GUITAR SCANNERÒ

GUITAR SCANNERÒ

In spite of its name, GUITAR SCANNER can be adapted to any kind of stringed instrument, from 3 to 9 strings in any tuning.

GUITAR SCANNER is a true finder of scales, chords and arpeggios fingerings. It's not a fingering diccionary, nor a book, neither a chord guide. It generates all fingerings at real time, by means of a fractal search method which obtains ABSOLUTELY ALL possible fingerings of ANY scale, chord or arpeggio.

But its inherent potency consists not only in this, but in its capacity to "filter" this combinable immensity, based on stringed instruments concepts. By that the fingerings can be organized in order to study them from different viewpoints, and be adapted to the level of the musician.

The huble major scale, in a 15-fret guitar, yields more than 44.000 fingerings, and a simple major chord about 7.000. How then could you accomplish the study of this subjects?

Here you will get the answer.

Here are some of the characteristics of GUITAR SCANNER:

It works for any instrument from 3 to 9 strings, in any intonation. It provides the configurations for about 30 string instruments, as well as alternative intonations for many of them.

It is not limited to any file of formulas. Any scale, chord or arpeggio can be found out with this program.

Anyhow, 124 scale formulas, and 37 chord types are provided, with each its file, which can be expanded and edited by the user.

Search for chords through obligated string patterns, with control of the inversion of the chords, and the repetition and/or omission of notes.

Functions which give you the total control over the practicability of the obtained chord fingerings. You can fix the number of fingers you need to play the fingering, as well as the number of allowed barres.

The range for the number of fingers starts with 1 finger (useful for persons who have a physical handicap, or investigaters of the "slide") and continues until 9 fingers (for people who practise "tapping")

Search for chords taking into account the open strings (fret 0), which allows to get fingerings of great sonority, oriented to specific tonalities.

Search for chords through adjoining strings range, which enables to get and organize the totality of the possible fingerings of any chord.

2 methods to obtain scales and arpeggios.

The vertical method, oriented to obtain vertical fingerings, limited by a top number of frets, in order to minimize the movements of the hand which plays the scale or arpeggio.

For high values of the fret width, this method allows to humanize the fingerings in order to convert them to confortable long-run fingerings.

The notes per string method, allows to fix the number of notes which each string should have. This makes the work of the hand which presses the strings easier, because the obtained fingerings are subdued to a regular cycle.

Management of study pages, which allows to mix diagrams from the 3 work modes (scales, chords and arppegios), and to edit text.

Orientation of the diagrams is totally configurable (6 orientations).

Available in 3 languages: spanish, catalan and english.

None of the obtained fingerings is registrated in any place. All of them are found at once by the program. The type of chords and scales to search for, are not limited by the supplied formula files (which can be expanded and edited). The user can invent a new chord or a new scale, and search for its convenient fingerings.

This program is directed to instrument players of all levels, but first of all to these who have planned seriously to get knowledge about their instruments.

The first thing you have to do is to configurate the orientation of the diagrams according to your viewpoint.

The CONFIGURATION menu gives access, among other things, to this function. Save your configuration as the predeterminated one, and thereby you avoid the obligation to do the changes every time you work with the program.

The F1 key, provides help at any point of the program. Strike it whenever you have any doubt.

GUITAR SCANNER works in 3 basic modes (working modes): scales, chords and arpeggios. All three work in a similiar way. They consist of a filter filling card which allow to "mould" the fingerings you want to obtain.

Once you have completed the filter filling card, the inspection of the fingerboard in search of the fingerings that surpass the given specifications, will start by pressing the TAB key.

You can change from one mode to another by means of the MODE menu. When you return to one mode, the condition of the windows and the information you already have obtained will be the same as when you left it.

If there is a fingering among the obtained ones which finds your interest, you may copy it in a separated diagram window (no matter the working mode used), called "study page". In the studypage you may include diagrams of the three working modes, and you may edit it like a text file.

It provides with the program 10 commented examples for each working mode, as well as 10 study pages. It must to be opened with the OPEN command of the FILE menu. Study them is a good way to familiarize with the functioning of the program.

This is the filter filling card of the chord mode:

By adjusting conveniently the value of these filters, you can generate and organize the totality of fingerings of any chord which are possible with your instrument.

Consult DIAGRAMS of the CONFIGURATION menu, in order to obtain information about how the obtained fingerings are represented.

