Chord Magic

Chord Magic is a parser, disambiguator, transposer, and pretty-printer for musical chords. It runs in Node.js and the browser.

Parse a chord:

var chord = chordMagic.parse('A7'); // { root: 'A', quality: 'Major', extended: 'Dominant7' }

Transpose it up 3 half-steps:

chord = chordMagic.transpose(chord, 3); // { root: 'C', quality: 'Major', extended: 'Dominant7' }

Pretty-print it:

chordMagic.prettyPrint(chord); // 'C7'

Pretty-print it in Do-Re-Mi format:

chordMagic.prettyPrint(chord, {naming: 'SouthernEuropean'}); // 'Do7'

Install

Install with npm:

npm install chord-magic

Then require() it:

var chordMagic = require('chord-magic')

ES modules are also supported:

import { transpose } from 'chord-magic'

You can also use a script tag:

<script src="https://unpkg.com/chord-magic/dist/chord-magic.min.js"></script>

This exposes a global chordMagic object.

Usage

Overview

• chordMagic.parse(string [, options])
• chordMagic.transpose(chord, halfSteps)
• chordMagic.prettyPrint(chord [, options])

chordMagic.parse(string [, options])

Parse a string with the given options. Returns either a structured object describing the parsed chord, or undefined if the parse failed.

options takes only a single option, naming, which can be either:

• 'English' (A-B-C-D-E-F-G)
• 'NorthernEuropean' (A-B-H-C-C#-D-D#-E-F-F#-G)
• 'SouthernEuropean' (Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do, and variants like Ré and Sol).

If no naming is specified, then 'English' is the default.

// Parse in three different naming styles:
chordMagic.parse('B');
chordMagic.parse('H', {naming: 'NorthernEuropean'});
chordMagic.parse('Ti', {naming: 'SouthernEuropean'});
 
// These all return the same thing:
// { root: 'B', quality: 'Major' }

The object returned describes the chord. Some examples:

chordMagic.parse('C')
// { root: 'C', quality: 'Major' }
 
chordMagic.parse('Cm')
// { root: 'C', quality: 'Minor' }
 
chordMagic.parse('Cm7')
// { root: 'C', quality: 'Minor', extended: 'Minor7' }
 
chordMagic.parse('Csus4')
// { root: 'C', quality: 'Major', suspended: 'Sus4' }
 
chordMagic.parse('Cadd9')
// { root: 'C', quality: 'Major', added: 'Add9' }
 
chordMagic.parse('C/G')
// { root: 'C', quality: 'Major', overridingRoot: 'G' }

This object has six possible fields root, quality, extended, suspended, added, and overridingRoot:

root (required)

The root note of the chord. It will be one of:

[ 'A', 'Bb', 'B', 'C', 'Db', 'D', 'Eb', 'E', 'F', 'Gb', 'G', 'Ab' ]

Note that this value is always in English format, regardless of the format when you parsed it. Also, flats are always expressed, never sharps (e.g. always 'Bb', never 'A#'). The goal here is that you never have to do the disambiguation yourself.

quality (required)

The chord quality. It will be one of:

[ 'Major', 'Minor', 'Augmented', 'Diminished' ]

extended

If the chord is extended, then that will be expressed here. One of:

[
  'Major7',
  'Minor7',
  'Dominant7',
  'Diminished7',
  'Major9',
  'Major11',
  'Major13',
  'AugmentedDominant7',
  'AugmentedMajor7',
  'Minor9'
]

suspended

If the chord is suspended, then that will be expressed here. One of:

[ 'Sus4', 'Sus2' ]

added

If the chord has an added note, then that will be expressed here. One of:

[ 'Add9', 'Add11', 'Major6', 'SixNine', 'PowerChord' ]

The 'PowerChord' is also known as an 'Add5', but I thought it was funny to call it a 'PowerChord'.

overridingRoot

If the chord has a note that overrides the root note (e.g. 'D/F#', where F# overrides D), then that will be expressed here. The overridingRoot can be any of the 12 notes listed above for the root.

chordMagic.transpose(chord, halfSteps)

Transpose the given chord object to a new chord by the number of halfSteps.

This does not modify the input chord. halfSteps can be any valid integer.

Examples:

chordMagic.transpose(chordMagic.parse('Amaj7'), 1)
// { root: 'Bb', quality: 'Major', extended: 'Major7' }
 
chordMagic.transpose(chordMagic.parse('Amaj7'), 2)
// { root: 'B', quality: 'Major', extended: 'Major7' }
 
chordMagic.transpose(chordMagic.parse('Amaj7'), 3)
// { root: 'C', quality: 'Major', extended: 'Major7' }
 
chordMagic.transpose(chordMagic.parse('Amaj7'), 4)
// { root: 'Db', quality: 'Major', extended: 'Major7' }
 
chordMagic.transpose(chordMagic.parse('Amaj7'), 5)
// { root: 'D', quality: 'Major', extended: 'Major7' }
 
chordMagic.transpose(chordMagic.parse('Amaj7'), -1)
// { root: 'Ab', quality: 'Major', extended: 'Major7' }
 
chordMagic.transpose(chordMagic.parse('Amaj7'), -2)
// { root: 'G', quality: 'Major', extended: 'Major7' }
 
chordMagic.transpose(chordMagic.parse('Amaj7'), -3)
// { root: 'Gb', quality: 'Major', extended: 'Major7' }

Of course, this also elegantly handles overriding roots:

chordMagic.transpose(chordMagic.parse('C/G'), 3)
// { root: 'Eb', quality: 'Major', overridingRoot: 'Bb' }

chordMagic.prettyPrint(chord, [options])

Print a chord object into a nice string for display.

options takes only a single option, naming, which supports some default built-in naming schemes:

• English (default)
• NorthernEuropean (contains H)
• SouthernEuropean ("Do Re Mi" format)

Or custom naming (described below).

Examples:

chordMagic.prettyPrint(chordMagic.parse('C'))
// 'C'
chordMagic.prettyPrint(chordMagic.parse('C'), {naming: 'SouthernEuropean'})
// 'Do'
chordMagic.prettyPrint(chordMagic.parse('C'), {naming: 'NorthernEuropean'})
// 'C'
chordMagic.prettyPrint(chordMagic.parse('Cmin'))
// 'Cm'
chordMagic.prettyPrint(chordMagic.parse('Cmin7'))
// 'Cm7'
chordMagic.prettyPrint(chordMagic.parse('C'))
// 'C'
chordMagic.prettyPrint(chordMagic.parse('Cmaj7'))
// 'Cmaj7'

By default this will choose a single representation for each note (e.g. always 'Bb' and never 'A#') as well as a single common representation for every other attribute (e.g. always 'm7', never 'min7', 'minor7', etc.).

If you would like to customize the note names (e.g. to show sharps instead of flats), then you can pass an array of the 12 notes starting with A as the naming member. For instance:

var sharpsOnly = [
  'A',
  'A#',
  'B',
  'C',
  'C#',
  'D',
  'D#',
  'E',
  'F',
  'F#',
  'G',
  'G#'
]
 
chordMagic.prettyPrint(chordMagic.parse('Bb'), {naming: sharpsOnly})
// 'A#'
 
chordMagic.prettyPrint(chordMagic.parse('Bb'), {naming: sharpsOnly})
// 'A#'
 
chordMagic.prettyPrint(chordMagic.parse('D/Gb'), {naming: sharpsOnly})
// 'D/F#'

Build this project

npm run build

Test this project

npm run test

Or to check code coverage:

npm run coverage