G.I.G. 1.0

Guitar Intelli-Generator

Mouse Gesture Enabled

 

User’s Manual

 

Developed by Arthur Asuncion

 

 

 

 

Table of Contents:

 

I.                   Introduction

II.                Tuning the Virtual Guitar

III.             Adding/Removing Capos

IV.             Specifying a Chord

V.                Seeing/Hearing Every Chord Position

VI.             Using Composer 1.0

 

 

 

 

I. Introduction

 

Thank you for using the G.I.G. applet.  Whether you are a beginner or a guitar maestro, this new technology will undoubtedly refine your guitar and compositional skills.  Satisfaction is guaranteed or we’ll refund you the money!  Oh wait, we can’t refund you because this applet is free… J

 

Overview of GIG 1.0 functionality:

 

1. GIG can generate every possible guitar position (to fret 17) for every chord that is specified by the user.  GIG can theoretically generate over a hundred thousand chords (for just one tuning)!  For each chord, the user can cycle through all possible positions.

 

2. Chord specification is simple, flexible, and powerful.  The number of strings played or muted can be specified. Bass notes and melody notes can be specified.  Optional notes can be specified.

 

3. GIG supports every tuning, as long as the notes are in the range from F# (0th octave) to D# (4th octave).  Tunings are changed by horizontal mouse gestures.

 

4. GIG supports every capo placement, including full capos, partial capos, and even single string capos.  Each string can have its own capo placement.  Capos are added and removed by vertical mouse gestures.

 

5. Every chord can be heard in many different MIDI sounds.

 

 

Overview of Composer 1.0 functionality:

 

1. Composer 1.0 is a mini-sequencer/scratch-pad that can record any sequence of chords in GIG.

 

2. Six different strumming/picking patterns can be used to play the chord sequence.

 

3. A text-area specifies the sequence of recorded chords along with each chord's length in quarter notes.

 

 

II. Tuning the Virtual Guitar

 

The default tuning for G.I.G. is the standard tuning for 6-string guitars: Every Angry Dog Goes Berserk Everyday.  Okay, that’s just actually just a memorization technique for beginning guitar students.  Here’s the standard tuning table:

 

String

Note

Octave

6th String (Thickest)

E

1

5th String

A

1

4th String

D

2

3rd String

G

2

2nd String

B

2

1st String

E

3

Table 1. Standard Tuning for Guitar

 

Amazingly, you are able to customize the tuning of the virtual guitar.  Perhaps you want to try a super-secret alternate tuning.  Or maybe you have never played the guitar outside of the Every-Angry-Dog tuning (see above).  The G.I.G. applet is perfectly suited to experiment with alternate tunings.  You can tune any string in the virtual guitar to have a pitch from low, low F# (0th octave) to high, high D# (4th octave), and you won’t even have to worry about breaking guitar strings or finding that long lost electronic tuner.

 

How do I change a string’s pitch?

 

To change a string’s pitch, simply click-and-drag a horizontal line from one side of the tuner to another.  Depending on which side of the tuner you start to drag from, the pitch will either increase or decrease by a half-step.

 

For the top three strings:

Dragging to the right increases pitch by a half-step while dragging to the left decreases pitch by a half-step.

 

For the bottom three strings:

Dragging to the right decreases pitch by a half-step while dragging to the left increases pitch by a half-step.

 

Although this scheme may seem complex at first, the mouse gestures accurately simulate the twisting of a tuner on a real guitar.  Now here is something only the virtual guitar can do: you can tune multiple strings simultaneously by dragging over multiple tuners!

 

How do I know what the current tuning is?

 

The note name and octave are prominently displayed on each tuner.  This display is modified whenever a string’s tuning is changed.  You can hear the tuning’s sound if you press “Hear Tuning” (however, if a capo is on the virtual guitar, the capo will be heard instead of the open tuning).

 

 

 

III. Adding/Removing Capos

 

By default, the virtual guitar has no capos.  Don’t worry though, since adding and removing capos are simple.  You can even add a different partial capo for each string.

 

How do I add a capo?

 

After moving the mouse pointer to the desired fret, click-and-drag a vertical line from top to bottom over the string(s) that you would like to capo.  You can repeat this procedure for every capo you would like to place on the virtual guitar fretboard.

 

How do I remove a capo?

 

After moving the mouse pointer to the desired fret, click-and-drag a vertical line from bottom to top over the string(s) from which you would like remove the capo.  You can repeat this procedure for every capo that you wish to remove on the virtual guitar fretboard.

 

How do I hear the open sound of the guitar with the capo?

 

Press “Hear Tuning” to hear the open sound of the guitar with the capo.

 

 

IV. Specifying a Chord

 

Chord specification is the most important part of G.I.G.  Rather than internally storing many different chord spellings, G.I.G generates chords intelligently.  Satisfying exact matches of chord spellings on a guitar fretboard can be restrictive, since it may be hard to fit in certain notes.   Instead of using this restrictive approach, G.I.G. determines which chord notes are necessary and which notes are optional.  G.I.G. then returns all the chord positions that (1) have all the necessary chord notes in them and (2) play only necessary or optional notes (there’s a subtle difference between 1 and 2).  Most chord notes are put into the ‘optional’ category to give the widest range of chord positions possible.

 

Root:

 

Every chord has a root note from which to build the chord.  The root note is an optional note.

 

Type:

 

There are four types of chords: major, minor, diminished, and augmented.   