In the bottom line of the screen you can see the name of the keys which give access to the mode functions. From the filter filling card, the active keys are the following ones:

ESC: Returns to main menu.

TAB: Shifts between the filter filling card and the diagrams window. If the diagrams window is empty, the TAB key starts the search for the fingerings.

In the following the working of each filter will be described.

Name of the chord to search for. With the combination

of the keys CTRL + down arrow, a chord types list is deployed. This list corresponds to the chords' formulas database. You will get access to it from the FILE menu.

When you select one type (by pressing ENTER on the chord you wish), the notes which compose the chord will be automatically written in the next filter Notes. If you don't specify the name of a keynote previously to the deployment of the list, it will be assumed that C (Do) is the keynote of the chord.

You may leave this filter empty, and type manually the notes to search for on the next filter.

These are the notes GUITAR SCANNER will examin on the fingerboard in order to find out the fingerings. The first of them is about the keynote.

You can directly type the notes you are looking for in this filter, without having to select a type of chord in the preceding filter.

If you type the notes manually, you have to do it according to the nomenclature system as presented in CONFIGURATION >HARMONY, and thereby observing the following indications:

Notes must be typed separated by commas, and you may type it in capital or small letters.

The flat is represented by a "b", and the dubble flat by two "b", no matter if in capital or small letters.

The sharp is represented by its corresponding character "#" (AltGr + 3 in most keyboards).

The dubble sharp is represented by the character "%".

You can omit notes of any kind of chord, simply by deleting them from this filter. For example, the C 13 chord contains the notes C, E, G, Bb, D, F, A. Evidently, with an instrument of 6 or less strings, we will be unable to play a chord of 7 notes. In fact, this is neither desirable, because we would obtain a very difficult sonority. That is why it will be necessary to omit one or more notes.

The Omitable notes filter provides a more flexible method for the omission of notes.

At least 2 notes are required in order that the program starts searching.

In this filter you may specify an obligated order of the voices of the chord, which the fingerings you have found have to fullfill, in order to be accepted. This will eliminate very many fingerings, and it is useful to localize on the fingerboard a chord written in a stave, or to build lines of harmonical continuity.

If you don't want to specify any obligated order, simply leave this filter empty.

This filter allows to study the types of chords through inversions.

If you want the fingerings in their fundamental position, you have to type the keynote of the chord in this filter. If you want to study their first inversion, you have to type the third one, and so on.

If no note in the bass is specified, all inversions will be accepted, which will increase the number of the obtained fingerings considerably.

If you don't understand the purpose of this filter, you have to arrange a coincidence between its value and the keynote of the chord (first note of the Notes filter)

This filter controls the appearance or not appearance of repeated notes in the obtained fingerings.

Press any key to change its value. Normally you admit repeated notes when you are looking for simple chords, and you exclude them when you are looking for chords of more than 3 notes.

Through this filter you can decide if all the notes of the specified chord have to appear in the obtained fingerings, or if, on the contrary, some of them can be omited. That is to say, the fingerings which contain all notes, and even these which don't have some of the specified notes in this filter, will be accepted.

Leave this filter empty if you look for a simple chord (3 or 4 notes).

Its specially useful if you look for chords of more than 3 notes, and above all, to look for chords which have more notes than the number of available strings. We have already seen that we can master this problem by eliminating notes of the Notes filter, but this obligates us to exclude definitly one or more notes of the chord.

With this filter, we can specify a list of notes which can occasionally be omitted, and it will be the program itself which decides, depending on the inspected part of the fingerboard, which notes will be eliminated.

For example, look for the chord C 9 (C, E, G, Bb, D) in a string pattern "5432" (see String pattern), and type the notes G and E in this filter.

You will obtain fingerings in which, in some cases, the note G will be missing, and in others the note E, depending on the part of the fingerboard where they are found. This allows to think about different possibilities to omit the notes in one sole inspection on the fingerboard.

This filter decides which strings will be inspected in the process of searching for fingerings. A serie of string numbers have to be fixed. The strings will be numbered from high to low.

This is very useful for the study of the chord types, because one of the methods to organize the big number of existing fingerings consists in ordering them in groups of obligated strings pattern, in order to equalize the number of strings with the number of the voices of the chord.

