/ 
App-Music-PlayTab-2.904
River stage zero No dependents
/ App::Music::PlayTab

NAME

App::Music::PlayTab - Print chords of songs in a tabular fashion.

SYNOPSIS

playtab

playtab [options] [file ...]

Options:
  --transpose +/-N     transpose all songs
  --output XXX		set outout file
  --lilypond N		accept chords in LilyPond syntax, N = bpm
  --syntax		print chord syntax
  --ident		show identification
  --help		brief help message
  --verbose		verbose information

App::Music::PlayTab

use App::Music::PlayTab;
run();			# arguments in @ARGV
run(@args);		# explicit arguments

perl -MApp::Music::PlayTab -e run ...arguments...

DESCRIPTION

This utility program is intended for musicians. It produces tabular chord diagrams that are very handy for playing rhythm guitar or bass in jazz, blues, and popular music.

I wrote it since in official (and unofficial) sheet music, I find it often hard to stick to the structure of the piece. Also, as a guitar player, I do not need all the detailed notes and such that are only important for melody instruments. And usually I cannot turn over the pages while playing.

For more info and examples, see http://johan.vromans.org/software/sw_playtab.html .

playtab is just a trivial wrapper around the App::Music::PlayTab module.

COMMAND LINE OPTIONS

--transpose amount

Transposes all songs by amount. This can be + or - 11 semitones.

When transposing up, chords will be represented sharp if necessary; when transposing down, chords will be represented flat if necessary. For example, chord A transposed +1 will become A-sharp, but when transposed -11 it will become B-flat.

--output file

Designates file as the output file for the program.

--lilypond

Interpet chord names according to LilyPond syntax.

--help

Print a brief help message and exits.

--ident

Prints program identification.

--verbose

More verbose information.

file

Input file(s).

INPUT SYNTAX

The input for playtab is plain ASCII. It contains the chords, the division in bars, with optional annotations.

An example:

!t Blue Bossa

Bossanova
=
| c-9 ... | f-9 ... | d% . g7 . | c-9 ... |
| es-9 . as6 . | desmaj7 ... | d% . g7 . | c-9 . d% g7 |

The first line, '!t' denotes the title of the song. Each song must start with a title line.

The title line may be followed by one or more '!s', subtitles, for example to indicate the composer.

The text "Bossanova" is printed below the title and subtitle.

The "=" indicates some vertical space. Likewise, you can use '-' and '+' as '=', but with a different vertical spacing.

The next lines show the bars of the song. In the first bar is the c-9 chord (Cminor9), followed by three dots. The dots indicate that this chord is repeated for all 4 beats of this bar. In the 3rd bar each chord take two beats: d5% (d half dim), a dot, g7 and another dot.

Run playtab with -h or --help for the syntax of chords.

If you use "=" followed by some text, the printout is indented and the text sticks out to the left. With this you can tag groups of bars, for example the parts of a song that must be played in a certain order. For example:

!t Donna Lee
!s Charlie Parker

Order: A B A B

= A
| as . | f7 . | bes7 . | bes7 . |
| bes-7 . | es7 . | as . | es-7 D7 |
| des . | des-7 . | as . | f7 . |
| bes7 . | bes7 . | bes-7 . | es7 . |

= B
| as . | f7 . | bes7 . | bes7 . |
| c7 . | c7 . | f- . | c7#9 . |
| f- . | c7 . | f- . | aso . |
| as f7 | bes-7 es7 | as - | bes-7 es7 |

To see how this looks, see http://johan.vromans.org/software/sw_playtab.html .

You can modify the width of the bars with a '!w' control. Standard width of a beat is 30. '!w +5' increases the width to 35. '!w 25' sets it to 25. You get the idea. You can also change the height with '!h' (default is 15) and margin with '!m' (default width is 40). You can restore the margin to its default value with '<'. This will save the current settings, and '!m' without argument will restore the saved settings.

You can transpose an individual song with '!x amount', where amount can range from -11 to +11, inclusive. A positive transpose value will make sharps, a negative value will make flats.

'!n' enables bar numbering. '!n 0' disables numbering, '!n n' starts numbering at n. n may be negative, e.g., to skip numbering an intro.

'!ly' or '!lilypond' enables LilyPond chord name recognition. If followed by a '0', switches to classical chord name syntax.

Look at the examples, that is (currently) the best way to get grip on what the program does.

Oh, I almost forgot: it can print guitar chord diagrams as well. See "bluebossa", "sophisticatedlady" and some others.

Have fun, and let me know your ideas!

INPUT SYNTAX

Notes: C, D, E, F, G, A, B.
Raised with '#' or suffix 'is', e.g. A#, Ais.
Lowered with 'b' or suffix 's' or 'es', e.g. Bes, As, Eb.

Chords: note + optional modifiers.
Chord modifiers Meaning                 [examples]
--------------------------------------------------------------
nothing         major triad             [C]
- or min or m   minor triad             [Cm Fmin Gb-]
+ or aug        augmented triad         [Caug B+]
o or 0 or dim   diminished triad        [Co D0 Fdim]
--------------------------------------------------------------
maj7            major 7th chord         [Cmaj7]
%               half-diminished 7 chord [C%]
6,7,9,11,13     chord additions         [C69]
sus sus4, sus2  suspended 4th, 2nd      [Csus]
--------------------------------------------------------------
#               raise the pitch of the note to a sharp [C11#9]
b               lower the pitch of the note to a flat [C11b9]
--------------------------------------------------------------
no              subtract a note from a chord [C9no11]
--------------------------------------------------------------
_ may be used to avoid ambiguity, e.g. C_#9 <-> C#9 <-> C#_9

Other:          Meaning
--------------------------------------------------------------
.               Chord space
-               Rest
:               Repeats previous chord
%               Repeat
/               Powerchord constructor   [D/G D/E-]
--------------------------------------------------------------

LILYPOND INPUT SYNTAX

Notes: c, d, e, f, g, a, b.
Raised with suffix 'is', e.g. ais.
Lowered with suffix 'es', e.g. bes, ees.

Chords: note + optional duration + optional modifiers.

Duration = 1, 2, 4, 8, with possible dots, e.g., "2.".
No duration means: use the duration of the previous chord.

Modifiers are preceeded with a ":".

Modifiers       Meaning                 [examples]
--------------------------------------------------------------
nothing         major triad             c4
m               minor triad             c4:m
aug             augmented triad         c4:aug
dim             diminished triad        c4:dim
--------------------------------------------------------------
maj             major 7th chord         c4:maj
6,7,9,11,13     chord additions         c4:7  c4:6.9 (dot required)
sus sus4, sus2  suspended 4th, 2nd      c4:sus
--------------------------------------------------------------
+               raise the pitch of an added note   c4:11.9+
-               lower the pitch of an added note   c4:11.9-
--------------------------------------------------------------
^               subtract a note from a chord       c4:9.^11
--------------------------------------------------------------

Other:          Meaning
--------------------------------------------------------------
r               Rest                    r2
s               Rest                    s4
/               Powerchord constructor  d/g   d/e:m
--------------------------------------------------------------

See also: http://lilypond.org/doc/stable/Documentation/user/lilypond/Chord-names

SEE ALSO

http://chordie.sourceforge.net/

AUTHOR

Johan Vromans, Squirrel Consultancy <jvromans@squirrel.nl>

COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER

This program is Copyright 1990,2016 by Johan Vromans.

This program is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.