Chord Detection App

Moore Bettah Ukuleles

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I got an email from a guy (Bryan Murphy) who designed a pretty cool chord detection app. I don't know the guy and maybe this is old news but it's worth looking at. It's cleaner and more simple than similar apps I've looked at.

He said he's testing a new web app with which you can search for any song on youtube and see the chord diagrams synced with the music. The whole chord-detection process is automatic. He designed it for guitar but recently he added diagrams for uke & piano. He says the app is still in beta (whatever that means) so he welcomes any comments or suggestions.

http://play.riffstation.com/

Oh, and hey Mods, if this doesn't belong here or if it violates some kind of rule just give me me a dope slap and I won't be offended.
 
Cool idea but as a privacy freak, I have to question why the site requires one to create an account after searching for just one song. There's nothing indicating what will be done with my personal information (if I don't see a "we will not use your info for marketing purposes" type of disclaimer, I steer clear.
 
Ive been using that for about a month or so now.
If you don't want to register, you can just reload, and it will go through.
The feature I wish it had, would be for it to tell you the next upcoming chord like in tetris, so you can start thinking about it ahead.
 
Cool idea but as a privacy freak, I have to question why the site requires one to create an account after searching for just one song. There's nothing indicating what will be done with my personal information (if I don't see a "we will not use your info for marketing purposes" type of disclaimer, I steer clear.

Yeah, I got that notice but only after the 4th song I tried. I didn't create and account and just continued searching for songs. As he said in his email to me, it's in the beta form still. Come to think of it he sent this to me to try out and maybe I shouldn't have posted it here. But it is the coolest chord detection site I've seen.
 
Ive been using that for about a month or so now.
If you don't want to register, you can just reload, and it will go through.
The feature I wish it had, would be for it to tell you the next upcoming chord like in tetris, so you can start thinking about it ahead.

Click on the "Zoom" button and it will show you the next few chords coming up.
 
Cool idea but as a privacy freak, I have to question why the site requires one to create an account after searching for just one song. There's nothing indicating what will be done with my personal information (if I don't see a "we will not use your info for marketing purposes" type of disclaimer, I steer clear.

I just got this from Bryan that may explain the registration deal. I'm not sure:

When you search for a song that no other user has yet loaded, you will have to sign up to run the audio through Riffstation's chord detector. (takes under a minute) Once the chords have been processed, they are available for everybody to view! Riffstation is currently free to use.
 
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If you don't want to register, you can just reload, and it will go through.

That worked!

Yeah, I got that notice but only after the 4th song I tried. I didn't create and account and just continued searching for songs. As he said in his email to me, it's in the beta form still. Come to think of it he sent this to me to try out and maybe I shouldn't have posted it here. But it is the coolest chord detection site I've seen.

It is a really cool idea, and from the couple of songs I looked at, it's pretty accurate. The fact that you can find obscure stuff on YouTube and it analyzes the chords is pretty great for those of us into less-than-popular music.

And I did actually find a privacy policy, so he does have that covered - it just doesn't always show. Still doesn't make me want to hand over my information, but at least he did cover it. I wish him the best of luck!
 
I've been using it for about a week. It's definitely a cool ap!
 
Love it! Thanks for sharing
 
Great stuff!
I use the ukulele chord detector app made by martian storm ltd. since 2013.
 
Thanks Chuck - it's a great app that makes so many songs available to us.
 
awesome blossom man! Love this kind of stuff. Will definitely use with my junior high music kids when we get there.

Are there other apps/websites that do the same thing, but are not in beta form? The riffstation works well, but I found the chord changes don't necessarily happen right on the beat which might be confusing for some of my kids. I also found the site has a tendency to add a chord that doesn't necessarily belong, it seems the algorithm hears something but in reality it is not a new chord per se.
 
awesome blossom man! Love this kind of stuff. Will definitely use with my junior high music kids when we get there.

Are there other apps/websites that do the same thing, but are not in beta form? The riffstation works well, but I found the chord changes don't necessarily happen right on the beat which might be confusing for some of my kids. I also found the site has a tendency to add a chord that doesn't necessarily belong, it seems the algorithm hears something but in reality it is not a new chord per se.

I think it's important that beginners learn to hear the chord changes rather than just follow along with what is just written. I agree though, it might be a problem for kids. I think he's working on it.
 
I think it's important that beginners learn to hear the chord changes rather than just follow along with what is just written. I agree though, it might be a problem for kids. I think he's working on it.

I agree. The YouTube stuff in my curriculum doesn't happen until a little later, once I have had a chance to really get the kids to identify changes by ear and move their fingers in coordination.

Currently, my kids have C maj and A min down pat - I can play a 4-8 beat strum pattern between those 2 chords and they can match it pretty well. They understand the difference between the two, and how each is different in how they are used and for what effect. F maj chord is coming up, we do some tunes, we practice F-C and F-C7, we get them to mix in A minor.

Then I do G chord. I save G for later because for a junior high kid, the 3 finger thing is difficult. Someone a while back once shared with me that the index and middle finger basically share one side of a muscular/bone system, and the ring and pinky share another, but communication between the two halves can be difficult. I've got a plethora of games that I use to get the kids to reset their left hand from forming G and getting it back into shape smoothly.

By the end of our little unit, kids have C, a min, F, and G, as well as C7 and G7. That allows us to play horrible pop tunes on YouTube :)
 
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