On the one hand, this allows us to simplify the sonority of the chord, to put it by ear. Furthermore it helps us to organize the fingerings of a chord according to the distribution of the voices, because for different strings pattern, we will also get different distributions of the voices.

It allows us even to control in a measure the sonority of the fingerings. For example, with a guitar, and the "6432" pattern for a chord of 4 notes, we would get fingerings with 3 notes of the chord together, and the low one at a considerable distance, which would strengthen its function as the regulator of the chord.

In order to give even more emphasis to this effect, try with the pattern "6321", which removes even more the low note from the rest.

Don’t fail to try audacious patterns, as the "6532", full of jazzy resonances...

This kind of fingerings are specially interesting for the interpretation of solos.

This filter, in an ordered way and manner, brings you near the combinatorial abyss of your instrument. It is based on the controlled development of string patterns. You exercise this control by specifying the minimal and maximal number of adjoining strings which may contain notes of the chord you are looking for. Through this, we succeed in communicating to GUITAR SCANNER things like, for example, you want that all the strings contain a note, or that you want only fingerings with three notes together and another low one isolate, or that you are searching for fingerings that have at less 4 notes in adjoining strings, and so on.

Some examples for guitar will make this matter clearer:

If you type Min: 6 and Max: 6, you will get only those fingerings which use all the 6 strings of the guitar. Any fingering in which some string doesn't have a note will be accepted.

By specifying for a triad chord (3 notes) Min: 3 and Max: 3, you will obtain all those fingerings in which the three voices of the chord are together, however the resulting strings pattern may be.

With the values Min: 1 and Max: 1, you will obtain fingerings whose tones will be always separated by one or more empty strings.

By specifying diferent values for the minimum and the maximum, we can expand the number of strings patterns. For example, in order to find simple fingerings of a major chord, set Repeated notes on, fix the tonic at bass, and type Min: 4 and Max: 6. You will get the most common major chord forms.

If you type Min: 1 and Max: 6, you will obtain ALL fingerings which are possible for the chord you are looking for, that means the ones which even surpass the other filters.

In how many different ways can you play the C major chord with your instrument ?

Because of the form of our hand, it is much more comfortable to play a chord in the strings pattern "6432" than in the "6542" one.

By producing combinations of the strings patterns with the filter Adjoining strings, there will appear fingerings which are really uncomfortable, in which we have to play notes together in the bass, and isolated notes in the high register.

This filter allows to eliminate these fingerings.

Press any key to switch the 3 values which admits: High, Low and Indifferent, which indicates in which position the adjoining strings will appear.

This filter allows to fix the maximum number of fingers which are necessary to play the obtained fingerings.

Its value can be between 1 and 9.

This is very useful for persons who have physical problems or handicaps with the hand that plays the chords, because it allows to investigate their instrument in search for the fingerings which can be adapted to their problem.

In these cases, the combination of this filter with the one of Open strings is very useful.

There are near 30 fingerings of the C major chord, practicable with one sole finger!

What would has happened if Django Reindhard had had this program?

Another application of this filter is to search for the optimal fingerings to play with slide. Values from 1 or 2 could be appropiate for this purpose.

In a contrary sense, this filter allows to find capable fingerings for musicians who play tapping, because it considers up to 9 fingers. In this case, it could be necessary to specify a high value for the number of frets, with the purpose that the notes which one hand plays and the notes the other hand plays, are sufficiently far from each other.

Limits the number of barres which are admitted for the fingerings.

The highest value depends obviously on the number of specified fingers in the previous filter, and also on the number of strings of your instrument.

By fixing its value at 0, for instance, you would get fingerings in which no barres are necessary.

By fixing the value at 4, up to 4 barres are permitted.

If a chord is practicable or not is determined only by this filter and the number of fingers specified in Fingers, hereby not considering other factors, given that hands have many different sizes, there are musicians of many levels, and therefore a fingering may be practicable for certain persons and for others not.

Anyhow, barres are not looked for in any order. GUITAR SCANNER begins to search for those which, at first, are easier.

Barres are not written in the diagrams if it isn't strictly necessary and it is possible to omit its visualization in the diagrams, by means of the options of visualization. To these you will get access from the CONFIGURATION menu.

Decides the top width, in frets, that the obtained fingerings should have. This depends on the instrument you study, on the length of the hand which plays the chord, and the ability of the musician.

With a guitar, a value of 4 keeps you inside the normality, whilst on a mandolin, this value will be higher.