 

If major is selected, the 3rd and 5th notes (from the root) are made optional notes (if there are no conflicting extensions). 

 

If minor is selected, the flatted 3rd note is made a necessary note and the 5th note is made an optional note (if there are no conflicting extensions).

 

If diminished is selected, the flatted 3rd and the flatted 5th are made necessary notes.

 

If augmented is selected, the 3rd is made an optional note (if there is no conflicting extension) and the sharped 5th is made a necessary note.

 

Extension 1:

 

There are four choices for extension 1: none, 6th, 7th, and maj 7th. 

 

If the type is major, minor, or augmented, and if ‘none’ is not selected, the note corresponding to the user’s choice is made a necessary note.

 

If the type is diminished, the only extension that is recognized is the 7th note.

 

Extension 2:

 

There are six choices for extension 2: none, 6th, 2nd, sus4, b5th, and b9th.

 

If the type is major, minor, or augmented, and if ‘none’ is not selected, the note corresponding to the user’s choice is made a necessary note.

 

If the type is diminished, the choice for extension 2 is ignored.

 

Bass:

 

An optional bass note can be specified if desired.  If a bass note is specified, then a lowest note of every chord position would be that bass note.  If the bass note is not specified, then the chord positions can use any necessary or optional note as the bass note.

 

Melody:

 

An optional melody note can be specified if desired.  If a melody note is specified, then the highest note of every chord position would be that melody note.  This option is very useful for developing chord voicings with interweaved melody lines.

 

Key:

 

An optional key can be given to add to the flexibility of the chord positions.  If a key is selected, that key’s note as well as the 5th note from the key will be made optional notes.

 

Extra Note:

 

Specifying an extra note is another way to add to the flexibility of the chord positions.  If an extra note is selected, that note will be made an optional note.

 

# Non-Mutes:

 

There are four choices for this option: full chord, at least 5, at least 4, and at least 3.  If ‘full chord’ is chosen, then the only chord positions returned are those that play all of the strings.  Similarly, if ‘at least <k>’ is chosen, then the only chord positions returned are those that play <k> or more strings.  Unlike the other options above, this option can be modified while you cycle through the chords.

 

Note: After specifying the chord, press ‘Load Chord’ to view the initial chord position.  Read the next section for more details.

 

 

V. Seeing/Hearing Every Chord Position

 

After specifying the chord (see previous section), simply press ‘Load Chord’ to view the initial chord position.  This initial chord position is the closest possible position to the head of the guitar.  The fingering of the position will be shown on the fretboard and the chord name will be displayed on the top of the applet.  Each time you specify a new chord, you should press ‘Load Chord’ to internally load the chord and to display the new chord.

 

You can hear the chord by pressing ‘Hear Chord’.  There are many different MIDI sounds available for playback:

 

Classical Guitar

Acoustic Guitar

Jazz Electric Guitar

Clean Guitar

Muted Guitar

Harp

Dulcimer

Bass!!

Strings!!

Piano!!

Electric Piano!!

Pad!!

Table 2.  Available MIDI sounds       

 

Jazz Electric sounds especially good, while Pad gives an interesting effect.  Ever wanted to know how a piano or harp would sound when played through a guitar fretboard?  With G.I.G. you can!

 

How do I view another position for the same chord?

 

Simply press the “<<” button to view the next position for the same chord.  You can keep pressing “<<” until you move all the way up the fretboard!  Once you reach the last available chord position, pressing “<<” will cease to have effect.

 

How do I return to a previous position for the same chord?

 

Simply press “>>” as many times as you wish to return to previous positions.  Once you return to the first chord position, pressing “>>” will cease to have effect.

 

 

VI. Using Composer 1.0

 

Composer allows you to create creative guitar progressions.  After making a progression, you can hear the progression played with various strumming and picking patterns.

 

How do I add a chord to the Composer progression?

 

The chord must first be loaded in G.I.G. before it can be added to the progression.  Then the desired position should be found using the “<<” and “>>” buttons.  Once the desired chord position is found, the chord can be added by pressing “Add Chord”.  Before pressing “Add Chord”, you should specify how long that chord should be played.  You can do this by selecting the quarter-note length (1, 2, 3, or 4).

 

Once you add the chord, the chord name will be displayed in the Composer text area.  Dashes will also be displayed after the chord.  The number of dashes indicates the length of that chord in quarter-notes.

 

How do I remove a chord in the Composer progression?

 

Only the last chord added can be removed from the progression.  Simply press ‘Remove Last Chord’.

 

How can I clear the entire progression?

 

Simply press ‘Clear All’.

 

How can I hear the progression?

 

Before hearing the progression, you can specify the type of playing pattern:

 

Strumming Patterns

Picking Patterns

Down-strums (a beginner strum)

Simple Picking

Marching Strum

Advanced Picking

Syncopated Strum (a widely used strum)

Jazz-Comp (ignores the 2nd and 4th quarter note chords).

Table 3. Composer Playing Patterns

 

You can also control how fast the progression playback should be by specifying the Beats Per Minute (BPM).  The allowable range of BPM is 40-160, and the default BPM is 100.

 

To hear the progression, simply press ‘Play’.  The sequence will take a few seconds to develop, so it is best to wait patiently for the sound.  Then the music can be heard.  If you press ‘Play’ while the progression is playing, no action will be taken.

 

How do I stop the progression?

Simply press the ‘Stop’ button to end the progression.