chordy is a DSL written in Ruby for printing guitar chord diagrams. A chordy script produces output that looks like a song with various chords, sections and notes.
It supports all chord families and most chord types. Variations in a note, such as a palm-mute or a trill, are also supported.
Formatting options are also provided.
Ruby Gems is required. Run gem install chordy to install the gem.
After installing the chordy gem, you can start chordy in an interactive mode through irb. You can declare chords to play using the play function.
$ irb -r chordy irb(main):001:0> play C E [--3-] A [--3-] D [--2-] G [--0-] B [--1-] E [--0-] => #<C:0x4d896f8 @flags=0, @strings=[3, 3, 2, 0, 1, 0], @type=:major> irb(main):002:0> play EFlat E [--3-----] A [--3---1-] D [--2---1-] G [--0---3-] B [--1---4-] E [--0---3-] => #<DSharp:0x4d7afc8 @flags=0, @strings=[-1, 1, 1, 3, 4, 3], @type=:major> irb(main):003:0>
To specify a chord type such a minor or a suspended chord, specify a second parameter such as :minor or :suspended_4. The chord type can also specified in a shorter way like :m or :sus4. Note that the default for this parameter is :major, which is shortened to :M. This wiki page contains a complete listing of all chord families and types.
irb(main):001:0> play C, :minor E [----] A [--3-] D [--1-] G [--0-] B [--4-] E [--3-] => #<C:0xb72e1924 @flags=0, @strings=[-1, 3, 1, 0, 4, 3], @type=:minor> irb(main):002:0> play E, :sus4 E [------0-] A [--3---2-] D [--1---2-] G [--0---2-] B [--4---0-] E [--3---0-] => #<E:0xb72df138 @flags=0, @strings=[0, 2, 2, 2, 0, 0], @type=:suspended_4> irb(main):003:0>
A chord can also be described in terms of it’s strings, by just passing an array of integers to the play function.
irb(main):001:0> play [5] E [--5-] A [----] D [----] G [----] B [----] E [----] => #<Chord:0xb726e2e4 @strings=[5, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1], @flags=0> irb(main):002:0> play [2, 4, 4] E [--5---2-] A [------4-] D [------4-] G [--------] B [--------] E [--------] => #<Chord:0xb726b01c @strings=[2, 4, 4, -1, -1, -1], @flags=0> irb(main):003:0>
You can also play variations in notes, such as a muted chord or a harmonic. To play a variation, you can either use the play function suffixed with the variation name to play. Alternatively, you could use the name of the variation itself as a function, which takes a block of chords to be played. For example, the play_mute function plays a muted chord, and the slide_down function plays multiple chords with a slide down. This wiki page contains a complete listing of all supported varations.
irb(main):001:0> play_mute A
E [--0-]
A [--0-]
D [--2-]
G [--2-]
B [--2-]
E [--0-]
M
=> #<A:0x4d85018 @flags=1, @strings=[0, 0, 2, 2, 2, 0], @type=:major>
irb(main):002:0> slide_down {
irb(main):003:1* play [2, 2, 4]
irb(main):004:1> play [4, 4, 6]
irb(main):005:1> }
E [--0---2\--4\]
A [--0---2\--4\]
D [--2---4\--6\]
G [--2---------]
B [--2---------]
E [--0---------]
M
=> #<Chord:0x4d4a1a0 @flags=32, @strings=[4, 4, 6, -1, -1, -1]>
irb(main):006:0>
Chordy also supports different tunings. The tune function can be used to change the tuning, and has to be supplied with a tuning parameter. A tuning is represented as a variable prefixed with tuning_, followed by the number of strings in the tuning and the name of the tuning. For example, tuning_7_a represents A-tuning on a 7-string instrument. This wiki page contains a complete listing of all supported tunings.
irb(main):001:0> tuning_7_a => ["a", "d", "g", "c", "f", "a", "d"] irb(main):002:0> tune tuning_7_a => nil irb(main):003:0> play C A [----] D [--3-] G [--3-] C [--2-] F [--0-] A [--1-] D [--0-] => #<C:0x4d67018 @flags=0, @strings=[-1, 3, 3, 2, 0, 1, 0], @type=:major> irb(main):004:0>
You could also script the chords to play by using require 'chordy_script'. Just be sure to call print_chords. Here’s a sample chordy script.
# 'sample.rb' require 'chordy_script' play :C play "E" play :C, :m play "E", "minor" play [-1, 3, 3, 2, 0, 1, -1] play [-1, 0, 2, 2] print_chords
Here’s what the output of the script looks like.
$ ruby -r rubygems sample.rb E [--3---0-------0--|--3-----] A [--3---2---3---2--|--3---0-] D [--2---2---1---2--|--2---2-] G [--0---1---0---0--|--0---2-] B [--1---0---4---0--|--1-----] E [--0---0---3---0--|--------]
Text can be added by using text. To provide structure to your output, use section to separate chords. Here’s the previous script with some text and sections.
# sample.rb require 'chordy_script' text "Some tune" section "Intro" play :C play "E" section "Phrase 1" play :C, :m play "E", "minor" section "Phrase 2" play [-1, 3, 3, 2, 0, 1, -1] play [-1, 0, 2, 2] print_chords
Here’s the output of the modified script.
$ ruby -r rubygems sample.rb Some tune --Intro--------------------------------- E [--3---0-] A [--3---2-] D [--2---2-] G [--0---1-] B [--1---0-] E [--0---0-] --Phrase 1------------------------------ E [------0-] A [--3---2-] D [--1---2-] G [--0---0-] B [--4---0-] E [--3---0-] --Phrase 2------------------------------ E [--3-----] A [--3---0-] D [--2---2-] G [--0---2-] B [--1-----] E [--------]
Visit the wiki for more information. To generate the API documentation, use rake rdoc.
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