App::Music::PlayTab - Print chords of songs in a tabular fashion.
playtab [options] [file ...]
Options: --transpose +/-N transpose all songs --output XXX set outout file --lilypond N accept chords in LilyPond syntax, N = bpm --syntax print chord syntax --ident show identification --help brief help message --verbose verbose information
use App::Music::PlayTab; run(); # arguments in @ARGV run(@args); # explicit arguments perl -MApp::Music::PlayTab -e run ...arguments...
This utility program is intended for musicians. It produces tabular chord diagrams that are very handy for playing rhythm guitar or bass in jazz, blues, and popular music.
I wrote it since in official (and unofficial) sheet music, I find it often hard to stick to the structure of the piece. Also, as a guitar player, I do not need all the detailed notes and such that are only important for melody instruments. And usually I cannot turn over the pages while playing.
For more info and examples, see http://johan.vromans.org/software/sw_playtab.html .
playtab is just a trivial wrapper around the App::Music::PlayTab module.
Transposes all songs by amount. This can be + or - 11 semitones.
When transposing up, chords will be represented sharp if necessary; when transposing down, chords will be represented flat if necessary. For example, chord A transposed +1 will become A-sharp, but when transposed -11 it will become B-flat.
Designates file as the output file for the program.
Interpet chord names according to LilyPond syntax.
Print a brief help message and exits.
Prints program identification.
More verbose information.
Input file(s).
The input for playtab is plain ASCII. It contains the chords, the division in bars, with optional annotations.
An example:
!t Blue Bossa Bossanova = | c-9 ... | f-9 ... | d% . g7 . | c-9 ... | | es-9 . as6 . | desmaj7 ... | d% . g7 . | c-9 . d% g7 |
The first line, '!t' denotes the title of the song. Each song must start with a title line.
The title line may be followed by one or more '!s', subtitles, for example to indicate the composer.
The text "Bossanova" is printed below the title and subtitle.
The "=" indicates some vertical space. Likewise, you can use '-' and '+' as '=', but with a different vertical spacing.
The next lines show the bars of the song. In the first bar is the c-9 chord (Cminor9), followed by three dots. The dots indicate that this chord is repeated for all 4 beats of this bar. In the 3rd bar each chord take two beats: d5% (d half dim), a dot, g7 and another dot.
Run playtab with -h or --help for the syntax of chords.
If you use "=" followed by some text, the printout is indented and the text sticks out to the left. With this you can tag groups of bars, for example the parts of a song that must be played in a certain order. For example:
!t Donna Lee !s Charlie Parker Order: A B A B = A | as . | f7 . | bes7 . | bes7 . | | bes-7 . | es7 . | as . | es-7 D7 | | des . | des-7 . | as . | f7 . | | bes7 . | bes7 . | bes-7 . | es7 . | = B | as . | f7 . | bes7 . | bes7 . | | c7 . | c7 . | f- . | c7#9 . | | f- . | c7 . | f- . | aso . | | as f7 | bes-7 es7 | as - | bes-7 es7 |
To see how this looks, see http://johan.vromans.org/software/sw_playtab.html .
You can modify the width of the bars with a '!w' control. Standard width of a beat is 30. '!w +5' increases the width to 35. '!w 25' sets it to 25. You get the idea. You can also change the height with '!h' (default is 15) and margin with '!m' (default width is 40). You can restore the margin to its default value with '<'. This will save the current settings, and '!m' without argument will restore the saved settings.
You can transpose an individual song with '!x amount', where amount can range from -11 to +11, inclusive. A positive transpose value will make sharps, a negative value will make flats.
'!n' enables bar numbering. '!n 0' disables numbering, '!n n' starts numbering at n. n may be negative, e.g., to skip numbering an intro.
'!ly' or '!lilypond' enables LilyPond chord name recognition. If followed by a '0', switches to classical chord name syntax.
Look at the examples, that is (currently) the best way to get grip on what the program does.
Oh, I almost forgot: it can print guitar chord diagrams as well. See "bluebossa", "sophisticatedlady" and some others.
Have fun, and let me know your ideas!
Notes: C, D, E, F, G, A, B. Raised with '#' or suffix 'is', e.g. A#, Ais. Lowered with 'b' or suffix 's' or 'es', e.g. Bes, As, Eb. Chords: note + optional modifiers. Chord modifiers Meaning [examples] -------------------------------------------------------------- nothing major triad [C] - or min or m minor triad [Cm Fmin Gb-] + or aug augmented triad [Caug B+] o or 0 or dim diminished triad [Co D0 Fdim] -------------------------------------------------------------- maj7 major 7th chord [Cmaj7] % half-diminished 7 chord [C%] 6,7,9,11,13 chord additions [C69] sus sus4, sus2 suspended 4th, 2nd [Csus] -------------------------------------------------------------- # raise the pitch of the note to a sharp [C11#9] b lower the pitch of the note to a flat [C11b9] -------------------------------------------------------------- no subtract a note from a chord [C9no11] -------------------------------------------------------------- _ may be used to avoid ambiguity, e.g. C_#9 <-> C#9 <-> C#_9 Other: Meaning -------------------------------------------------------------- . Chord space - Rest : Repeats previous chord % Repeat / Powerchord constructor [D/G D/E-] --------------------------------------------------------------
Notes: c, d, e, f, g, a, b. Raised with suffix 'is', e.g. ais. Lowered with suffix 'es', e.g. bes, ees. Chords: note + optional duration + optional modifiers. Duration = 1, 2, 4, 8, with possible dots, e.g., "2.". No duration means: use the duration of the previous chord. Modifiers are preceeded with a ":". Modifiers Meaning [examples] -------------------------------------------------------------- nothing major triad c4 m minor triad c4:m aug augmented triad c4:aug dim diminished triad c4:dim -------------------------------------------------------------- maj major 7th chord c4:maj 6,7,9,11,13 chord additions c4:7 c4:6.9 (dot required) sus sus4, sus2 suspended 4th, 2nd c4:sus -------------------------------------------------------------- + raise the pitch of an added note c4:11.9+ - lower the pitch of an added note c4:11.9- -------------------------------------------------------------- ^ subtract a note from a chord c4:9.^11 -------------------------------------------------------------- Other: Meaning -------------------------------------------------------------- r Rest r2 s Rest s4 / Powerchord constructor d/g d/e:m --------------------------------------------------------------
See also: http://lilypond.org/doc/stable/Documentation/user/lilypond/Chord-names
http://chordie.sourceforge.net/
Johan Vromans, Squirrel Consultancy <jvromans@squirrel.nl>
This program is Copyright 1990,2016 by Johan Vromans.
This program is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
To install App::Music::PlayTab, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm App::Music::PlayTab
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install App::Music::PlayTab
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.