It's also interesting to experiment with other values. For example, if you type in this filter 1, you can search for super simple fingerings on the fingerboard of your instrument.

In the contrary sense, if you specify the value 15 (the maximal number of frets admitted), you can take a look at the combinatorial abyss of your instrument.

By activating this filter, the notes which are on the fret 0 (notes which you don't have to press in order to achieve a sound) of the chord you are searching for, will be taken into consideration. Hereby you can augment substantialy the number of fingerings which may be yielded, depending on the number of notes on the fret 0 which belong to the chord.

This allows you to achieve fingerings of a big sonority, oriented to specific tonalities.

Try for example to find fingerings of the chord E -7 on a guitar, by activating this filter.

If you press the TAB key from the filter filling card, the search of fingerings on the fingerboard will be started. You can stop this process by pressing the ESC key.

In the line above on the screen, two counters will be visualized:

Fingerings: It registers the number of fingerings which have surpassed the filters. Thereby, it indicates the number of fingerings written at the diagrams window.

Rejected ones: It registers the number of fingerings which have not surpassed the practicability filters: Fingers and Barres.

These diagrams don't appear in the window. If you want to see them, simply augment the value of these filters .

When you finish the searching process, the control passes to the diagrams window. The activated keys from this window are the following.

ESC: Returns to main menu.

TAB: Shifts between the diagrams window and the filter filling card.

F5: Augments the size of the window.

F6: Reduces the size of the window.

F7: Activates the printing dialogue box, from where you can select information about what you want to print. You can print the fingerboard with the notes of the chord you are looking for, the filter filling card, the obtained diagrams, as well as a heading text.

HOME: Positions the window at the beginning.

END: Positions the window at the end.

PAGE UP: Goes one page (number of visible lines) back.

PAGE DOWN: Goes one page forward.

CTRL + cursor: Pressing CTRL in combination with the cursor keys, the diagrams selecting cross (-+-) can be moved through the window.

ENTER: Copies the diagram marked by the selecting cross, in the studypage.

Consult the chapter of the studypage for further information.

This is the filters filling card for the modes of scales and arpeggios.

Both work with the same filters filling card, because the differences between the first and the second are minimal.

By adjusting conveniently the value of these filters, you can generate and organize the totality of possible fingerings of any scale or arpeggio on your instrument.

Consult DIAGRAMS of the CONFIGURATION menu, to get information about how the obtained fingerings are represented.

In the line above on the screen, the name of the keys which give access to the mode functions are visualized. From the filters filling card, the activated keys are the following:

ESC: Returns to main menu.

TAB: Shifts between the filter filling card and the diagrams window. If the diagrams window is empty, the TAB key starts the search for the fingerings.

In the following the working of each filter will be described.

The name of the scale or arpeggio you are searching for. With the combination of the keys CTRL + down arrow, a list box of the registered scale/arpeggio types will be displayed. In the arpeggio mode, the displayed list corresponds to the chords type database, while in the scale mode, the list you obtain belongs to the scales database file.

You can get access to this files from the FILE menu.

When you select a type (by pressing ENTER on the one you wish), the notes which compose the scale/arpeggio will be automatically written in the next filter Notes. If the name of a keynote isn't specified before the disployment of the list, the C (Do) is assumed as the keynote.

You may leave this filter empty, and type the notes you want to search for manually in the next filter.

These are the notes which the GUITAR SCANNER is searching for on the fingerboard in order to find fingerings. The first one it will be considerated the keynote.

You can type the notes you want to look for directly into this filter, without having to select a type from the list box from the previous filter.

If you type the notes manually, you have to make it according to the system of the nomenclature which is specified in CONFIGURATION->ENHARMONY, and you have thereby to attend the following indications:

Notes must be typed separated by commas, and you may type it in capital or small letters.

The flat is represented by a "b", and the dubble flat by two "b", no matter if in capital or small letters.

The sharp is represented by its corresponding character "#" (AltGr + 3 in most keyboards).

The dubble sharp is represented by the character "%".

 

At least 2 notes are required in order that the program starts searching.

GUITAR SCANNER puts in order the notes of this filter automatically. This could be an inconvenience when you are searching for arpeggios in an area higher than one octave. The ordering of notes can be inhibited in the arpeggio mode, by leaving the filter ARPEGGIO empty, and writting manually the notes to search for in the NOTES filter.

