Spreadsheet sheets

[mgade]

I have done a fair amount of action-script programming in Flash, and since that's what people use for web-sites about scales and stuf, I had a plan of doing (or modifying) something for my own purpose.

That is, untill 5 minuttes ago. It dawned on me that Excell would be a lot easier to collaborate on, and basically powerful enough for just about anything. Haven't surfed/googled the subject yet (but will next week.. It's bedtime, and the annual X-mas party at work tomorow and a boatload os assignments to check in the weekend and.. )

The idea was to make a dynamic cheat-sheet to get up to speed with refin I also want to be able to click a position on a fretboard, set up in any given tuning, change the tuning and see where the notes go. That ought to be the easy part. Won't mention the hard one :dead

Any input? (Like I said - I know some of it is done in Flash, but the engine is easier done in Excel (for me), I could always glue on a Flash skin, but probably wont)

[mgade]

Well, I'm on my way..

It'll end up being capable of
-throwing notes around between various tunings, and
-maybe show the distance and direction between the tempered scale (frets) and true scales,
-Search for notes all over the fretboard that is selected at one place
-Search for possible scales given a selection
using some graphic presentation.

The point is, I can't help it See tagline. Most of it is allready there somewhere, like on http://www.looknohands.com/chordhous.../index_rb.html but want to make it myself, and possibly learn something in the process. It makes for more interesting trainrides on slow days!

Anybody checking it out - does it work in you version of Excell?

[pc]

I don't think it completely worked for my Excel (Mac). It opened fine and displayed this:

http://www.jacksgroove.com/photos/mgadepic.pdf

I could change the name of the scale and major/minor quality, but the only thing that changed was the opening note, which didn't necessarily correspond to the scale I chose.

In other words, I chose D major, and it displayed:

B C# D E F G A

I also didn't understand the arrows and what they were pointing to.

Still--it's a VERY worthy project and I hope you keep at it. The site you link to above is really cool. Keep at it!!! :)

[mgade]

Mine says the same notes for D major except F is F# here? Hope that's a typo! looknohands comes up with the same sequence (F# and all).

Yeah, I see the arrows have moved like 10 letters to the right.. Never mind that is not important for the time beeing, but come time it will make the spreadsheet easily tweakable, compared to some hardcoded array-structure.

Thanks for checking! Excel is the sland!

[funkyguitar]

Why not use Access, then you can query on different chords, structures, positions, etc ?

[mgade]

Well, my personal preferences, need for Excels graphing capabillities and easier handling plus I don't see that many data. Excel can handle a lot!

[SilverStrat]

Not sure what you're trying to do. Just copy the one on look no hands. What would be cool is if you could copy that one and show the different positions instead of one jumbled fretboard.

[mgade]

It'll be clearer once it's done ;)
Dunno bout those positions, but someone should be able to take it that way. I had a vague idea about mixing scales like you do when you solo. Say over a A based on the 5th fret - "minor pentatonic" or something - then fall back to "major pentatonic" on the 2nd fret - if that makes sense. "Vague", I told ya :-)

[Annie D.]

Welp, the F-natural was a weird surprise attack. I'll have to try it again, soon. I do comprehend what you're getting at, and that will be waaaaaaaaaaaaay cool!

*Smooch*

(how u spell wierd? weird? weeyurd? anyhow?)

[mgade]

I am perfectly anyhow ;) Wierd, that is, he he.
You know a smooch makes me go a long way! So I updated the file for a start :ahem

You need to open it "with macros" this time.

[mgade]

Still need to open with macros, but I'm pretty proud of myself

You can choose a scale (although just 2 at the moment, should be easy to plaster it with scales and parts of chords and stuff. Maybe on the train-ride) and a tuning or two tunings and compare them..

You can choose dots or notes, you can mark out fret/string-combinations in any tuning and have the notes spelled out, and search for possible scales those notes are in. Although.. Still just the two scales any of the basic notes. If that makes sense.

Try it out! Tell me if something does not work this far. Just stick to writing in the light green cells and don't rename anything.

[JAM]

mgade,

I cant get the link to work. My browser takes a long time to download something and then locks up.

[mgade]

That's strange - my browser just did the same thing - I had to kill it and try anew (while powering up the ftp-client). It worked instantly on second and third attempt.

Would you mind try again?

I could upload a slightly modified version already, but I figure it's either the browser/ss-file combo or, more likely, the server.

[JAM]

Tried again and same result.

[mgade]

Thanks for trying. Baaad kharma... And strange... Working on new version, hope that fixes it. What could possibly cause it?

[mgade]

Idea: Right-click, save to desk-top, and open it from there?

[JAM]

Idea: Right-click, save to desk-top, and open it from there?

That seemed to work. Strangely enough the first time I tried to open got an Excel error "A file by that name is already open...."

Neat file, I need to spend some time with this.

[mgade]

I had it open too! That makes better sense though, since I still had Excel running with version 8. Oh well..

[mgade]

Bed-time.. I fear Xmas overtakes me :toobad
Didn't got far calculating the fretboard and the errors in fretsplacement. Need more time for study this stuff: http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/harmony/pyth.html

Slow advance now. New sheet for graphic fretboard but nothing much yet. Also a prettier list of possible scales for choosen notes.

[mgade]

Did you know that G, D#, F, A# and C, could be in any of these scales:

Major-A#. Major-D#. Major-G#. Pentatonic Major-D#. Pentatonic Minor-C. Pentatonic Neutral-F. Blues-C. Phygian-A. Aeolian-C. Aeolian-F. Aeolian-G. Locrian-A. Locrian-D. Locrian-G. Diminished-G. Dominant 7th-A#. Dominant 7th-D#. Dominant 7th-F.

(If I havn't made any typos, that is.) This is fun! Wil upload that version later.

Anybody: Beware if type in scales yourself, there need to be a "false" here and there in the lookup-functions..

[mgade]

Well, I don't calculate those big faults on the tempered scale. The "Temperatures" sheet that it begins with, is a bit messy I am afraid, and only works for E, but it does graph a fretboard and the "true" frets pr string, based on a 330 Hz E. The other notes should be .. ehm.. easy? But there does not seem to be that much advantage in calculating them Nothing like the 25% mentioned in GuitarPlayer (post #5)..

The Fretboard sheet is much more usable IMO. Nice to be able to mark out notes from - say - a chord, and get a pointer as to which scales could possibly fit. And to cross-reference two tunings. Already had use for that myself.

I will clean it up, but my bed is on the radar again

[mgade]

Mission accomplished. I think.

I still need to check it, because I don't get the results stated in the GP article, but then does he use a guitar that has frets that are compensated for string-stretching? :ahem Or does he just gets a wierd but lovable in-between note?

Still it is fascinating to see how things skids around on the fretboard when you choose another basic note. ("Tonic"?)

I am not too sure I have got the "modes"-scales down either, I have conflicting sources. I have stuck to looknohands and (I think) the medieval site here. Oh well, might post it on the LPF and shoot a mail to GP to see what happens.

One COULD (but won't and can't for some time)

• modify the "physical" frets for stretch according to distance between the strings and the fretboard
• calculate the effects of slightly detuning individual strings to get purer (or the opposite) chords - particularly in open tunings. For now you "tune" the strings by choosing (within reasonable limits) what tone it is to be tuned to.

Over'n'out

[mgade]

Oh, and sorry! Six posts in a row! This has to be the deadest thread around, but like I said. I'm addicted! Once my bodily fluids gets excited I never stop!