My name is Barbara, I’m a designer and part of the JustinGuitar team. I’m writing this topic to ask for your thoughts on a new area of the website we’re working on.
We would like to create a new ‘Chords library’ area where you could search, browse and select chords and go to individual chord pages. There you would find a chord box diagram, a video of Justin playing that chord and more info.
To help us design the best pages and functionalities I thought I’d ask you, the Community, a few questions:
What tool/site/app/etc do you use to find chords and why?
How do you organise your chord book/folder (if you have one)?
What kind of written and visual information would you like to see for each chord?
Any answer/input/thought/idea is greatly appreciated. It doesn’t matter if you’re a super beginner or an advanced player.
I’d like one of those standard tuning guitar neck diagrams (ok, uke as well )
where you click on the fretted strings you are playing and it names the chords for you.
Also the option where you type in the name of the chord and you get a variety of ways of playing it.
Oh yes, and an easily accessible button/link on the Community page to reduce time searching.
Last but not least- if Justin could demonstrate all these chords to Nick Cave songs, I’d be grateful from here to eternity
I’d like a straightforward search where you typed in the name of a chord and you got chord boxes showing all the options. Open, barre, triad etc.
Underneath could be some text explaining why the chord was so named.
Eg. Ebminsus12/B is called this because you’re using the 12th interval and a bass note of whatever. You can tell I need this input.
I currently hand draw new chords onto one of Justin’s print out blank sheets and keep them alphabetically in a folder.
I’m not bothered about links to videos etc. just the ability to quickly find a chord.
Thanks, Babs for taking this on. To answer your questions:
I generally start looking for a chord using a general web search - I am using MS Edge so the search is probably Bing. I will then refine the search given the results of the initial search.
My chord book is organized in the order Justin teaches them when following the suggested lesson plan
The written info should include the chord structure, the progressions it is most used in, the associated arpeggio and all the other stuff Justin currently includes that I am not remembering
Visual presentation should include a neck diagram showing the chord in standard tuning in all positions up and down the fret board, including bar and power chord configurations. A bonus would be to show the same diagrams in the most common alternative tunings such as drop D and drop E.
Probably asking a lot but a top-of-the-line chord library would include all that and perhaps more and be a worthy addition to the best guitar/uke site on the net!
Same here , google search. Type in Em7, hit enter.
But like the idea of having a chord search function here.
Some of the chord sites have audio to click on so you
can hear the chord also.
What tool/site/app/etc do you use to find chords and why?
The search bar on the Justinguitar website, or a Google search. I’m familiar with the major/minor chords, and haven’t really needed to play anything “spicy” yet, like 9th, 11th or 13th chords, so I rarely search for specific chord grips.
How do you organise your chord book/folder (if you have one)?
I started to fill in the Justin chord finding method worksheets as part of the theory course. Otherwise, I usually organize them by the root note.
I’m also planning to do a comparison of chord grips played on various sets of strings, e.g. the minor chord grip on strings 1-2-3 with the bass note on the 3rd string becomes a major chord grip on strings 2-3-4 with the bass note on the 4th string. That kind of comparison of various grips on different sets of strings would give another aspect to getting familiar with the fingerboard.
What kind of written and visual information would you like to see for each chord?
The functions (root, 3rd, etc) would be quite useful.
What tool/site/app/etc do you use to find chords and why?
I use JGuitar.com to both name chords when I want to know what it is I’m playing, and search chords when I have the name of the chord and need the chord diagram. (I generally try to figure it out myself first nowadays.) I use it because it gives me both options, and it was a top hit the first time I googled looking for a chords tool however many years ago. I also recall thinking back then that it was a JG site
How do you organise your chord book/folder (if you have one)?
I don’t have one.
What kind of written and visual information would you like to see for each chord?
The chord diagram if I’m looking for a chord, and a fretboard to place notes if I want to know what a chord is. It would be nice if the fretboard then highlighted the root, third and fifth notes when applicable.
I have 2 chord books on the go that I handwrite.
The first one I have a page per root note, A, Am, A7 etc.
The second one I have grouped the chord types per page, Major, Minor, Dominant 7ths.
To be honest neither form is ideal, and need constant rewrites to avoid becoming messy or to keep in a logical order.
What would be helpful (but I may be asking a lot) is 3 chord boxes per shape. First one showing the dots and fingers, second one showing dots and notes, third showing dots over the parent scale. I know it’s possibe to have al of that in one diagram, but breaking it down will offer easy access for all levels
I think other than a quick search for chord diagrams and possibly having a tool that helps with naming convention of any chord that is available in www elsewhere I would like to have a little list of what keys this chord can be used in, so Fmin can be used in keys this and that. Would you do just a simple keys or with 7s, modes? Guess all up to how complex you want to do it but as a minimum major and minor keys would be fine to see how it works out.
Could also do with some possible examples where chords were used? Maybe a hyperlink to songs Justin covered that contained particular chord. I know A E D list could be infinite but for things less frequent quite a useful feature
I have a chord book with different chord types that I’m less familiar with.
I use an app called smartChord for any chord related stuff. Tremendous app, free, and contains an enormous amount of info on all music related stuff.
You can search for chord variations, all mapped out visually, build your own chords, with all notes and intervals mapped out.
I have ChordBook app in my mobile phone but I almost never use it. I use Ultimate Guitar to play songs (my son bought a life time license 10 years ago and now I am using it as he is not play guitar now), which displays the chords. However, very often it shows the simplest version, not really the version supposed to be used in the song for better voicing.
My wish: not a static chord library, but more usage focused. Like:
chords library in the context of applications: like blues rhythm, …
variations for voicing (like triads), and how they are used
embellishments for a specific chord
walking bass line for common chord progressions, …
I have never seen a chord library like this so far. Wish JustinGuitar can achieve it.
I use ChordBank app a lot, they have a Reverse Finder where I can choose the notes I’m playing on a virtual fretboard and am then told the name of the chord… v v helpful
If I want to know how to play a named chord I’ll just check Google.
This will be a fantastic addition to the website, good luck!
I’ve got a paper chord book - Justin’s chord pages and I write out the chord shapes and note names as I learn a new chord. One page per chord.
On my iPhone I use an app called “Chords” by Adam Zapletal. It’s got a simple easy UX, one listbox for the root note and another for the type of chord (maj, min, aug, dim, etc) and the display shows the chord diagram. I also sometimes use the Chord Library in the tools section of the Guitar Tuna tuning apps, similar UX but the display shows alternative voicing of the chord up and down the neck.
I like @firstrazor idea of a “dynamic” library and the usecases he cites above. That would be handy indeed.
Hi there, what I find useful for me is to not think of chords only, but to organize it based on the key. For example, lets take the key of A. In this collection I write the individual notes of the key, the corresponding triads of the key notes and additionally my chord collection of the root note (in this case for instance A, Am, A7 etc.) This gives a nice solid overview around the note/key A.
Have a nice day … and enjoy your guitar
Any answer/input/thought/idea is greatly appreciated. It doesn’t matter if you’re a super beginner or an advanced player.
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