Fit the lowest note of the fingerings.

Allows to separate the fingerings whose first note is the keynote, from the ones which start with another note.

Decide on which strings the specified scales/arpeggios will be looked for.

In contrary to the mode of chords, only correlative strings patterns will be admitted, because it is not very meaningful to search for fingerings with isolated strings.

Anyhow, in the process of searching, you will obtain fingerings which have string jumps, whose admission or removal is controlled by means of the filter String jump.

You can use this filter in order to limite the length of the obtained fingerings. This allows you, for instance, to think about the study of a scale from fingerings of one sole octave, and connect them once they are assimilated. The Format filter changed to Notes per string, allows to connect 2 or more fingerings to one. Below it will be explained how.

GUITAR SCANNER offers 2 methods to find scales and arpeggios. The vertical method, and the notes per string method. You can shift between them from the Format filter by pressing any key.

The vertical method consists in a search for fingerings, which are limited by a given number of frets. When you have selected this method, the Frets filter will be activated, from where you can specify this value.

In contrary to the chords mode, the number of frets of width doesn't represent a maximum value, but only the fingerings with the specified width will be admitted.

Anyhow, you can specify even the frets width by means of a list of numbers (separated by commas ","), or by an interval (fixed by 2 numbers separated by a hyphen "-"), with the purpose to accept fingerings of several widths.

When you have selected this method, the Area filter is also activated. This filter allows you to define which area of the fingerboard will be inspected. For further information, consult the given explanations for this filter in the chord chapter.

The vertical method, as it name indicates, is traced out with the intention to obtain fingerings which minimize the movements of the hand which plays the notes on the fingerboard.

With a conventional guitar intonation, and for a major scale, the value 4 will produce very comfortable fingerings, in which every finger will play notes on one sole fret.

The bigger the frets width, more fingerings you will obtain, more difficult to play they will be, and more absurd will the fingering marking vertical be, which only has sense for little values.

Anyhow, by specifying high values, you will get access to the totality of the fingerings which are possible on your instrument, and you can dive into an endless list of unexpected fingerings.

But most of these fingerings are not much practical, difficult to perform and almost absurds. The Frets filter offers an additional utility to convert this heap of outlandish fingerings into useful long-run fingerings. It lies in the specification of the number of notes per string that the obtained fingerings must have. This can be done by a list of values (separated by commas ","), or by an interval (fixed by 2 numbers separated by a hyphen "-", which indicate a minimum and a maximum). You must type this information behind the frets specification, separaded from it with a diagonal bar ("/").

One example will clarify the matter:

Search for major scale fingerings, and type 8-10/3-4 at the Frets filter. This means: All the fingerings from 8 to 10 fret width will be accepted, but only those which have only 3 or 4 notes per string. This generates fabulous effects, since all the obtained fingerings are perfectly practicables and comfortables.

For a pentatonic scale, the value 3-4 of the example, it could not be optimous. Maybe 2-3 was better.

So, this annexe of the FRETS filter, allow us to humanize the search of long-run fingerings, and save us to have to look for useful fingerings into too much long listings.

How many fingerings do exist on your instrument for a major scale?

The Notes per strings method, allows to set a fixed scheme for the search, based on the number of notes which each string should have.

This kind of fingerings facilitate notably your work with the hand which plays the strings, as well with the pick, as with your fingers, because the fingering is subdued to a regular cycle in its whole extent.

When you have selected this method, the Scheme filter is activated. It consists of a scheme which represents the strings of your instrument, and allows to specify the number of notes that each of them should contain.

If you don't fill in the scheme completely, it is understood that the started part will be repeated until the scheme is completed.

On a guitar, for instance, the fingerings of a major scale with 3 notes on every string, opens you the door at the velocity of the heptatonic scales.

The scheme "3-4", generates for these scales comfortable fingerings of more than 3 octaves.

The scheme "3-2", will get the same result for pentatonic scales.

Taking in account that you can specify string by string the notes which have to be played on every string, you can isolate to your own convenience, one sole fingering among thousands.

This is very useful if you want to connect 2 or more remoted fingerings to one sole.

You can for example examine two vertical fingerings, one in the low register and one in the high one. By observing the position of the notes of the intermediate fingerings, you can trace out diverses ways to connect them, by means of the scheme notes per string. You can in this way mould the final form of the fingering, with the purpose to achieve the most comfortable one for your capacities.

