Introduction to Chordwalk
ChordWalk, based on US Patent 10614786 (April 7, 2020) and improvement application PTIE20220000000449, is a versatile software for Windows, Mac, iPad, and iPhone. It simplifies music composition and performance, catering to users from beginners to advanced musicians, regardless of their music theory knowledge.
Getting Started
ChordWalk is not a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). Instead, it sends MIDI data streams to a locally running DAW, an externally connected device with a DAW, or any MIDI device capable of playing MIDI instrument sounds. ChordWalk can also play locally installed SoundFonts.
Numa Player with ChordWalk on an iPad.
Numa Player is a free, four-track MIDI player available for download from the App Store. It allows you to create and play meaningful compositions using ChordWalk quickly. With a wide range of Virtual Instrument sounds and effects, Numa Player is a fantastic tool for beginners and those looking to have fun with music creation.
Launch Screen
The default creation screen displays a Chord Selection area, a virtual instrument playing area, two Arpeggiator areas, and a Metronome and beat syncing area.
Run in Background
When you are running ChordWalk with a DAW on an iPad, and you are toggling between the applications, you must have ChordWalk, and the DAW set to “Run in background” mode for the DAW to continue playing with ChordWalk running in the background.
Resize Views in ChordWalk
ChordWalk provides a "Screen Configuration" option that enlarges borders, making it easier to resize individual views precisely on touch devices.
Selecting MIDI Play Devices
ChordWalk can also play locally installed SoundFonts. The guide provides detailed instructions for connecting to DAWs and external devices and installing SoundFonts.
Open a New Creation Tab
Click the “Add New Tab” icon (the plus sign) to add a new creation tab. This allows you to toggle between multiple tabs, enhancing your creative workflow efficiency.
Music Fundamentals for Beginners
A great hook is formed by combining some of the elements shown below. Every composition must have rhythm, Which underpins all great music compositions.
Numa Player with ChordWalk on Windows.
Numa Player is a free, four-track MIDI player designed to help you quickly create and play meaningful compositions using ChordWalk on Windows.
Resizing a Dialogue Box using Touch
To resize a Dialogue Box, hold one finger at the top of the Box, and with another finger, grab the bottom extremity of the Box and move it up/down/across to resize the Box view.
Structure of a composition
Most songs have some formal structure: intro, verse, and chorus, which is repeated over and over and finished with an outro. Other structures can include a bridge between the two main components. The bridge is often an instrumental solo or a piece of vocal improvisation.
Metronome
The selected Tempo is represented as a beat indicator scrolling across the bars to advise the Creator of their exact position in the composition structure in real-time. It is also important for the creator/performer to know where the beat is relative to the downbeat. The ChordWalk Metronome advises the current beat position relative to bar number and downbeat position.
Beats and Downbeats
On installation, the Metronome defaults to display four bars in the most popular time signature of 4/4 time, also known as Common Time.
Save and Recall Creation Settings
You can save your creation settings using the Save Creation Settings icon as shown below. Remember to label the saved settings in a file with a name that is related to the creation to quickly retrieve it for later use in another project.
Virtual Instrument using SoundFonts
Independently of Local or external MIDI Devices connected, you can immediately start playing a wide range of instruments sounds using our bundled SF2 SoundFont Package. Five on-board Virtual Instrument MIDI destinations are provided. They are Labelled V1, V2, V3,V4 and V5.. You can assign any SoundFont Instrument sound to one or all Virtual Instrument Destinations.
Recording in a DAW Using ChordWalk
In most instances, the whole band will play the same "chord" together. The melody can be played by a single instrument or sung by one or more singers. Even though all instruments are generally playing the same chords together, it doesn't mean that all the chords sound the same for all instruments.
Creating Virtual Loopback MIDI-Ports
We will show how to configure loopMIDI to enable you to route individual Arpeggiators, Chord selections, and virtual instruments in ChordWalk to individual virtual instrument channels of your DAW.
Ableton Live with ChordWalk
When “MIDI From” is selected on an individual track in Live, the Virtual loopback ports will be displayed for selection and assignment.