So…. I’ve been working for a while on an Apple-based chord theory workspace that flows from your Apple Watch to your iPhone to your Mac (or MacBook Pro, or whatever) and your DAW of choice – in particular Logic Pro. This is a bit of an anti-AI tool, in that the chordal advice you’ll get is specifically coming from my 35 years of playing music with really talented jazz and fusion players, not an AI model.
The problem: Have you ever felt like your songwriting was feeling a little stale, a little routine, maybe a little (cough) basic? Have you ever wished your chords weren’t so… boring?
If so, Project Chordale (code name) may be for you. It’ll let you swap chords in and out of any progression you’d like to start with, and add ‘flavor’ to bland songs. There’s a lot of ‘progression generators’ and ‘auto band’ apps out there, but Project Chordale is a little different. It’s about taking your ideas, exploring how those chords actually flow together, and what happens when you start pushing those chord combinations in wildly different directions.
With Project Chordale you can explore non-standard sonic space easily, and then pass those chords thru to your desktop/laptop Mac as MIDI files for your DAW. Chordale speaks MIDI so you can easily just text yourself a MIDI chord progression to dump into your DAW of choice (Pro Tools, Ableton Live, Cubase, Reason, etc) and take those chords right into your productions.
The milestone this week? Today all three Chordale platform surfaces are live: iPhone/iPad, Apple Watch, and MacOS, and the workflow is complete and stable.
To use it: just hum, play or tap in diatonic chord progressions in your favorite key/tempo/scale, loop them, then start substituting those chords using everything I’ve learned about jazz and classical chord theory (or could have explained to me). At the bottom of the screen you simply choose a key, a ‘feel’ (the scalar or modal basis for your progression), and a tempo.
You can then select any chord in your progression, and get suggestions for alternate voicings and entire feels, using language that actual humans can understand. Darker, lighter, ‘more pull’ – it’s like writing with a theory nerd on hand who can help translate your weird, random ideas into amazingly cool chord combinations.
Choose an alternate voicing or chord to substitute in.
It’s like a spice rack for your songwriting. And if you’ve got an Apple Watch, you automatically get the Watch app too. Just open it up and capture any audio or hum in a progression’s root notes – whether you have your phone with you or not – and Chordale will automatically download & process it into your clips list as soon as your phone comes into range.
Recording audio to Phone on an Apple Watch
Great for capturing those quick song ideas at a moment’s notice, or to mess around with whatever song is playing on the aux discreetly.
After reharmonizing a progression, you can play it back directly in Chordale, or share the MIDI chords directly from the app. The optional connected Mac desktop app adds immediate access to your Chordale progressions on your desktop with progression/rhythm editing features, so you’re ready to edit them further even without a DAW on hand.
End to end songwriting workflow!
Cue the bird chirps and zen noises.
Anyway, that’s a peek at Project Chordale in it’s current, early state. And it’s not free, but won’t cost very much at all. Core iPhone + Watch app = $10. Optional MacOS desktop editor app = $5. That’s it.
If you want to play, visit the beta app page where you can sign up for a (no spam, just a single) notification when Project Chordale (in both it’s beta, and final forms) becomes ready. I’m thinking end of August for a beta launch – lots of UI and minor bugs to squash first. Can’t wait to let you all have at this one and hear what you do with it.