This filter allows you to eliminate those fingerings in which not all the strings which are specified in the filter STRINGS PATTERN are used.

Change its value by pressing any key.

When you search for fingerings with the Notes per string method, or with the Vertical method with high values for the fret width, you will obtain fingerings in which you have 2 correlative notes separated by one or more empty strings, which will make its practicability more complicated, because in a conventional intonation this will, in order to play it, obligate you to carry out a sudden change of the position.

This filter allows you to accept or exclude this kind of fingerings.

Anyhow, you have got another option. The difficulty of these fingerings can disappear (at least partly), if the string jump happens over an open string (fret 0), because you have time to change the position quite easily, because you don't have to press the note in question.

In this way you can profit this particularity to obtain fingerings which allow you to realize comfortably a sudden register change.

Shift between the 3 possibilities by pressing any key.

Consult the chapter about the diagrams window from the chord mode. It works in an identical way. The only difference is about the counters in the line above of the screen. In the scale and arpeggio modes, there doesn’t appear the counter of excluded fingerings, because there don't exist practicability filters in these modes.

From this menu, you can manage the files which are generated by the program, as well as the provided formula databases of scales and chords.

Here to follow the working of every option will be described.

The formulas consist of a list of intervals which generate a kind of scale or chord from any note.

All the major chords, for example, will be obtained from the formula of intervals 1,3,5 (keynote, major third and perfect fifth). If you take C as the keynote, you will get as an result that the C major chord is composed by the notes C, E and G.

GUITAR SCANNER disposes of a database of formulas of scales, and of other of chords/arpeggios. The types which are registred here are the ones which appear in the drop list boxes of the working modes.

This are the supplied types:

Scales: algerian, altered, arab (2), augmented (2), balinese (2), be-bop (3), byzantine (2), blues (2), corean (2), chromatic,

diminished (2), dubble harmonic, doric, altered doric, egypt, enigmatic (3), spanish (3), etiopian (2), phrygian, phrygian #6,

major phrygian, phrygian spanish, major harmonic, hawaian (2), hindu (10), hispano-arab, hungarian (4), Hindustan, israeli (2), japanese (16), javanese (3), jazz minor, lydian, lydian b7, lydian diminished, locrian, mohammedan (2), major, major locrian, minor, harmonic minor, melodic minor, mixolydian, napolitanian (3), oriental (2), overtone, pelog, pentatonic alt. b5, pentatonic alt. b6, pentatonic alt. b2, pentatonic alt. b3 b6, dominant pentatonic (2), pentatonic major (2), pentatonic minor (4), persian (2), rumanian, symetrical (2), Skriabin (2), super-locrian, Tcherepnin, tonal, tritonic, chinese (2) and gypsy (2).

Chords: Major, Maj7, Maj7/9, Maj7/9/#11, Maj7/9/#11,13, -, -6, -7, -7/9, -7/9/11, -7/b5, -Maj7, 6, 7, 7/#5, 7/#5,#9, 7/#9, 7/9, 7/9/#11, 7/9/#11,13, 7/b5, 7/b5,#9, 7/b5,b9, 7/b9, 7/b9/b13, dim, dim 7, sus 2, sus 4, sus 4/7, sus 4/7/9, +, +7, +7/b9 and +Maj7

In the case there should happen by accident any damage with this files, you can recover them by deleting them from the hard disc. When you start once more the program, it will be created again. Its names are: ACORDS.DBF and ESCALES.DBF.

The F8 key shifts between the scales database and the one of chords. With the usual key for the movements of the cursor, you can turn over the pages of the active file on the screen. With the keys right arrow and left arrow you can select the functions of maintenance which are visualized in the bottom of the screen. You activate them by pressing ENTER over them.

These functions are the following ones:

Add: It allows to add registers to the active database. When you select this function, a new register will be created to be edit it. First you have to enter a name for the new type, and thereafter, a serie of intervals and press ENTER to valid the introduced data.

Edit: It allows to modify the selected record.

Delete: It deletes the selected register from the activated database.

