The "best options" are whatever you want them to be, and you can tweak the coefficients of the ranking algorithm to your liking. Don't like the option ThatChord returned for a given chord? Not to worry. You can ask for the second best, the third best, the 100th best... And you can change your ranking algorithm, or ask for the chord to be played above a certain fret. For one chord on ukulele, ThatChord's usually listed about 70 different fingerings. On guitar, it's closer to 10000. Are most of these options terrible? Yes. But they're there if you need them.

The downside of this is it can take up to two seconds to find, and then render, your request if you're asking for a complicated chord on a many-stringed instrument. The advantage, though, is that this program doesn't need people to keep adding possible fingerings to some massive file. That would make for a fast program, but would never contain every possibility. The only dictionary file that needs improvement in ThatChord is its quality dictionary, which allows it to accurately interpret more input strings (like "dim7", "5", "add9", ...). Everything else, it already knows.

So while you're here, add a couple funky chord quality strings to the list, and then enjoy the endless options ThatChord offers!

Installing and Using ThatChord

If you are a beginner using a Mac, you may wish to check out the more detailed beginner step-by-step setup guide on the wiki.

ThatChord runs by default via the Unix command line (though you can configure it to run via input in the Python console if you prefer). The default assumption is that the ThatChord folder lies in your Documents folder. Install ThatChord there, or anywhere else, by cloning the repo:

cd ~/Documents
git clone https://github.com/tomcontileslie/ThatChord.git ThatChord

To ensure all necessary Python modules are installed, run in your ThatChord directory:

python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt

To run ThatChord, navigate to your ThatChord directory and run thatchord.py with your chord request as argument:

cd ~/Documents/ThatChord
python3 thatchord.py "Bbadd9(b5)/C@4:2"

In general, chord requests are structured as WX(Y)/Z@V:T where:

  • W is a note, i.e. a letter A-G possibly followed by b or #
  • (optional) X is a chord quality such as min7 or 11. A large list of qualities are supported.
  • (optional) Y is a list of one or more alterations which sharpen or flatten a given note in the chord. To sharpen the fifth, type #5. Concatenate the alterations to have several: Cm7(b5b7).
  • (optional) Z is a bass note. On guitar and banjo, ThatChord favours options where the bass note is played on the lowest non-muted string.
  • (optional) V is the lowest fret that every non-muted string must be played at. Default is 0. This option is helpful if you want to see chords higher up on the neck.
  • (optional) T is a positive number. ThatChord returns the Tth best option found. By default, T is set to 1 (i.e. return the best option). If you are not satisfied with the diagram shown for Cmin7, for example, try running ThatChord again with Cmin7:2 to see the next best option.

Combining all of the optional parts of the request into the above example, Bbadd9(b5)/C@4:2, will ask for:

The second best way of playing a B flat added ninth chord, with a flattened fifth, over a bass note of C, where every finger is placed at least at the 4th fret.

Since chords often contain special characters, you will most likely need to surround the chord request with quotation marks, as in the example above.

Additionally, running:

python3 thatchord.py SETTINGS

will open your settings file so you can change the instrument ThatChord outputs diagrams for (default is ukulele).

For chords that don't have nice names, you can specify the notes making up the chord in a custom format. For example:

python3 thatchord.py "CUSTOM C Eb G"

will return a Cm chord. Make sure you add quotation marks so the notes are not interpreted as separate flags. That being said, most separators work for custom input: python3 thatchord.py CUSTOMC,Eb,G requires no quotes.

For custom input, note that the order of notes is important. Enter the most important ones first, and for an instrument like guitar or banjo you should either set the first note in the list to be the bass note, or choose a less bass-heavy ranking preset than the guitar and banjo presets.

A number of flags can be specified when running ThatChord via the command line. Run:

python3 thatchord.py --help

for more information.

More information is available on the ThatChord wiki.

Contributing to ThatChord

I've made these files with experience mostly with ukulele, despite the fact that the algorithm scales to instruments like guitar. This means that attempting to use it might make you notice issues. Please feel free to suggest any changes in the issues tab, or to fork my repository and submit a pull request if you fix any bugs or have new features to suggest. Namely, the chord quality dictionary (in dicts.py) is crucial to chord interpretation, and will never be complete - so any additions there are much appreciated!

On the programming side, I'm not the most efficient programmer and I remain blissfully unaware, I'm sure, of certain Python and GitHub conventions. (my apologies in advance if you're using a linter on your Python files). You are most welcome to fork this repository to make changes which I would be very happy to pull into the main project. Namely, if you would like to make these files more executable (rather than just a pile of functions), then I would appreciate your help.

Please also have a look at the issues page where some current needed improvements to the code are listed. You have my gratitude if you decide to tackle one of them :)