North Woods Software

CampFire Guitar Chapter 2

Working with Songs


The Song Window is the heart of CampFire Guitar. Within the song window you have instant access to every chord in any song. You can let CampFire Guitar step through a song and show you how to play the chords. Finally, you can print songs (with a graphical Chord Summary) to take with you anywhere.


To Display a Song Window, go to the File Menu and Select New or Open.

The Song Window has two components:


1. The Chord Summary which displays all chords in the current song

and

2. The Current Song. Songs may be downloaded from the internet, or they may be typed in by you.



















Camp Fire Guitar works best with songs that are in "Chord" format. Chord format looks like this:

	F           C        G          C
	Down on the corner,  out in the street, 
	            F            C
	Willy and the Poorboys are playin'
	          G               C
	bring a nickel, tap your feet.

	-or some people prefer-

	[F]Down on the [C]corner, [G]out in the [C]street,
	Willy and the [F]Poorboys are [C]playin'
	bring a ni[G]ckel, tap your [C]feet.

Song Options:

Editing the Chord Summary:

Select Song then Chord Summary then Edit... to display the Chord Summary Edit Dialog.

Note: This is an advanced feature of CampFire Guitar, and it may not be useful until you are comfortable with chord naming and formations. However, You can safely exeriment with this feature because you can always Rebuild the Chord Summary.

















This dialog is used if you wish to modify the chords and/or fingerings that are shown in the chord summary. The most common reasons for editing the chord summary are to convert open chords to bar chords, to add unusual chords that CampFire Guitar could not identify, or to "override" the fingering that CampFire Guitar suggests for a chord.

Chord Fingering Notation:
The fingering for open chords is represented by a 6 digit string of numbers or the letter 'x'. The 6 digits correspond from left to right to which fret you play from the Low E string to the High E string on your guitar.

	For Example: x00232 = D  
	x - do not play low E
	0 - open A string
	0 - open D string
	2 - 2nd Fret on G string
	3 - 3rd Fret on B string
	2 - 2nd Fret on High E string
The format for a Bar chord is based on a variation of an open E or A chord. It starts with a 'B' to indicate bar. Then the next 6 characters are the normal open formation for the E or A based chord. Finally, there is a dash '-' and then a 1 or 2 digit number indicating the base fret for the chord.

	For Example: 	022100 = open 'E'
			B022100-0 = 6th String Bar 'E' chord
			B022100-1 = 6th String Bar 'F' chord
			B022100-2 = 6th String Bar 'F#' chord...

			x02220 = open 'A'
			Bx02220-0 = 5th String Bar 'A' chord
			Bx02220-1 = 5th String Bar 'A#/Bb' chord
			Bx02220-2 = 5th String Bar 'B' chord...

To Add a Chord to the Chord Summary, Click on the <> line, then select the root note, then enter a modifier (i.e. min6, sus2, etc..). When you move to the fingering line, CampFire Guitar will suggest a fingering. This fingering can be modified to whatever you wish.

To change a Chord From Open to Bar, Select the chord in the list, then click the radio button for the Bar formation that you prefer.

To change any fingering, Select the chord in the list, and then edit the current formation to be what you wish.

To Remove a Chord, select it and click the Remove button.

Updating the Chord Summary:

When CampFire Guitar opens a song for the first time, it scans through the song identifying all chords that it can and adds them to the chord summary. When you modify a song or type one in from scratch, you may have to manually update the Chord Summary. When you update the Chord Summary, CampFire Guitar rescans your song identifying any new chords that it can. Updating the Chord Summary will not change any chords that are currently in the Chord Summary, It will only add new chords that are found. This is important if you have modified some of the chords in your chord summary and don't want to loose your changes.

Rebuilding the Chord Summary:

This is just like Updating the Chord Summary, except CampFire Guitar will delete the current chord summary and rebuild it completely. Any chords that you have modified will be overwritten!

Identifying Chord Lines:

Choose Identify Chord Lines to indicate the lines of your song that you would like CampFire Guitar to step through when it plays the song. CampFire Guitar makes a pretty good guess at which lines of your song are chords and which lines are lyrics, but it is wrong occassionally. Click on the lines of your song to indicate the lines that should be played.

Play Song:

Before you play your song, place the cursor on the line where you would like to start play from. CampFire Guitar will always start from the beginning of the line that you select. When you hit the play button, CampFire Guitar will begin stepping through your song, and whenever it encounters a chord, it will play it for you.

It is best to keep in mind that the play feature is just a guide to help you learn the chords that are in a song. It often doesn't sound exactly like the song. The authors of the songs usually don't intend for the to be played automatically, so the timing may be way off. You must experiment to figure out the timing and find a strumming/picking pattern that sounds good for a given song. Use the play feature only to get an idea of how the progression of chords goes.

Stop Play:

When the song is playing, you can use this to stop play.

Adjust The Play Rate:

Select a rate of play for the song. You can choose from very slow to very fast. Use very slow to learn a new song that has many chords you don't know. It will give you lots of time to practice the chords. Use very fast to skim through the song to get a general idea of how it sounds.

Printing the song:

This is arguably the best feature of CampFire Guitar. Imagine, you can build a library of all of your favorite songs, and then print each song with it's own custom Chord Summary. You'll never need to look up a chord again! I have printed hundreds of songs, and I keep them in a three ring binder that I can take with me anywhere.

When printing a song, Text WILL NOT WRAP. This is because if the text wraps, it will mess up the positioning of all of the chords in the song. Songs can be printed either portrait or landscape. If text is spilling off the edges of the page, switch to landscape printing. If it still won't fit, the song must be edited to fit on the page.















Index. Introduction. Chapter 1. Chapter 3.

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