Order: It shifts between the order of the types, ordered by its name or by its formula. To localize types by its name, the first

order is convenient, while the second one is useful to localize synonymous types, above all in the case of the scales, because many scales which have a different name have the same interval-structure. A pentatonic minor scale, for example, is equivalent to a japanese scale. To prove if a scale has any synonymous type, you have to select it with the scroll bar, and then change the order of the file to by formula. In this way all the types which have the same formula will appear together. In a similar way, the same chord can be named in different ways.

Print: It prints the formulas from the activated database. The list will be printed by the current order.

It allows to open the works from the 3 different working modes which have been saved during previous works, furthermore the studypage, and the configuration of GUITAR SCANNER.

Here to follow the dialog box of the OPEN command is described.

File type: By pressing any key you can shift between the different files which you can choose, which are the following: Chord fingerings, Scale fingerings, Arpeggio fingerings, Study page and Configuration. Any of them has asigned a different extention. In this way we can use the same name for different types of files.

Path: Directory where you look for the files to open. When you type a directory, a list of files of the specified type will be visualized.

Name: Name of the file which you want to open. It can be directly specified, or selected from the file list by pressing the ENTER key over it.

ESC: Cancels the opening process.

TAB: Allows to skip from one field to another.

DEL: Removes from the disc the selected file of the files list.

It allows to save the done work so that you always have a connection link in your next working session. The adaptations which you have made by means of the CONFIGURATION menu may also be saved in files. One of these can be set as default configuration file.

The files are saved with a different extension for every type, which allows to use the same name for different type of files. It isn't necessary to specify these extensions in the moment of saving. They will be asigned automatically. You find them here below:

The diagrams windows are saved in a seperate file with the same name, but with the extensions .SXT, .CXT, .AXT and .PXT respectively.

Here to follow the dialog box of the command SAVE is described.

File Type: By pressing any key, you shift between the different

types of files which you can save. Only appear those in which you have been working with in the current working session.

Path: Directory where the file will be saved. When you type a directory, a list of files of the specified type will be visualized.

Name: Name of the file to save. You can specify it directly, or selecting it from the files list, in case that you wish to over-write it. When you have specified the name of a file, you can save with it some lines with commentaries which explain its contents.

ESC: Cancels the saving process.

TAB: Allows to skip from one field to another, and confirms the saving of the file, once it has a name.

DEL: Removes from the disc the selected file of the files list.

The diagrams windows are saved in a special format, which the text processers don't recognize. This function converts the diagrams files into text files (ASCII), which you can edit with any ordinary text processor.

These are the options in the dialogue box:

File to convert: By pressing any key, you shift between the activated working modes, and the study page (if it contains any diagram). If you want to convert a disk file, it will be necessary to open it before with the OPEN command.

Name of the text file: Here you specify the name which you want to give to the text file that will be created. If no directory or unit is specified, the file will be created into the current directory.

The TAB key starts the process of conversion.

Changes between the scale, the chord and the arpeggio mode. The mode which you leave will be conserved with all the datas and the achieved diagrams.

The working of the modes is described in the beginning of this guide.

The study page allows to include in one sole window, the diagrams you wish of any of the 3 working modes. Consult the chapter about the diagrams window of the chord mode to obtain information about how to do it.

It can be edited as a text file, in order to especify exercices, optimal fingerings, names, etc.

The active keys of the study page are the following ones:

ESC: Returns to the main menu.

F7: Prints the studypage.

F8: Deletes the contents of the study page, in order to create a new one.

Cursor keys: Allow the scroll of the window. In combination with the CTRL key, allow to move the text cursor through the window.

CTRL + Y: Deletes the current row from the cursor position to the end of the line.

The studypage is a tool of great utility for the organization of the fingerings from different points of view.

One example: Copy to the study page a comfortable fingering of the major scale, obtained from the scale mode. You shift now to the arpeggio mode, and search with the same filters which you have used when you obtained the scale fingering, the arpeggio "Maj7". Search among the diagrams you have obtained, for the one which you play in the same position as the scale fingering, and copy it to the study page. Now you look for the rest of the diatonical arpeggios, and copy them one after the other, orderedly.

If you have done this correctly, you will have got the study page, a diagram of the major scale, and the fingerings of all the arpeggios which it contains. By studying this fingerings (7 arpeggios and one scale), you will achieve the necessary knowledge to improvise over any diatonical chord sequence, without changing the position of the hand which presses the strings on the fingerboard.

