unstrung 0.10.3 - One player

0.10.3 plays chord progressions on the same player as songs, adds a Feel list for swing and its relatives, and gives a song's player what chord practice had: Speak the next measure, Times to play and Loop.

One Player

A progression is now played by the same player as a song's tracks, and sounds exactly as its saved file does when opened as a song with Open File. Its Playback Settings and Playback Controls have a track's settings, buttons and keys, l for Loop included. Its measures have Add measure to selection buttons, and Measures to Play sets the first and last measure to play.

One track or progression plays at a time. Starting one pauses whichever was playing, which keeps its place. Play Selected Chords in the Chord Library pauses a playing track or progression too, and one starting stops it.

The setting to collapse expanded sections when switching items now also pauses playback, so Play carries on from the same place when you come back. Turn it off to keep a progression playing while you look up a fingering in the Chord Library.

Pausing says where it stopped, such as "Paused at measure 3", from spaceBar, the button, headphones or a phone call. Where Am I says the measure, its chords, the beat and which time through: "Measure 9 of measures 7 through 21, G C@3, beat 2, play 2 of 3".

The tempo runs from 15 to 300 beats per minute everywhere, the Chord Practice dialog and the Metronome included.

A change made during the count-in, such as a new tempo, a move to another measure or another strumming pattern, starts the count-in again rather than dropping the rest of it.

Times to Play and Loop

Repeat is replaced by Times to play, from 1 to 50, and Loop, which plays until you stop whatever Times to play says. When the measures have played that many times, playback stops and says how many times it played. A progression starts with Loop checked, a song's track with it unchecked.

Speak the Next Measure on Songs

A song's track has Speak the next measure, off to begin with. Before each measure unstrung says the chords the file prints over it, and "repeat" for a measure with the same chords as the one before. The chords are only the ones the file prints, never worked out from the notes. With Count in unchecked, playing from the start waits one silent measure so the first measure's chords can be said.

Feel

The Swing checkbox is replaced by a Feel list: Straight, then triplet, dotted and Scottish feels, each for pairs of eighths or of sixteenths. Triplet eighths is swing, or a shuffle. The list is in the Chord Practice dialog, a progression's Playback Settings, the progression editor, the Strumming Patterns item and the Metronome. A feel that would move nothing, such as an eighth feel in 6/8, says so in the list's description.

A progression is saved with its feel. A song the file marks as swung or shuffled is played with that feel, wherever the file marks it.

Playing What the File Writes

unstrung plays exactly the notes a track writes. Tab often prints a chord over a single bass note, and unstrung plays that bass note alone; the chord is in the measure heading for you to strum if that is what the tab means.

A muted note (x) stops whatever its string was ringing, so a chuck cuts the chord before it. Accented notes are played half as loud again as the notes around them. A song that starts with a pickup clicks only on the beats the pickup holds, and the count-in leads into it. A second voice on the same staff, such as a bass held under fingerpicking, is described in its own line under the measure.

Strums

Settings has Time between strings in a strum, from 0 to 50 milliseconds, used by every strum: songs, progressions, the pattern preview and the Chord Library. An upstroke is written and played on the chord's four highest strings. Play Selected Chords strums at the same level and with the same recordings as a progression.

A saved progression writes its tempo in quarter notes a minute, so a 6/8 progression opened as a song plays at its own speed. A 6/8 or 12/8 progression saved by an earlier version opens at twice its tempo; set the tempo and save it again.

Spoken Chord Names

The voice and volume set in Settings are used from the moment unstrung starts. A change to either is taken up at once by an open track or progression, and one that is playing carries on from where it is.

Smaller Changes

• The key signature is named as minor where the file marks it minor.
• A MusicXML tablature part that names no instrument is listed as a track.
• The playback keys work anywhere in a song or progression, on its buttons too, but not on the Menu button or in the list of open items.
• Quitting the desktop app with changes in the progression editor asks whether to save them.
• A progressions folder that holds a great deal else is listed in part, and the dialog says so.
• A phone shows the number pad in the Metronome's fields.
• A phone call stops the pattern preview and Play Selected Chords, as it pauses a track.
• On the web, a failed download is tried again, each guitar recording is decoded once, and a sample still plays when the browser's cache is full.

unstrung 0.10.2 - Shorter count-ins

0.10.2 lets a passage that repeats be counted in with fewer beats, and publishes the chord library for anyone to use.

