A knowledge of chords and their structure are essential to any developing or advanced guitarist. There are a multitude of programs on the internet that claim themselves as comprehensive "chord libraries" but in reality what you often get is a mess of a program that is not only difficult to understand but difficult to use. If you happen to be out on the information super highway today then I suggest you stop by Chord Editor.com. This site is home to an amazing little program called Billion Chords. Billion Chords is a guitar chord utility that boasts over 1 Billion chords with thousands of charted variations. If you've ever wanted to know how to play a chord, Billion Chords is your solution.
Let me say up front that this IS NOT A FREE PROGRAM. However, it's not going to cost you an arm and a leg either. You can own this program for less than 20 bucks. If you have a credit/debit card you can expect to shell out $14.95. You will get your activation license on the spot and you can begin using the full power of this program IMMEDIATELY! You can, of course, demo the program before you buy it. After using the demo of this program for a short while I'm seriously considering forking out the dough for the full version. Let me tell you why.
(1) It's hard to find extensive chord libraries that are this cheap. I gurantee that you won't find one this comprehensive in print form.
(2) As a growing songwriter I'm always on the lookout for new flavors in the chord structures of my songs. If you're bored with playing the same old C chord then Billion Chords will not only give you a whole slew of ways to play that C differently, but it will also give you some ideas on how you can modify that chord to make it sound more interesting. This is a huge bonus. It makes you realize that the guitar is not a one dimensional instrument but rather a complex piece of musical equipment that is full of virtually limitless possibilities.
(3) This program is highly visual. If you're like me you learn best by seeing a visual representation of things. The nice thing about Billion Chords is that it gives you a variety of ways to visualize the chord. Billion Chords will show you how to play the chords in a fretboard diagram, a number diagram (x32010...that represents a standard C chord by the way), and a visual recreation of the neck of a guitar with dots where you're fingers would go. In the case of fretboard diagram and the visual recreation of the neck of the guitar, numbers appear inside the dots. This tells you what fingers are typically used to play those chords.
These three things were very important to me while I was learning guitar and they continue to be a priority to me now. But let me briefly take you inside the program so that you can see for youself the amazing versatility this program has.
If you click on the thumbnail to the left a larger image will appear that will show you the full screen of Billion Chords. I think the interface is very easy to understand and very user friendly. However, if you aren't familiar with the "chord language" then much of what you see may be very confusing to you. Let me help you with that.
The first piece of the main screen that we're going to examine is a snippet of the top portion of the main window in Billion Chords. On the left of the image above you there are three colums of letters, numbers, and potentially strange symbols that you may have never connected with music.
The column on the far left respresents chord names. Whenever you see a "#" after a letter it means that note is "sharp". Whenever you see a "b" after a letter it means that note is flat. This may mean nothing to you now but in future articles at this site I will be discussing some basic music theory so just stay with me for now. At the bottom of this column you see two buttons that have the flat and sharp sign on it. Toggle between these two to make notes flat or sharp. If you've already downloaded the demo version and you're following along try this now and see what happens.
The next column over represents chord qualities and chord alterations. Standard chord qualities are major, minor (denoted with a lower case m), augmented (abbreviated as "aug"), diminished (abbreviated as "dim"), and the not so common half-diminished chord (which is denoted in Billion Chords as a small circle with a line underneath...the line usually goes through the circle in standard chord notation). Qualities represent the "sound" of a chord. Technically it really refers to the arrangement of interval types in a chord that make it sound either major, minor, diminished, or augmented. Chord alterations are the addition or insertion of different notes into a standard chord formation. These alterations add a new character to otherwise bland chords. Altered chords are very popular in jazz music. Alterations to a chord can give it a unique sound and make your chord progressions stand out. You can try virtually any combination of chord quality and chord alteration so my advice to you is to fool around and see what kind of sounds you get. Trust me when I say it will be a new kind of experience for you if you've never tried something like this. As an added delight you also have two "mod" buttons at the bottom of this column that extends the chord possibilities even more.
The next column over allows you to choose the lowest sounding note in each chord (i.e. the bass note). People often confuse the bass note of a chord with the root note of a chord. The root note of a chord is the note that the chord is fundamentally built upon. In other words, the note C will always be the root note in a C chord. It doesn't matter what note is the lowest sounding note, C will still be the root note of that chord. A bass note would be anything besides C (in the example of the C chord). So if a G is the lowest sounding note in the particular chord formation that you're playing then G is the bass note, not the root note. Since Billion Chords gives you the option of choosing your bass note you have the wonderful option of bringing a theoretical technique to your music called "inversions". If you're messing with the demo version try playing the C chord with a G in the bass as it shows you in the fretboard diagrams to the right of these three columns. You'll see that you have a lot of options. Make sure you have the top option clicked in your middle column (the chord qualities/chord alterations column). Try plaing the fretboard diagram that is in the second row down, all the way on the left. The number formation should be (332010). It may not sound hugely different but it really thickens that C chord up.
