The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    Hello,

    I'm sure this has been asked but a quick search came up short. What do folks use to create chord and scale block sheets? I have pdf's of the blank sheets but I want to type scale degrees onto them. I do not want to hand write them.

    thanks!

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    I don't have anything for that. It would be nice (provided it was free or cheap.;o) I use graph paper to make my own charts. They're not pretty to look at it but I make 'em easy for these aging eyes to read from a music stand....

  4. #3

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    Try Neck Diagrams. Not free (or even cheap?) but it's a well-designed piece of software with an array of templates:

    Chord chart and fretboard diagram software for guitar, bass, banjo, ukulele and ANY fretted instrument | Neckdiagrams.com

  5. #4

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    I use Neck Diagrams.

  6. #5

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    I downloaded the free demo of Neck Diagrams. Thanks, PMB and Henry!

  7. #6

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    I use Neck Diagrams too. Very nice diagram can be created for scales and arpeggios for a given piece, if one pays attention to use all the available features of the tool (fretboard colors, note marking with intervals, mark shapes, etc ..).

    The underlying implementation makes it a bit slow and heavy to use if a page contains many diagrams. A version 2 coming soon is said to fix most of the current constraints.
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    Last edited by mhch; 08-21-2014 at 07:48 AM.

  8. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by mhch
    The underlying implementation makes it a bit slow and heavy to use if a page contains many diagrams. A version 2 coming soon is said to fix most of the current constraints.
    That raises a question: should one wait until version 2 comes out before buying the software? (Not sure that I will, but if something better is "just around the corner," why buy now?)

  9. #8

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    If you use that philosophy you'd never buy anything. Something better is ALWAYS around the corner in regards technology. And upgrades are often free or cheap.

  10. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by henryrobinett
    If you use that philosophy you'd never buy anything. Something better is ALWAYS around the corner in regards technology. And upgrades are often free or cheap.
    I don't think so. I have never bought this and am thinking about it and I just hear that a new edition is nigh that deals with problems in the earlier one. Waiting seems prudent here. (One can't always wait, but this is far from an essential / pressing purchase.)

  11. #10

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    I use Adobe InDesign for doing diagrams as well as final layout of books and articles.

  12. #11

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    I have a drummer friend who wanted to buy a drum machine years ago. He kept waiting for the newest and the best, the latest upgraded models. He never bought one. In the mean tine he lost out on jumping into the technology. I'm not saying that's the case, but I've never allowed that to be an excuse not to buy something. Technology moves ahead at an alarming rate. Waiting, unless you are waiting for a specific product you KNOW is being released and you KNOW is not vapor ware, is generally a waste of time. Chord diagram software is not deep technology. I don't know how you'd gain by waiting for some other thing. But I could be wrong.

    Someone else l know was waiting for a certain upgrade converter box he only dreamed about. He thought he'd wait until the developer realized the error of his ways and decided to design this dream box. I told the guy much as I'm telling you. This exists now. Get it or don't get it,but don't wait for something that doesn't exist because of hope alone.

    My two.

  13. #12

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    I use QwickChords, not bad, around $,

    Cheers

  14. #13
    Neck diagrams looks great and worth checking out. I cannot seem to find anything else that offers that same. thanks

  15. #14

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    Quote Originally Posted by henryrobinett
    I have a drummer friend who wanted to buy a drum machine years ago. He kept waiting for the newest and the best, the latest upgraded models. He never bought one. In the mean tine he lost out on jumping into the technology. I'm not saying that's the case, but I've never allowed that to be an excuse not to buy something. Technology moves ahead at an alarming rate. Waiting, unless you are waiting for a specific product you KNOW is being released and you KNOW is not vapor ware, is generally a waste of time. Chord diagram software is not deep technology. I don't know how you'd gain by waiting for some other thing. But I could be wrong.

    Someone else l know was waiting for a certain upgrade converter box he only dreamed about. He thought he'd wait until the developer realized the error of his ways and decided to design this dream box. I told the guy much as I'm telling you. This exists now. Get it or don't get it,but don't wait for something that doesn't exist because of hope alone.

    My two.
    I get your point, Henry. But this is technology that I don't have to have. I'm not even aching for it. I use graph paper and a pencil and that works fine. The results ain't pretty to look at, but they work fine. I'm not missing out on anything by not having this----nothing that relates to playing, anyway. Waiting isn't costing me anything important.

  16. #15

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    Sure Mark. Do you do a lot of teaching? I had always zeroxed copies of my chicken scratching lessons filed away or PDFed. But they never looked professional. I can now file and store all of these lessons in a great format. If you don't teach much it's certainly not an important thing to have.
    Last edited by henryrobinett; 08-25-2014 at 05:29 PM. Reason: typos

  17. #16

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    Okay, Henry, you talked me into it. I'm getting it. I checked the demo vids / tutorials and it does a lot of things that would help me. In a month I'll probably wonder how I ever got along without it! Thanks for the needed nudge! ;o)

  18. #17

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    Cool.

  19. #18

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    I bought net diagrams two days ago. I'm already finding very useful in my teaching practice.

  20. #19

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    Quote Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
    I bought net diagrams two days ago. I'm already finding very useful in my teaching practice.
    Is "net diagrams" another program, or did you mean to type "Neck Diagrams"? (I Googled 'net diagrams' and nothing guitar-related came up....)

  21. #20

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    I don't use software, I use stamps! Software is nice for writing material on it's own page, but stamps are great for adding chord/scale blocks to pre-existing music.

  22. #21

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    Quote Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
    Is "net diagrams" another program, or did you mean to type "Neck Diagrams"? (I Googled 'net diagrams' and nothing guitar-related came up....)
    Soory, Mark, I meant Neck.

  23. #22

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    I also meant sorry, not soory!

  24. #23

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    Quote Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
    Soory, Mark, I meant Neck.
    I thought you might but I wasn't sure. There is sooooo much stuff out there....

  25. #24
    I came up with a a cheap quick solution for this....for now. I wanted to create my own scale/arp map sheets like in the book "Jazz Guitar Soloing" by Joe Elliot. I really love that book but the images are a little small. I also have to still write out all the positions - not in the book.

    The quick and dirty way is using MS Visio. If you have access to that program it works great and I'm sure there is a free alternative. You can just use a screenshot program like Snagit, Greenshot (free), or PrintScreen/MSPaint to grab a scale/chord/fretboard image (from pdfs online) you like and paste it into Visio. From there you can drag, re-size, add text etc. I plan to just write in by hand. In 5 min I created these 3 sheets to use for the Joe Elliot material.

    1. Major scale at top plus 7 diatonic arps within that position
    2. Major scale at top plus 2-5-1 arps within that position
    3. Major scale at top plus 2-5-1 arps within that position, plus extras below for subs

    Cheers
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  26. #25

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    J-mo, I don't know if anyone else is experiencing this, but when I open your files on my iPad, I get blank grid boxes.