gchord.exe

This is a shareware program, Copyright 1991 by Jim Savarino.

This program was written as a basic music tool for the beginning
to intermediate guitar player.  As a singer/songwriter I needed a
way to quickly transpose chord progressions to change the keys of songs.
Transposing by hand takes a little time, so I decided to program the process.
Once I started, I decided to add scale and chord construction.  If you
don't read music you can use this program to transpose chords, referring
to a chord book that shows the fingering for each chord.  For the beginner,
a good book is "Mel Bay's Guitar Chords in Picture and Diagram Form".
The book sells for about $3.50.  A more advanced treatment is given in the
book "Chord Chemistry" by Ted Greene which sells for about $12.00.  If you
know how to read notes on the staff, you can use the scale and chord
construction routines to help learn your way around the guitar fret board.

NOTES ON PROGRAM USAGE

General notes:

To begin the program, type "gchord" (without the quote marks).

When the program asks for you to enter a chord or note, use capital letters:
A  G  C  etc.  If you are transposing chords, be sure to hit the enter key
after each letter.

  Minor chords are entered as:  Am    Cm   Dm
  The sharp symbol is the pound sign "#" and the chords:  F#  C#m
  The flat symbol is lowercase "b":  Db   Gb 
  Seventh chords are entered as G7  and so on.

Detailed program notes:

The program is menu driven and the main sections are

                        1. Chord transposition
			2. Chord construction
			3. Scale construction


Chord transposition

Chords are entered one at a time, each chord followed by a pressing
the enter key.  After entering all the chords for a song, press enter
again and the program will prompt with a message:

"Enter the number of half steps to transpose".  For users not familiar with
music notation, the half step is the "distance" to the next note.  For
example, starting from C, counting up or down 12 half steps will bring you
once again to C.  The familiar

"do re mi fa so la ti do" major scale in the key of C is:

 C  D  E  F  G  A  B  C.  However, if we counted up in half steps:

 C  C#  D  D#  E  F  F#  G  G#  A  A#  B  C.  That twelve note scale is
 called a chromatic scale.  To use the program all that is required is
 to enter a number no larger than +/- 12.

Chord Construction

The main types of chords are Major, Minor and Dominant 7th chords.  The menu
asks you to choose one of these types.  A more detailed menu then appears
and asks you to choose a specific chord type, followed by the first note,
or name of the chord.  The program then prints the notes of the chord.
There are 8 major chords, 10 minor chords and 13 dominant seventh
chords for a total of 31 chord types.  With the 12 note chromatic
scale that yields 372 basic chords, enough to keep anyone progressing
for a long time!

Scale Construction
	
The scale construction routine asks whether you want a major or relative
minor scale, then asks for the key (the first note of the scale).  The scale
is then printed to the screen.


I hope you find this program useful.  If you do, please send $5.00 to the
address below.  I support the shareware concept, and your support will keep
it going.  For inquires, support, or suggestions for future releases, contact
me at the address below:
				Jim Savarino Music
				Box 1349
				Hawthorne, CA  90251

I can also be reached at:
                                The Source BBS
                                213-371-3737 or 213-371-1803
                                300-19200 bps
                                PC Pursuitable CALAN