Tool Alert

Okay, so I do firmly believe that if you're going to become the bestest-bestest jazzer on the planet you really need to know all the different chords in all possible locations.

However, some days we all find that we just want to frikkin' look up a chord rather than working out all the possible options. I found myself in that position last night. I had about 15 minutes to figure out the best fingerings for a number of chord shapes from one of the Rockschool pieces.

I used Google.

I'm soooo ashamed. (NOT!)

I found this tool! I've not really delved too deep, but on the surface it looks really cool. It's called "Chord Guide" and can be found here.



It's a handy little chord chart generator. You type in the names of the chords you want then you can choose which fingering works best for you and add it to your chart. When you're done, just click on the print view and bingo, you're good to go!

It's cheating, I know, but hey, no brain cells were harmed!

So, for a demo, my Rockschool piece included the following chords that I wanted to see my options with: Bbmaj7, Dmin9, Fmaj9.

Navigating through the screen is pretty easy. I click on "Bb" which brings up a myriad of chords with that root. Information overload! However, I then select "Bbmaj7" and the page brings up 4 suggested fingerings.



So, I pull out the guitar and have a go. Which one suits me best? Hell, for shits and giggles let's choose #4. I check the tickbox on that one, hit "Save Chords" and I'm ready to go on the Dmin9. Same procedure... onto the Fmaj9!

When I'm all done I can go to "My Sheet" and click on "Print Version" and here's what I get:



Bingo!

What's actually cool is that the chord chart actually marks what the different notes in the chord fingerings are.

Me likey-likey! No have to thinky!