jazzElements

The primary goal of this package is to help in the analysis of a chord progression and facilitate learning of jazz standards. It will also suggest alternative chords, progressions, scales etc For example, we can enter a progression as a string, ask to analyse then plot the results. Each cell shows the chord, its degree in the corresponding scale, and optionally the corresponding notes.

The full documentation can be found on ReadTheDocs

Hint

The best resource i found to learn about jazz and music theory, check it out:

• “WalkThatBass” youtube channel.
• “TheJazzPianoSite” website.

Warning

I am coding this in parallel to trying to finally understand music theory. This is in active dev with surely a good amount of hacks and bugs. Feel free to contribute/submit issues or ideas.

A chord progression can be defined using a chord string (e.g. ‘|DbM7,E9|AM7,C9|FM7|Bm9,E9|AM7,C9|FM7,Ab9|’) or using a named progression (e.g. ‘Misty’) We can then annotate a chord progression:

>>> prg = Progression('Misty')
>>> prg.annotate()
>>> prg.plot('fn')

and plot the harmonic analysis

or a keyboard representation of chords (top) and scales (bottom):

>>> prg.plot('kbd')

The analysis can be made for example using the major/minor chord progression from the book Tonal Harmony by Stefan Kostka

Major Kostka Progression

Minor Kostka Progression

Plot all Chords in a given Scale:

>>> Scale('C minor').plotChords()

Plot m7 for all roots:

Plot implemented chords:

Examples

Warning

Dev in progress, more coming soon

Scale

Printing the chords built from the modes of the C key:

>>> import pandas as pd
>>> key = 'C'
>>> lst = {}
>>> for mode in Scale.modesLst:
>>>     if mode is not 'Chr':
>>>         C = Scale(key, mode).chords()
>>>         lst[key + ' ' + mode] = [str(c.root) + c.type for c in C]
>>> print(pd.DataFrame(lst,index=range(1,len(lst)+1)).T)

Returns:

>>>            1     2     3    4     5     6     7
>>>   C Aeo  Cm7    Dø  D♯M7  Fm7   Gm7  G♯M7   A♯7
>>>   C Dor  Cm7   Dm7  D♯M7   F7   Gm7    Aø  A♯M7
>>>   C Ion  CM7   Dm7   Em7  FM7    G7   Am7    Bø
>>>   C Loc   Cø  C♯M7  D♯m7  Fm7  F♯M7   G♯7  A♯m7
>>>   C Lyd  CM7    D7   Em7  F♯ø   GM7   Am7   Bm7
>>>   C Mix   C7   Dm7    Eø  FM7   Gm7   Am7  A♯M7
>>>   C Phr  Cm7  C♯M7   D♯7  Fm7    Gø  G♯M7  A♯m7

Progressions

Training on major 2-5-1s

To train on 2-5-1 cadences, one can generate the progression then plot the analysis and the associated keyboards. We can then use the keyboard view to play the chords (upper keyboard) with the left hand, and the associated scale (lower keyboard) with the right hand.

>>> # Generating the 4 notes 2-5-1s for every root:
>>> seq=''.join(['|{},{}|{}'.format(
>>>     Scale(key,'ion').getDegree(2,nbNotes=4),
>>>     Scale(key,'ion').getDegree(5,nbNotes=4),
>>>     Scale(key,'ion').getDegree(1,nbNotes=4) ) for key in Note.chrFlat])

>>> prg=Progression(chr,name='Maj 2-5-1s')
>>> prg.annotate()
>>> prg.plot('fn') # Plot the analysis view
>>> prg.plot('kbd') # Plot the keyboard view

Training on minor 2-5-1s

Likewise, we can train on 4 notes chords in the harmonic minor 2-5-1s

>>> # Generating the 4 notes 2-5-1s for every root:
>>> seq=''.join(['|{},{}|{}'.format(
>>>     Scale(key,'hMin').getDegree(2,nbNotes=4),
>>>     Scale(key,'hMin').getDegree(5,nbNotes=4),
>>>     Scale(key,'hMin').getDegree(1,nbNotes=4) ) for key in Note.chrFlat])

>>> prg=Progression(chr,name='Min 2-5-1s')
>>> prg.annotate()
>>> prg.plot('fn') # Plot the analysis view
>>> prg.plot('kbd') # Plot the keyboard view

Annotation

Implemented cadence Graphs

Following are examples of detected cadences. They can be obtained using CadenceGraph().plot()

Kostka transitions (C Major):

Kostka transitions (C Harmonic minor):

Allow all transitions (C Major):

Allow all transitions (C Harmonic Major):

Only allow main cadences (C Major):

Only allow main cadences (C Harmonic minor):

Notes

Notes are the most basic element, they can be defined as Note(‘E♯’),Note(‘Cb’), and perform simplification (e.g. Note(‘Gb♭#♯’)) or alteration (e.g. Note(‘C’,-2) in semitones).

