Music theory behind ChordJam

1

I would like to understand the music theory idea behind ChordJam:

I can choose a scale (C-B), a scale type (Minor, Major, …) and additionally a ChordType (Major Scale, Minor Scale, Minor9, …)

I have two questions:

  1. I don`t get how scale type and chord type get together. What is e.g. happening, when I choose scale type “Major” and Chord Type “Minor 9”? What is the logic behind this?
  2. When I choosed a scale type, I can play the fitting chords on the keys of my keyboard. Example: I choosed C Major and now I can play Cmaj, Dmin … but when I play C# on keyboard, it plays a Csus4. Why?
2

Is this question stupid? I do not find the answer, not in the docs neither in the overview video

3

Ok, and I forgot to add the category: @admins Could you add “Help & Support”?

4

Hi @Jsjs,

The Chord Type adjusts the chord that is playing and does not make any changes in the selected scale. I will try to explain it with the example below:

Let’s say that your scale is C Major and your scale type is Major too. By pressing the C key, it plays the C-E-G chord as expected.

Now, let’s set the scale type to minor scale. By pressing C, it plays C-D-G.
Chordjam “tries” to play a minor chord, which typically would be C-E♭-G. However, E♭ does not belong to your selected scale which is C Major. For this reason, Chordjam brings E♭ to the closest lower note that exists in the selected scale (E♭ → D) and it plays C-D-G instead.

To make it play C-E♭-G, you have two options:

  1. Set the scale type to Chromatic: In this case, Chordjam would play its chords according to the chord types that you have selected.
  2. Or set the scale type to minor and the chord type to minor too.