Counting In Repeats

Number of beats to count in sets how many clicks come before each repeat, from 1 to the beats in a measure. It is in a track's Playback Settings, the chord practice dialog and a chord practice tab, shown while Count in before every repeat is checked. It starts at a whole measure.

Fewer beats counts in with the end of the measure, so 2 in 4/4 clicks on beats 3 and 4. At a slow tempo a whole measure is a long wait, and a beat or two is enough to hear the top coming round. The count-in before the first time through is still a whole measure.

The chord practice dialog no longer says counting in every repeat needs the metronome on, which has not been so for some time.

The Chord Library

Third Party Components links to the chord library, chord-library.json, so anyone can download every chord unstrung uses, with its fingerings and notes. The document and the file both carry the copyright notices and license of chords-db and tabsy-gr/chords-db, where its shapes come from.

unstrung 0.10.1 - More chords

0.10.1 lets a chord progression change chord partway through a measure, opens saved progressions as songs, and rebuilds the chord library so every chord has a fingering.

More Than One Chord in a Measure

The progression editor's chord field takes a list of chords with spaces between them, such as G D C@4. Each chord starts on the next beat, or on the beat after its @, and lasts until the next one. A chord can start on the and of a beat: G C@2.5 changes to C on the upstroke after beat 2.

Speak the next measure replaces speaking the next chord. It says the measure as the editor writes it, such as "G, C, at 3", and "repeat" for a measure the same as the one before. Where Am I says the measure's chords the same way.

In browse mode, enter on a measure opens its chord field, and ctrl+i goes straight to a new measure's chord field. NVDA no longer reads the whole editor dialog when it opens.

Saved Progressions as Songs

Open File now offers .atex files, so a saved progression can be opened as a song as well as a progression. Its measure headings name the chords it prints, as for any song. A file with no title takes its file name.

Chord Library

The chord library now comes from tabsy-gr/chords-db, a fork of chords-db that documents and corrects it. It has 854 chords and 3,316 voicings, up from 564 chords, and every chord has at least one fingering. No fingering uses the thumb.

Most shapes now have the root as their lowest note, as the fork does. New chord types are major flat fifth, 7 sharp eleventh and 7 sus 2, with sus 4 add 6 and sus 4 add 9 for G. A shape can be listed under more than one name: 3x2013 is Gsus4add6, G6sus4 and C/G.

Difficulty starts on common alternatives rather than standard shapes only, so the open C/G 332010 is found. Standard shapes are still listed first.

Spoken chord names say a number after flat or sharp as an ordinal: C 7 flat fifth, B flat 9 sharp eleventh.

Frets to Chord

Frets to Chord says where a shape is in the chord library, such as "C/G, voicing option 3" for 332010. View in Chord Library opens that chord with that voicing checked and lands on it, so Play Selected Chords plays the shape you entered. The Identified Chord heading is a tab stop between string 1 and View in Chord Library.

unstrung 0.10.0 - Measure by measure

0.10.0 is for learning a song a measure at a time. Each track's measures and playback are one section, every measure has Play and Add buttons, ? lists the playback keys, and a chord progression's playback is laid out the same way as a track's.

Measures and Playback

Each track's measures and its playback are now one collapsed section after the track's details, Measures and Playback, with the number of measures. There is no Create Track button: the first time you play a track, unstrung loads its guitar samples and then plays.

Each track is a level 2 heading beside Song Summary. Inside the section, Playback Settings, Playback Controls and Measures are level 3 headings, and each measure is level 4. Chord Symbols is the last item in the track's details.

Playback Settings has the tempo, the metronome, Count in, Repeat until stopped, Count in before every repeat, shown only while Repeat is checked, and Measures to Play. Count in is its own setting, on to begin with, and works whether or not the metronome is on. Measures to Play has a Section dropdown with an entry for each section the file marks, such as Intro or Verse 2.

