Most efficent way?

[commandos]

I want to create a program that will display a specified guitar chord that the user inputs. Seeing as though there are hundreds of guitar chords and variations, im just wondering what the most efficient way would be, before i start to work on this. The easiest way, i'm thinking, would to just have all the chords as JPEGs and just tell the program to import the one specified. However I dont think this is the most effiecent way, seeing as though there are tons of chords and that many JPEGs could add up to being an overly sized program for amount of output. I was also thinking of somehow making the comptuer draw the chord specifed like:

insert guitar chord table
if input = G
insert marks in the location to make G
elsif ....

this way i would only need JPEGs for the guitar chord table and about 10 or so markings for the fingers.
Any ideas/suggestions?

[Sean]

Can you be a bit more specific in how you want to get the input for the chords? Really didn't explain yourself there.

[commandos]

I'm really not sure as of yet. I'm thinking of having the user type it in. Also I might do it like many other guitar chord finders which has a number of options that are all in columns such as the letter name of the Scale (A, E, G etc) and then another column for the type of scale (Major, Minor, Sus, Augmented) and then another option for sharp or flat. Then as the user clicks on the different combinations and the chord will change to it.

[Tony]

You have a right idea there -- have just a few images for the basic units that make up chords, and then construct the final image from those parts dynamically.

It's quite easy to blend into the background with pic merge option.

[commandos]

Ok thanks.

[DaveAngus]

Hey Commandos
I think a more efficient way would be to put the chord like this:

C

e ---|---|---|---|---|
B -x-|---|---|---|---|
G ---|---|---|---|---|
D ---|-x-|---|---|---|
A ---|---|-x-|---|---|
E ---|---|-o-|---|---|

It shows the tuning, the chord name and the positioning!

I can make a little sample code if you'd like to get a visual.

Also, it is great to see some other fellow musicians on here! Im more of a drummer then a guitarist but music is my life! thats what I'm going to school for. Producing.

[commandos]

Thanks Dave, never thought of doing it that way. Thats good that your going into something you enjoy. I just play the guitar for fun on my spare time, never took any lessons. That's sort of the reason why I'm going to make this program because i don't know the actual name of most chords since all i read is tabs. I'm thinking about making this into a game to make it easier to learn the chords by name.

[Tony]

commandos @ Fri Apr 18, 2008 11:03 am wrote:

I'm thinking about making this into a game to make it easier to learn the chords by name.

It would be way cooler to use an actual (electric) guitar for an input device. There are a bunch of relatively cheap analog input devices available, and I bet you could match the recorded soundclip to a chord.

This wouldn't be done in Turing though

[DaveAngus]

haha yea that would be really awesome to do Tony.
Definitely couldn't be done in turing though! haha.
And Commandos, do you get what I mean?