I just made reference to the large screen to the right of the columns as the "fretboard diagram window." This window is full of possibilities. You have many options to limit the amount of results that you get. For example you can choose to take out chords that have any barred parts in them. You can omit the 3rd or 5th of a chord. If you're reading this I am, for this moment, assuming that you know how to read fretboard diagrams. If you do not please check back in the future. I will be posting permanent links here that teach you how to do things such as read tab and understand fretboard diagrams. Reading a fretboard diagram isn't brain surgery so if you just exercise a little common sense you'll find that these are pretty easy to read.
The picture above represents a panel in the middle of Billion Chords. The box on the left simply gives you the chord formation in number format. It also lists the number of results that you were given from the choices you made in the chord selection columns.
The next box over gives you some limiting options in your chord choices. Checking omit 5 or omit 3 cuts down on the number of result in the fretboard diagrams window. If you're wondering what omit 5 or 3 means I'll quickly tell you. The standard chord is usually what's called a triad (three notes compose the chord). So in the case of the C chord you would have the following notes composing the chord: C E G. The third of the chord would be the E. The fifth of the chord would be G. Omitting either one of these will give you a different sound. Omitting the third of a chord usually gives you the open sound associated with power chords. The 3rd also tends to be the "color tone" of a chord. The difference between a C major chord and a C minor chord is the third. In a C minor chord the third would be Eb, not E. In this same box you'll also see a box titled "Distance" and another box titled "Up To Fret". The distance box allows you to select the max amount of frets your chord will span. This is a nice feature for those of us with smaller hands. The up to fret feature is cool because it allows you to see how to play different chords all over the neck of the guitar. You can have either a large range of chords or a smaller range of chords depending on where you set the up to fret option. This would come in handy if you were playing a chord high up on the neck of the guitar and didn't want to make a big jump down the neck to get to another chord. The up to fret feature would show you a chord in closer proximity to the one you're currently playing.
The next box over allows you to adjust the tuning of the guitar in virtually any weird way you want. Some bands out today use a non-standard tuning system for their guitars. One of my favorite bands, The David Crowder Band, constantly plays in an open E tuning. These kinds of tunings can take some getting used to. Billion Chords will help you take the guess work out of those non-standard tunings.
The last box in this graphic has a few nice features. If you're a lefty, Billion Chords is looking out for you. Simply click this option and all your chords appear in a left handed format. Also, if you hate to play barre chords you can click the box that says "no barre chords" and all the barre chords in the fretboard diagram window will disappear.
The very bottom of the Billion Chords window has a cool visual representation of the guitar neck. But this isn't just a pretty picture. In the full version of Billion Chords you can use this to play the chord. This is a great feature because when you're learning some of the "weirder" sounding chords you might find yourself saying, "Is this right?" Play it back to yourself on Billion Chords and see if you're right.
All in all this program packs a mountain of punch. It has an impressive list of features and it's cheap! I know....some of you out there are groaning because it's not free....BUT COME ON IT'S LESS THAN 20 BUCKS! The internet generation has been spoiled by free stuff. I think the people who break their backs to create this kind of stuff really deserve the paycheck.
Now how does this all relate to being a worhsip leader. Heed the words of 1 Corinthians 10:31, "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." In any capacity of ministry we should always be seeking to glorify God. You might say, "How does something like Billion Chords help me glorify God?" Simple. It is one of those little things that makes you better at what you do. When we bring an offering of praise in song to God it should be as good as we can possibly make it. This doesn't mean that it needs to be flashy, it just means that it needs to embody the heart of honoring God as the great King that He is. Every little thing that can help us do that or be better at it than we once were is something that, I think, is worth investing our time in. But do not be deceived. Things like this should not replace your time of study, prayer, and worship. So check out Billion Chords and make a joyful noise.
Thanks for the info Chad. This will certainly help me!!
Posted by: Amy Hoffman | February 08, 2007 at 01:15 PM
Chad,
First, I echo Amy. It took me about 5 minutes of messing around before I realized that this was a must buy tool. Thank you so much, bro.
There is another tool that is very helpful to me, and it's free!...
http://www.gootar.com/guitar/index.html
This is a great tool for this purpose... Have you ever been just messing around on your guitar, putting your fingers in different positions and strumming to hear the sound? You know how you once in a while hear a golden sound that you've never heard before, and you wish you knew what to name it so you could remember it and play it again? Well, this is the tool to take care of this problem. You simply draw the chord by clicking on the fretboard, and it gives you a name for the chord. If you want a specific string silenced, look up above the first fret and make sure there is no blue "0" at that string. If there is, just click on it and it will go away. This means that the string is silenced. As "Billion Chords" does, it will give you a list of possible chord names for that fingering, but I can't promise that all the names will match the list that is on "Billion Chords". Hope this tool helps you identify those mystery chords, without having to spend your time searching through a thousand chord drawings.
Lets keep up the sharing of our tip and resources, huh? Be blessed!
smiles
Posted by: smiles | February 09, 2007 at 01:36 AM
Oh, yeah... the above resource (in my last comment) also gives the same help with other instruments as well. There's a decent sized list of different instruments in, I believe, the upper left-hand side of the site. You can check out the list for yourself. Enjoy!
smiles
Posted by: smiles | February 09, 2007 at 01:40 AM