Playback Controls has three rows of buttons: Play and Where Am I; Slower, Faster and Default Tempo; Restart Selection, Previous Measure, Next Measure and Start of Measure.

Practicing Measure by Measure

Each measure has two buttons under its heading.

• Play measure 5 plays that measure on its own, once, or until stopped if Repeat is checked. It leaves the selection as it is, and remembers where the track had got to. While the measure plays, the button is named Stop measure 5.
• Add measure 5 to selection stretches the selection to include it and says what the track now is, such as "Audio track is now measures 1 through 5." On a measure already in the selection, it makes that measure the selection alone, which is how to start over from one measure. Add does not play the track, and stops anything playing.

spaceBar stays the track's play and pause key. While a measure plays on its own, spaceBar stops it and says "Stopped measure 5." Play, spaceBar, a media key or a move going from a measure back to the track says where the track is, such as "Back to the track at measure 12."

Playback Keys

In focus mode, ? in a track's Measures and Playback section, or in a chord progression, opens the Playback Keys dialog. It lists the keys, and links to the Features document. Playback Controls starts with a reminder, and the keys are no longer printed in each track. l turns Repeat on or off.

Chord Progressions

A progression's playback now has Playback Settings and Playback Controls headings, laid out as a track's are. Play Progression is now Play.

Playback Settings has a new Count in checkbox, on to begin with, which no longer depends on the metronome. Count in before every repeat is shown only when the progression plays more than once.

? opens the Playback Keys dialog with the keys for a progression. A progression has no l key, since it has a number of times to play rather than Repeat.

Documentation

The Help documents have Joel's edits: how the window is laid out, playing in mobile browsers, and the semantic HTML unstrung relies on. Spelling and terms are made consistent across them.

unstrung 0.9.3 - Printed chords only

0.9.3 names only the chords a file prints. Guitar measure headings no longer work a chord out from the notes, the Anomalies section is gone, and Chords Used is now Chord Symbols.

Printed chords only

A chord printed over a measure gives the harmony, and the notes of the measure need not spell it: a melody can stray from the harmony on purpose. Working the chord out from the notes gave wrong names too often, and nothing is better than a wrong chord. So a measure heading now names only the chords the file prints:

• "chord C" where the file prints a C at the start of the measure.
• "continues C" where the measure prints no chord and the last one printed was C.
• "continues C, chord G at beat 3" where a G is printed partway through, and "during beat 4" for one printed between beats.

A measure before the first printed chord, or on a track that prints none, names no chord. "holds", "(anomaly)" and "(harmony)" are no longer used, and the Anomalies section is gone.

A chord stops at a section

A printed chord continues only to the end of its section. A new section names no chord until the file prints one in it. Some files stop printing chords partway through a song, and the last chord used to be carried through whole verses where it was plainly wrong.

Naming a beat

A beat is named as a chord when it sounds three different notes or more, and listed string by string otherwise. Open strings 3 and 4 are no longer called G5, and no beat is named as a power chord. A stroke direction is given only where the file states one.

Chord Symbols

Each guitar and bass track's Chords Used is now Chord Symbols: the chords the track prints, in the order they first appear, with how many times each is printed. A chord shows the fingering of the diagram the file gives with it, and the chord library's shapes where the file gives none. A track that prints no chords says so.

unstrung 0.9.2 - Printed chords first

0.9.2 reads a guitar measure as the chord the file prints over it first, keeps chords printed over rests, and opens songs with strummed guitar parts much faster.

Printed chords first

On a guitar track, a measure the file prints one chord over is now read as that chord first, with the notes off it as exceptions, unless the notes clearly hold something else. Across the songs checked so far, 14 of 45 anomalies are gone.

A shape held without the chord's third, such as C with a D in place of the E measure after measure, is that sus chord and not the printed one, so it is still an anomaly.

A chord picked across several measures, none of which plays all of it, is now named where the measures beside it complete it, as in the first three measures of a G picked string by string.

Chords printed over rests

A chord the file prints over a rest now changes the chord from there, as it does on sheet music. It used to be dropped with the rest, leaving the chord before it in effect.