A typical example for guitar players: obtain the diatonic 7th.

chords with the strings pattern "6432", in its 3 inversions. Start looking for the chord "Maj7", with the tonic in the bass. You will obtain a fingering. Copy it to the study page. Do the same with the rest of the diatonical chords, and repeat the process with the rest of the inversions.

By continuing the chords study, you could think about this matter from another perspective, and study the same kind of chords in different strings patterns, or pick up all the fingerings with the same order of voices, or put together in a page, hereby combining fingerings of chords and its corresponding arpeggios, or you could make pages of harmonized scales, etc...

By means of the options of this menu, you can shape GUITAR SCANNER according to your preferences.

GUITAR SCANNER has been made out of the necessity to organize guitar studies. Anyhow, its utility reaches to any instrument from 3 to 9 strings, in any intonation. With this program the configuration files for 30 instruments are procured, with alternative intonations for many of them.

You have to load these files as configuration files from FILE -> OPEN.

Are the following ones:

Balalaika, bandola, bandolón, bandurria, banjo (8), bass of 4 and 5 strings, bozouki (2), cavaquinho, charango, cuatro, dulcimer, guitar (6), 8-string guitar, portuguese guitar, hawayan guitar (4), 8-string hawayan guitar, guitarró, jarana, lute, mandola, mandolin (2), sitar (3), 6,8 and 9-string steel guitar, timple, tres (3), ukelele (2), 4,5,6 and 7 string-vihuela and vihuelita.

The INSTRUMENT configuration dialogue box asks you for the number of strings and the intonation of each of them.

The TAB key validates the instrument change, and the ESC key cancells the process.

The diagrams which you obtained with the 3 working modes can be presented in 6 orientations, in order to adapt them to your viewpoint. Even the fingerboard which you can see in the part above of the main screen can change its orientation, although it always will be presented horizontally.

When you have selected DIAGRAMS from the CONFIGURATION menu, you have to select the kind of diagram whose orientation you wish to change. The 6 possible orientations will appear on the screen. Select one with TAB or ENTER. The diagrams of each working mode may have their own particular orientation.

The representation of the fingerings may show some differences depending on if they are from chords or scales:

Chords:

The roman numeral which appears at the side of the diagrams, indicate the position (fret) in which you must play the chord. If not indicated, it means that the fingering is played on the first frets of the instrument. You can inhibit its visualization by means of the OPTIONS of the CONFIGURATION menu.

The interval which exists between the tonic note and the note on the string is indicated in the beginning of every string. You can inhibit its visualization.

The strings which don't contain any note are always marked by an "x"

The open string notes (fret 0), are not represented by any character. A string without "x" and without any other note indicates that it should sound from the fret 0.

The keynotes are presented by "*", and the rest of them with "· ", except the barres. You can change these characters by means of the options of the CONFIGURATION menu.

 

Scales:

The keynotes are represented by "*", and the rest of the notes by "· ", including those played at fret 0, which are visualized outside of the diagram.

The string which don't have any note, don't have any indication.

As well as refering to chords, the position isvisualized by a roman numeral, if the fingering is played more far away from the first frets.

 

 

It allows to configurate the aspect of the obtained diagrams. They can be represented in 3 sizes, in order to adapt the visualization to the work on the screen or on paper.

Even the characters which you use to represent the notes can be changed, furthermore the tonics and the barres, if the original characters don't correspond to the character table which your computer is using.

You can even shape what additional information will appear visualized in the diagrams (position, intervals and barres).

It is of special utility to inhibit the visualization of the position, because these allows to obtain generical diagrams which are not attached to any concrete tone. On the other hand, refering the the chord mode, its recommendable to preserve the visualization of the intervals, which helps us to understand how the voices of the chord are distributed.

GUITAR SCANNER is furnished with 2 nomenclature systems of notes: the traditional one (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, etc.) and the international one (C, D, E, F, etc.)

When you select one mode, the program won't recognize the other any longer. Said in another way, you can't mix the 2 systems when you enter new notes.

You may also shift from this menu between the representation on the fingerboard by default to the alterated notes (b or #).

GUITAR SCANNER disposes of the 5 colour combinations in order to adapt the program to your taste, or to your monitor.

GUITAR SCANNER can be run in three languages: spanish, catalan and english. Select one by pressing ENTER on it.

By pressing the F1 key, you will obtain information boxes which are noticeable to any context at any moment of your working with GUITAR SCANNER.

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