Harmony and scales

Note names and octaves

A note name is a letter, an optional accidental (# sharp, b flat) and an octave number. c4 is MIDI 60, middle C; a4 is 69 (440 Hz). Each octave starts at C, so b3 is just below c4.

A name without an octave is in octave 3: note("c e g") is the same as note("c3 e3 g3").

note("c e g b")

TuttiDAW's piano roll uses Live's names, where MIDI 60 is C3. Code and the clip disagree by one octave in the label only: the pitch is the same.

Scale degrees: n and scale

n("0 2 4") writes numbers; .scale("C:minor") turns them into notes of a scale. Degree 0 is the root, 1 the next note of the scale, and so on. Numbers past the end of the scale continue in the next octave, and negative numbers go down.

n("0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7").scale("C:minor")

The root is in octave 3 unless you give one (C4:minor). Scale names include major, minor, dorian, mixolydian, lydian, phrygian, blues and chromatic. Join the root and every word of the name with colons: A:minor:pentatonic, C:harmonic:minor. Inside double quotes a space starts a new step, so "C:harmonic minor" is not one scale name.

n("0 2 4 <7 6>").scale("<D:dorian G:mixolydian>")

Because the scale is a pattern too, a melody written in degrees follows the chord changes on its own.

Moving notes: add and transpose

.transpose(n) moves notes by semitones. .add(...) adds to the values: on degrees it moves along the scale, on note patterns use note(...) inside.

note("c3 e3 g3 e3").transpose("<0 5 7 0>")

n("0 2 4 2".add("<0 3>")).scale("A:minor")

Chord symbols: chord and voicing

chord("...") takes chord symbols such as C, Am7, F^7, G7 or Bbm9. .voicing() turns each symbol into notes, laid out so that the top of the chord sits at or just below c5.

chord("<C Am F G>").voicing()

Move the whole voicing with .anchor(...): the chord is laid out below that note instead.

chord("<Dm7 G7 C^7 A7>").anchor("g4").voicing()

Picking chord notes: n with chords

With a chord set, n picks notes of the voicing by index, from the bottom up - an arpeggio that follows the changes.

n("0 1 2 3 2 1").chord("<Cm7 Fm7 Bb7 Eb^7>").voicing()

Bass lines: rootNotes

.rootNotes(octave) plays each chord's root, in the octave you give.

stack(
  chord("<Am F C G>").voicing(),
  chord("<Am F C G>").rootNotes(2)
)

Exact notes when you need them

Voicings follow their anchor note, not fixed shapes. When you need exact pitches - a specific inversion, a doubled root - write the chord as a stack of note names.

note("<[a2,e3,a3,c4] [f2,c3,a3,c4] [c3,g3,c4,e4] [g2,d3,b3,d4]>")