review
Harmonic Sense ChordMate
A good chord reference is a valuable asset for any guitarist, offering a quick way to find new voicings for chords, or to learn new types of chord. Most guitarists have either seen or own a print version of one of those chord encyclopedias with “thousands of chords.” As handy as those books are, software chord encyclopedias offer the advantage of quicker searching, filtering, and even sound. On their website, Harmonic Sense calls ChordMate “The perfect chord book.” Does it live up to the hype? Let’s see…
Overview
ChordMate is a chord reference that allows you to search for a chord symbol (name) and see multiple chord diagrams of that chord. The results can be displayed in three orders: musical quality, ease of play, and fret order. Results can also be filtered using rules such as the starting fret. Displayed chord diagrams can be heard by clicking on them. You have four choices of “guitars” for playback (classical, acoustic, electric, jazz), and four methods of playback (chord, quick arpeggio, arpeggio, chord and arpeggio.) In addition to standard tuning, ChordMate offers 17 alternate tunings, and allows you to set a capo at any fret. Both great features that printed encyclopedias usually don’t offer. Chords can be displayed either right-handed or left-handed. Cool.
The Interface
The ChordMate interface is attractive and easy to use with colorful icons and keyboard shortcuts for most commands. Previous versions of ChordMate used a non-standrad horizontal orientation to show chords. Version 1.1 of ChordMate now uses the standard vertical orientation found in printed music. This is a good thing, as the vertical orientation is what guitarists are used to. They also switched from Roman numerals to modern numbers for fret numbers. Classical guitar purists may protest, but most guitarists will no doubt find the number 9 much easier to read than IX.
The interface showing chord diagrams in the standard horizontal orientation.
In Use
Using ChordMate is a snap. You type in a chord symbol (Dm7 for example), enter, and ChordMate displays the results of your search. In its default setting, ChordMate typically produces a large number of chord diagrams. The first thing you want to do is go to the preferences and set the number of frets to 12, since guitarist typically don’t plays chords above the 12th fret. This brings the number of chord diagrams down to a more manageable number. Even then, I found that ChordMate produces many fingerings that are either extremely difficult or just plain impractical to play. One of the display options is “ease of play”, which helps, but I didn’t always agree with that ranking either.
The default search for a C7 chord produced these difficult fingerings.
Rules
You can pare down the list of cord diagrams even further by using rules. For example, you can set the “end fret” to “no higher than 4” to see mainly open chords. Rules are very useful, and version 1.1 now remembers your last rules setting and uses those rules as the default for each search — until you change the rules.
Chord Types
ChordMate supports nearly every type of chord including slash chords. Oddly, it doesn’t support 5 (Power) chords, which are very common in guitar music. Perhaps this because a 5 chord isn’t technically a chord (3 or more different notes), since it only has the root and 5th degree of a chord. Still, it is so popular I feel it should be included. Also there was no 7sus4 chord support.
Sound
You can click on a chord diagram to hear a chord played. While, most guitarists will probably have a guitar close by while using this software, it can be useful to hear a chord played by the computer. There are four types of guitars to choose from for playback: classical, acoustic, electric, and jazz. To put it politely, they all sound like an inexpensive keyboard playing back chords. This is to be expected without the use of actual audio samples, which is simply impractical considering the sheer number of possible chord voicings on the guitar.
Documentation
The only documentation is an online tutorial and reference. A simple PDF file would be helpful for laptop users who may not always have Internet access.
Still Missing
The one “killer” feature I would like to see added is the ability to enter a fingering on a fretboard and have the software tell you the chord name. Which would be especially helpful when using alternate tunings or a capo.
Final Thoughts
ChordMate is a very good reference for those looking up chord voicings, and offers a lot of great features such as alternate tunings and capo use. Version 1.1 has fixed most of the concerns I had with version 1.07 and for many users it may be “the perfect chord book.” For me, a “enter fingering - look up chord” feature and a couple of missing chord types are all that keep it from being perfect. Every guitar player should give it a look.
Reader Comments
Better Guitar encourages your input. Agree with this review? Think I’m crazy? If you have used ChordMate, email me your comments and I’ll post them below. The more opinions we have available, the better our buying decisions will be.
stats
- • Advanced Music Engine
- • Diagrams and Sounds
- • Rule Editor
- • Capo Support
- • Alternate Tunings
Version
- 1.1
Positives
- Supports most chord types; supports alternate tunings; supports capo use; support for left-handed guitarists.
Negatives
- No support for 5 (Power) chords or 7sus4 chords. No fingering lookup feature.
Rating
- Performance: 9
- Sound Quality: 4
- User Interface: 10
- Value: 9
- Overall: 8
Ratings Key
- 0 = Worthless
- 10 = Excellent
Approximate Street Price
- $25
Available At
- Harmonic Sense
Company
- Harmonic Sense
Demo Download
- Harmonic Sense
System Requirements
- Mac OS X v10.4 or later
- PowerPC or Intel processor
- [A Windows version is in the works.]