Chord MIDI Effect

Chord MIDi Effect

Live’s Chord MIDI effect is a powerful tool. It lets you play one note and create full chords. The built-in presets are great but don’t cover the full spectrum of basic chords. Download the cheat sheet at the bottom of the page to help you build any type of basic chord with ease, Without knowing any Music Theory. But if we already mentioned Theory, Lets talk about it for a second.

 

Theory

The Chord MIDI effect have 6 knobs. Each knob can add more notes on top of the note you are playing on your MIDI or Computer Keyboard. The knob values are “st” which stands for Semi-Tones.

Semi-Tones are the way we count the distances between two notes. The Distances are called Intervals.

We give each type of interval a name. For example:

The distance between the C note and the C# note is 1 Semi-Tone and that interval is called Minor 2nd.

So that means that the interval between G and G# is a Minor 2nd and the distance between F and Gb is a Minor 2nd and the distance between E and F is a Minor 2nd and so on.

Intervals

Here is a List of all the Intervals in one Octave (Which is actually also a name of an Interval):

*Remember that “st” stands for Semi-Tones

Unison – 0st

Minor2nd – 1st

Major 2nd – 2st

Minor 3rd – 3st

Major 3rd – 4st

Fourth – 5st

Tritone – 6st

Fifth – 7st

Minor 6th – 8st

Major 6th – 9st

Minor 7th – 10st

Major 7th – 11st

Octave – 12st

Check out this list of examples for the intervals in famous melodies.

Chords

Now lets take a look at a few Chord Formulas:

Major: Root Note, Major 3rd, Fifth

Minor: Root Note, Minor 3rd, Fifth

Diminished: Root Note, Minor 3rd, Tritone

 

Ok now what? Now using the Interval list and this three chord formulas we can play Major, Minor or Diminished chord on any key.

For example: If we start from the C note. That’s going to be our root note. And lets say we want to play the C Major chord:

– The root note is C

– The Major 3rd is 4 Semi-Tones above C so we will end up on E

– The Fifth is 7 Semi-Tones Above C so we will end up on G

So to play C Major we play the C, E and G notes.

You can repeat this for any type of chord on any key.

“Cheating”

 

Chord MIDI EffectBut what if we don’t care about Music Theory and just want some chords to play around with? We can use the Chord Effect!

If we want to play all the Major Chords we can set up the first knob to 4st (Major 3rd) and the second knob to 7st (Fifth).

Now every single note I’ll play will be the Root Note of that Major chord.

Check out the Free Download for a Cheat Sheet showing you how to set up the Chord Effect for all types of basic chords.

Bonus Tip: While focusing on one of the knobs of the Chord Effect, Hold Shift and hit the up or down arrow keys to jump the value up or down by an octave. This will give you a different Inversion of the chord.

And remember, If you like a chord save it as a preset!
Check back next week for an insanely huge package of chord presets for download.

Chord MIDI Effect Cheat Sheet

All Racks, Instruments & Templates