Low-tech "Killer App" for Musicians Beats Computers
Every so often, a simple, humble invention comes
along that knocks the mighty computer off its
pedestal.
Wayne Chase and his team at CompleteChords.com
have come up with just such a low-tech brainchild
for players and students of guitar and piano.
Page 1 of 3
For Immediate Release
Contact Information:
Wayne Chase
Roedy Black Publishing Inc.
Tel 604-228-8444 (Office)
Tel 604-228-0592 (Home)
Fax 604-228-8424
http://www.completechords.com
wchase@completechords.com
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Low-tech "Killer App" for Musicians Beats
Computers
-----
Every so often, a simple, humble invention comes along that knocks the mighty computer off its pedestal.
Wayne Chase and his team at CompleteChords.com have come up with just such a low-tech brainchild for players and students of guitar and piano.
"It's the world's only wall poster that displays the fingering positions of every chord in every key," says Chase, 52, a music and language theorist and inventor with five patents under his belt.
"Actually, we have two of them, one for guitar and one for piano."
Chase and two colleagues, graphic artist Tom Quine and watercolor artist Bettina Lewis, spent more than two years developing the colorful laminated posters, which retail for $16 each.
Both charts are 38 inches wide and 27 inches high. Each contains more than 70,000 graphical and typographical elements.
The charts show each chord in picture form as well as spelling out the musical notes that make up each chord. As Chase points out, "You don't even have to know how to read music to play any chord, even extended jazz chords."
"Compared with computer software and web sites, each of these charts is a killer app," Chase claims. "They have several major advantages over computerized or web-based chord dictionaries. Or even printed chord dictionaries, for that
matter," he says.
"First, with one of our charts on your wall, you never again have to bother scrolling through computer screens or go flipping through chord dictionaries to find out how to finger a chord.
"Second, you don't have to interrupt your musical train of thought just to look up a chord. That's because you don't have to take your hands off your guitar or keyboard. You can keep right on playing with both hands as you learn and
experiment with new chords."
"Third," he says, "these charts provide the only possible way to see each chord in context with all other chords. When you look up a chord on a computer or in a book, you don't get any perspective. All you can see is one screen or one
page of information at a time.
"With our charts, on the other hand, you can see the whole forest as well as the individual trees, the individual chord diagrams. That means you can see at a glance exactly where every chord comes from. You can see how those extended, jazzy
chords 'evolve' from simple three-note chords. So you can quickly get a grasp of the big picture and a solid understanding of chord structure.
"We've organized each chart so that the easiest chords are on the left side. These are the simple major and minor chords. In the middle of the chart are the intermediate-level chords such as sevenths, suspended, and diminished chords. And on the right side are the extended jazz chords such as ninths, elevenths, and thirteenths. This arrangement makes it easy for the player to progress at his or her own speed."
The two charts, called the Complete Guitar Chord Poster and the Complete Keyboard Chord Poster, are distributed by Roedy Black Publishing of Blaine, Washington and Vancouver, Canada.
Biography
After earning a degree in English literature and psychology at the University of Alberta, Wayne Chase, 52, spent several years as a technical researcher in Edmonton, then began his career in music as a recording engineer in Vancouver.
He went on to produce records and live music, and also taught record production and recording arts.
He is the author of several music reference books, and the designer and author of Roedy Black Publishing's best-selling music reference charts.
As well, Chase is an expert on the identification, measurement, and analysis of emotional meaning in language. He holds five patents in the field of language reference technology.
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Questions that May Be of Interest to Your Audience
1) What motivated you to create these posters in the first place?
2) Do these charts actually display every single chord in every key? Aren't there thousands and thousands of chords?
3) Would these charts be useful for someone just starting out on guitar or keyboard? Or are they mainly for more advanced players?
4) Do these charts show how to play scales, or are they strictly chord charts?
5) Each of the charts has a rainbow-like color scheme,with a dozen different-colored horizontal bars. Is this design purely for visual appeal, or is there a functional aspect to it?
6) On the left side of each poster are sections labeled "Principal Chords" and "Relative Minor", with Roman numerals next to certain chord types. What's this about?
7) The posters are laminated. How come? Why not just leave them as plain paper posters?
8) When you buy one of these chord charts, do you get some sort of user guide with it?
9) What are the drawbacks or disadvantages of using your chord posters, compared with computer software, the Internet, or chord dictionaries?
10) Do you plan to create similar comprehensive chord charts for other instruments such as the banjo or mandolin?
11) Apart from the chord posters, have you created any other music reference materials for musicians?
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