Faster opening

Songs whose guitar parts strum a chord and then the open strings while changing to the next could take a long time to open. Mazzy Star's Fade Into You took about 25 seconds, nearly all of it reading its two strummed guitar parts; each now takes under half a second. No measure heading changes.

unstrung 0.9.1 - Notes on the click

0.9.1 puts notes and chords on the metronome's click, names the chord shape the left hand holds in guitar measure headings, lists only the guitar and bass tracks of a song, and fixes an audio track's tempo reading NaN.

Notes on the click

Notes and chords sounded slightly after the metronome's click: about 22 milliseconds on guitar and 27 on bass. Every recording unstrung plays opens with the pick or finger meeting the string, a quiet noise before the note itself, and each note was started on the beat from that noise. Now each note starts early by that much, so its attack sounds with the click and the pick noise comes just before it, where a player's pick would be.

This applies to chord practice, an audio track and chords played from the chord library, in the app and on the web. Listen to Guitar Samples still plays each recording from its start.

Chord forms in measure headings

On a guitar track, a measure heading now says which chord shape the left hand holds, where the measure is simple enough to say it quickly, the way sheet music shows a chord only where it changes.

• "holds G" where a G shape is first held, and "continues G" where it carries over from the measure before.
• "holds G, one exception" where a note or two leave the shape and come back, such as a finger reaching for a bass note.
• "holds G, holds C at beat 3" for a change at a beat, and "holds G, holds C during beat 4" for a change between beats.
• "holds G for 2 and a half beats" where the shape is let go of and nothing else is held after it.

The shape is worked out from the notes the measure plays, so a part picked one string at a time still holds a G. Where the file prints a chord name that matches, the heading uses it. Where the notes hold a different chord from the one printed, the heading gives the printed chord followed by "(anomaly)", and a new Anomalies section on the track lists each one. Where a melody is played over a printed chord, the heading gives the chord followed by "(harmony)". A measure that changes chord more than once gives the printed chord names, as before.

Inside a measure that names a shape, a beat playing only part of it is listed string by string rather than named, so open strings 3 and 4 inside a G are no longer called G5. Under Chords Used, a guitar track's chords give the fingering as the track plays it first, then the chord library's.

Only guitar and bass tracks

A song now lists only its guitar and bass tracks, since those are the only instruments unstrung has recordings of. Voice, keyboards, drums and other parts are left out, and the summary says how many. The words of a vocal part are still read, and shown with every listed track's measures.

Fixed

Since 0.9.0, an audio track's Tempo line, and the message on creating a track, read "NaN BPM" instead of the file's tempo. Playback was not affected.

unstrung 0.9.0 - Metronome

0.9.0 adds a metronome whose clicks follow a strumming pattern, a key to go back to the default tempo while playing, and a default tempo of 60.

Metronome

Metronome, a new item on the menu, clicks wherever a strumming pattern strikes the strings, and is silent where the hand passes without strumming. It uses the same patterns as the Strumming Patterns item: the ones that come with unstrung and your own.

The click follows the stroke. A down stroke is a low, round click, an up stroke a much higher, quieter tick, and a muted strum a short burst of noise. So Eighth-Note Downs is eight of the same click, and All Down-Up alternates the two. The first stroke of the measure is higher, so you can hear where the measure starts. It is also louder, and a down there is hit harder. A pattern with accents of its own, such as Three-Three-Two, makes its accents louder, and beat 1 is still the higher one.

Under Settings are the Time signature and Strumming pattern lists, a line saying where the clicks fall, such as "Clicks on 1 high strong down, 2 down, 2 and up", the Tempo, from 30 to 240, and the Volume, from 1 to 5.

Under Controls:

• Start, which reads Stop while the metronome plays. It is a toggle button, pressed while playing.
• Slower and Faster, by 5 beats per minute.
• Default Tempo, back to the tempo last typed into the Tempo field.
• Quieter and Louder.

Changing the tempo, the volume or the pattern while it plays carries on without starting the measure again. Each button says what it did, such as "85 BPM" or "Volume 4". The metronome keeps playing while you look at another open item, and stops when you close it.

While focus is in the metronome and your screen reader is in focus mode, spaceBar starts and stops, f is faster, s slower, d the default tempo, upArrow louder and downArrow quieter. f, s and d also work in the two lists, so you can change the tempo while trying one pattern after another; the arrows still move through the list.

