Overview

Relations View is the third of five different views within the ChordWizard workspace. You can enter it by clicking on the Relations tab at the bottom of the screen or with either of the following:

Menu: View-Relations

Keyboard: Ctrl+3

In Relations View, the Relations menu appears in the middle of the menu bar, and contains a set of commands specifically for use with this view.

Summary

Relations View allows you to explore the relationships between chords, scales and fretboard positions.

Not only does it give you an appreciation of how music theory operates on the fretboard, it has some very useful applications.

For songwriting or composing, it can give you ideas of what chords you can use. For improvisation, it tells you which scales you can use for improvising over a chord in a piece of music.

You can find a full explanation of relations in the Chord and Scale Relations tutorial.

Relations View works in a similar way to the popup Relations tool, but has the advantage of showing how the relations appear on the fretboard.

Relations View operates in one of three modes, described below.

Chords and Scales

You can place Relations View in Chords and Scales mode with either of:

Relations Bar:

Menu: Relations-Chords and Scales

In this mode, the primary interaction is between the Chord Matrix and the Scale Matrix.

You will generally use this mode most often, particularly for songwriting and improvisation.

When you select a chord in the Chord Matrix, its related scales appear as colored dots in the Scale Matrix. For improvisation purposes, these are the scales which you can use for improvising over the chord you selected. To practice one of these scales, select it and change to Scales View.

When you select a scale in the Scale Matrix, its related chords appear as colored dots in the Chord Matrix. For songwriting purposes, these are the chords which you can use as a starting point for experimentation. To keep a copy of these results, you can a relations report (see below).

Overlay labels on the Fretboard show the positions of the notes or degrees of the most recently selected chord or scale.

Chords and Fretboard

You can place Relations View in Chords and Fretboard mode with either of:

Relations Bar:

Menu: Relations-Chords and Fretboard

In this mode of Relations View, the Scale Matrix is inactive, and the primary interaction is between the Chord Matrix and the Fretboard.

Chords and Fretboard mode behaves in a similar way to Design View, by indicating which chords contain the notes made by a set of fretboard positions, and conversely, where the fretboard positions could be to make a particular chord.

The main differences are that it ignores any required notes which may be defined for the chord types, and it does not indicate finger blocks or strings which contravene the searching options.

When you select a chord in the Chord Matrix, overlay labels on the fretboard indicate at which locations the notes or degrees of the chord appear.

When you select finger positions on the Fretboard, their related chords appear as colored dots in the Chord Matrix.

If you end up with a chordshape that you want to store in the library, you can change to Design View and the fret positions you designed are automatically transferred as the chordshape design. You can then add it to the library with the Add to Library button.

Scales and Fretboard

You can place Relations View in Scales and Fretboard mode with either of:

Relations Bar:

Menu: Relations-Scales and Fretboard

In this mode of Relations View, the Chord Matrix is inactive, and the primary interaction is between the Scale Matrix and the Fretboard.

The main benefit of Scales and Fretboard mode is in being able to help you identify the scale of a melody that you have discovered on the fretboard. You can add multiple finger blocks per string, until you have included all the notes which appear in the melody, and the Scale Matrix will then indicate which scale(s) these note could be a part of.

When you select a scale in the Scale Matrix, overlay labels on the fretboard indicate at which locations the notes or degrees of the scale appear.

When you select finger positions on the Fretboard, their related scales appear as colored dots in the Scale Matrix.

If you have used this mode to identify the scale of a melody, you can practice the scale in different positions along the fretboard by selecting in the Scale Matrix, and changing to Scales View.

Relations Reports

You can print a full report of chord or scale relations as a relations report. You can also print the result matrix that you are currently seeing by allowing the filter to restrict the scope of the report. Generally this will happen automatically.

There are many options you can choose from, including banner, color, font and layout settings, and even a table of contents. These are available from the Report Options window.

To see how your relations report will look before you print it, you can open Print Preview, with any of:

Tool Bar:

Menu: File-Print Preview

This opens the Report Type window, allowing you to choose a Relations report (from Relations View this type will be selected by default).