Guitar Chord Fretboard Display - makes little sense with the Chord Chart display

Scaler 2 General Discussion
1

Firstly - huge fan of Scalar and my first post here!

Like any others - Scalar is SO deep and so wide - I have been dipping my toe in very slowly over the last few months - pouring over David’s excellent videos and trying to get my bearings in here.

This weekends exploration was specifically around the recent (new) guitar features and I spent a lot of time reviewing this video:

Scaler 2.5 New Features | Suggest Mode, Guitar modes and Content - YouTube

Sometime frame by frame - to get a sense of what Scalar is doing with guitar display, chord view etc.

One thing that is very confusing right now is the clear divide between what I am seeing appear on the “guitar” view while building chords etc in Scalar (the fretboard view that appears when you click the Guitar icon in the upper left of the Scalar UI).

Right at the 12:17 mark in this video - David is explaining the appearance of the new Chord Charts with the C#Min into an AMaj and so on and says “clearly displaying WHERE on the fretboard to put your fingers to be able to play those chords”.

But when he clicks Play to start playback on this four chord sequence - the C#Min sound that comes out of Scalar - sprays notes (albeit correctly) making up a C#Minor chord all over the fretboard but exactly none of the “highlighted” notes on the Scalar fretboard match the shape of the actual C#Minor chord shown in the Chord Chart. Same for the AMaj chord and so on.

For example - at exactly 12:22 - Scalar does shows me a “correct” AMaj chord (but wayyy too high up on the fretboard version of an AMaj) - like I am hanging at the 12th fret all the time…

But shows nothing on the fret board to play a first position A like most normal players would do it - This is what I was hoping to see:

2022-03-28_08-40-46

But do not. Hoping that I am just missing some setting that says “Show me 1st position chords” or something similar.

Unless maybe - the chord chart that appears in Scalar - does not specifically match up for some other reason that I do not understand?

While the tech that Scalar is using to display the guitar stuff is truly amazing - guitar is my primary instrument and it would nice to see Scalar display a rote A chord exactly how I have played it for years (matching with the Chord Chart) so I have a bit of a home base and then start to warm up to the many different ways there really is to play an A chord all around the fretboard.

EDIT: I believe this video clip was showing Degrees instead of Notes. Tested it and yes - working!

Cheers

Sonic.

2

Hi @SonicMojo

The fretboard is showing the played MIDI so the highlighted notes will vary depending on the octave you are playing at.

The chord charts however will show you the “classic” position you are used to.

The usage is slightly different, the fretboard allows you to find all notes related to a scale and the multiple positions where you can find them. The chord chart however is “chord based” and will not be helpful if you are looking for individual notes, to play a solo part for example.

Both can be useful in their own way, I am not sure showing the same information in both places would make more sense.

I hope this makes sense,
Ed

3

“The chord charts however will show you the “classic” position you are used to”

Ed - understood and I get it.

I know how to play a basic C Chord, D Chord etc - but there are (many) times when I need Scalar to actually recreate that “classic” position chord (in it’s note data) when I decide I want to drag a chord into my DAW for example.

Ideally when I am kicking around ideas (solos or otherwise) I always start very basic and would love it if Scalar remained basic unless I need it to be more than than that.

If I start an idea with Grade 1 C, D and G chords in the first position on a guitar that is in my lap - it would be awesome to be able to “see” (and program) that exact “first position” sequence so I can send the MIDI data to my third party VST in my DAW (Say Orange Tree Samples Evolution Steel Strings) and have it play exactly what I just played - in the exact spot on the fretboard.

Right now I am finding that while Scalar handles the chord logic perfectly - it loves to get way too complicated (in both Guitar AND Keyboard mode).

Most of the time (without messing too much with Voicing) when exporting my C Chord - Scalar will send out note data from all over the place (5th fret, 7th fret etc) that sounds way too high and does not conform to what I need for a third party VST.

I have been dabbling with the different Voicing options and I am making some progress - at least with Evolution Steel Strings where exported chord data is starting the fall nicely into position. This however has been more trial and error and tends to divert my attention from the task at hand - which is getting some tasty first position chord ideas rolling quickly.

Let’s leave this as a feature request for a future update: Please allow Scalar to ONLY display First Position guitar chords and honor that same note data when exporting to the DAW.

Cheers

Sonic.

4

+1 for this feature request - definitely needed for us guitarists who love Scaler. For open chords, drone chords (with open strings), etc. - a way to play/preview the guitar chords exactly as we edit them on the fingerboard, and only those notes played in the position they’re in.

Thanks!