Back to the default tempo

d now goes back to the default tempo in a chord progression and an audio track as well. The default is the progression's or the song's own tempo, until you type another into the Tempo field.

Default tempo of 60

Where no tempo is given, unstrung now uses 60 beats per minute: the metronome, the Chord Practice dialog, Play in the Strumming Patterns item, and a song file that states no tempo of its own. It was 80, 90 or 120, depending on the place.

unstrung 0.8.0 - Strumming patterns

0.8.0 adds strumming patterns: built-in ones for the common time signatures, a choice of pattern when generating, editing or playing a progression, and patterns of your own. Progressions are now saved in a new format, alphaTex, which also keeps the tempo and the strumming pattern.

Strumming patterns

A progression is now strummed with a strumming pattern instead of always a downstroke on every beat. Patterns are written the way guitar teachers write them: D for a downstroke, U for an upstroke, a dash where the hand passes the strings without strumming, x for a muted chuck, and a greater-than sign before an accented stroke. Old Faithful is D - D U - U D U.

unstrung comes with patterns for 4/4, 3/4, 6/8, 2/4 and 12/8, among them Old Faithful, Boom-Chicka, Waltz Strum and Rolling Six. Every list starts with Down Only, which is how progressions were strummed before, and All Down-Up. Any other time signature has those two.

• The Chord Practice dialog has a Strumming pattern list after the time signature. It starts on Down Only.
• The progression editor has the same list, starting on the progression's own pattern.
• A progression's Playback section has it too, so you can try patterns while the progression plays. Changing it carries on from where the progression is, and it does not count as an unsaved change.
• The Metadata list names the pattern and gives its strokes, such as "Strumming - Old Faithful: D - D U - U D U".

An upstroke catches the top four strings and is a little softer, an accented stroke is louder, and a pattern with no accents leans a little on beat 1. Muted chucks stop the chord ringing but make no sound of their own yet.

Your own strumming patterns

Strumming Patterns, a new item on the menu, lists every pattern by time signature: a Time signature list, then a Pattern list. Play plays the chosen pattern on G, C, D and F, two measures each, until you press Pause. Choosing another pattern while it plays switches to it.

New Pattern makes one of your own, and Copy to My Patterns starts one from any pattern. Edit and Delete change your own; the built-in patterns cannot be changed. The strokes are read back in words as you type them, such as "1 down, and miss, 2 down, and up". Your patterns are kept with your settings and appear in every pattern list.

Export My Patterns saves all of yours to a text file, one pattern per line, such as "4/4, Busy Folk: D - D U D U D U". Import Patterns adds the patterns in such a file to yours, and lists any line it could not add, with the reason.

Progressions saved as alphaTex

Progressions are now saved as .atex files: alphaTex, a plain-text way of writing music that other programs built on alphaTab can open. A saved progression keeps its tempo and its strumming pattern as well as its key, time signature and chords. Opening one sets the tempo it was saved with.

Progressions saved by earlier versions, as .json files, no longer open. Open Saved Progression lists only .atex files.

Removed

Copy to Clipboard, in a progression's item, and Edit Progression Text, in the progression editor, are gone. Opening a file through the upload picker now works in every browser, including on an iPhone or iPad, and saving there downloads a copy, so they are no longer needed.

unstrung 0.7.7 - Playing again after finishing with the screen locked

0.7.7 fixes a progression or audio track that would not play again on an iPhone after it had finished with the screen locked, and adds to the Features document.

Playing again after finishing with the screen locked

On an iPhone or iPad, a progression that ran to its end while the screen was locked could leave unstrung silent afterwards: pressing play did nothing and said nothing. unstrung now notices when its sound has stopped working, even when nothing reports it, and starts it afresh when play is pressed. If the sound still cannot start, unstrung says "The sound could not start. Press play to try again."

Starting playback from headphones on a locked phone after unstrung has been idle for a while still does nothing. That is a limit iOS puts on web pages, which apps such as podcast players do not have.

Features

The Features document has two new sections, Platform is a Feature and Media Controls Integration, which take the place of Media Keys and Headphones.