Uses

	code	output
Transposition	Note(‘C’)+2	D♯
Note difference	Note(‘A’)-Note(‘F#’)	3
Comparison	Note(‘F##’)==Note(‘Abb’)	True

Chords

Chords are built on notes, and can be instantiated from a string (e.g. c = Chord(‘Em7’) ) or from a list of notes strings (e.g. c = Chord([‘C’,’E’,’G’]) ) or Notes

Basic attributes

	code	output
Chord notes	Chord(‘Cdim’).notes	[C, E♭, G♭]
Distances from root in semitones	Chord(‘Cdim’).intArr	[0, 3, 6]
Chord intervals	Chord(‘Cdim’).intStr	[‘1’, ‘♭3’, ‘♭5’]
Chord quality	Chord(‘Cdim’).quality	‘dim’

Basic members

	code	output
Guide Tones (3rd,7th)	Chord(‘Cm7’).guideTones()	[E♭, B♭]
Relative minor chord	Chord(‘C’).relativeMinor()	Chord(‘Am’) or ‘Am’ if asStr=True
Relative major chord	Chord(‘Cm’).relativeMajor()	Chord(‘D♯M’) or ‘D♯M’ if asStr=True
Plot a chord	Chord(‘Cm’).plot()
Chord comparison	Chord(‘Cm7’) == Chord(‘EbM6’)	True as they have the same notes

Scales

Scales can be instantiated as s=Scale(root=’C’, mode=’ion’) or Scale(‘C hm’). Attributes ———-

	code	output
Root	Scale(‘D# min’).root	Note(‘D♯’)
Mode	Scale(‘D# min’).mode	‘Aeo’
Name	Scale(‘D# min’).name	‘D♯ Aeo’

Hint

A good way to remember modes order is the mnemonic “(I) (D)on’t (P)articularly (L)ike (M)odes (A) (L)ot”

Basic operations

	code	output
Notes	Scale(‘C’).notes()	[C, D, E, F, G, A, B]
Transposition	(Scale(‘C’)+3).notes()	[D♯, F, G, G♯, A♯, C, D]
Comparison	Scale(‘C’)== Scale(‘D’)	False
Diatonic Chords	Scale(‘C’).chords()	[CM7, Dm7, Em7…]
Roman Notation	Scale(‘C’).chordsRoman()	[‘IM7’, ‘iim7’, ‘iiim7’…]
Degrees Quality	Scale(‘C’).degreesQuality()	[‘maj’, ‘min’, ‘min’…]
Check if a chord is diatonic	Scale(‘C’).hasChord(‘Cm’)	False, or degree if in scale
Intervals	Scale(‘C’).intervals()	[2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1] in semitones
Intervals (strings)	Scale(‘C’).intervals(asStr=True)	‘w-w-h-w-w-w-h’
Parallel minor	Scale(‘C’).parallelMinor()	C Aeo | C D D♯ F G G♯ A♯
Parallel modes	Scale(‘C’).parallelModes()	[C Dor, C Phr, C Lyd…]
RelativeMinor	Scale(‘C’).relativeMinor()	A Aeo | A B C D E F G
RelativeMajor	Scale(‘C Aeo’).relativeMajor()	D♯ Ion | D♯ F G G♯ A♯ C D
Plotting scale chords	Scale(‘C min’).plotChords()
RelativeModes	Scale(‘C’).relativeModes()	[D Dor, E Phr, F Lyd…]
Plotting a chord	Scale(‘C min’).plot()

Progression

Progressions hold chords, and the analysis results. They are instantiated using a chord string as in ‘|Fm7,Bb7|EbM7|%|Bbm7,Eb7|’ or using a named progression e.g. ‘Misty’

Warning

Dev in progress, more coming soon

Annotate

Warning

Dev in progress, more coming soon

jazzElements

The primary goal of this package is to help in the analysis of a chord progression and facilitate learning of jazz standards. It will also suggest alternative chords, progressions, scales etc For example, we can enter a progression as a string, ask to analyse then plot the results. Each cell shows the chord, its degree in the corresponding scale, and optionally the corresponding notes.

The full documentation can be found on ReadTheDocs

Hint

The best resource i found to learn about jazz and music theory, check it out:

• “WalkThatBass” youtube channel.
• “TheJazzPianoSite” website.

Warning

I am coding this in parallel to trying to finally understand music theory. This is in active dev with surely a good amount of hacks and bugs. Feel free to contribute/submit issues or ideas.

A chord progression can be defined using a chord string (e.g. ‘|DbM7,E9|AM7,C9|FM7|Bm9,E9|AM7,C9|FM7,Ab9|’) or using a named progression (e.g. ‘Misty’) We can then annotate a chord progression:

>>> prg = Progression('Misty')
>>> prg.annotate()
>>> prg.plot('fn')

and plot the harmonic analysis

or a keyboard representation of chords (top) and scales (bottom):

>>> prg.plot('kbd')

The analysis can be made for example using the major/minor chord progression from the book Tonal Harmony by Stefan Kostka

Major Kostka Progression

Minor Kostka Progression

Plot all Chords in a given Scale:

>>> Scale('C minor').plotChords()

Plot m7 for all roots:

Plot implemented chords:

Indices and tables

• Index
• Module Index
• Search Page