README from GitHub, MIT

Chord Finder for Ableton Move

Chord Finder turns Ableton Move into a hands-on chord exploration tool. The left half of the pad grid plays notes and chooses a root. The right half gives you 16 chords and voicings that fit that root and your selected scale.

You can try chords, hear them through a Move instrument or external MIDI device, save up to eight chords, and play the result as a repeating progression. The screen shows the chord name and a small piano keyboard with the notes that are sounding.

Chord Finder is an independent module for Schwung. It is not made or supported by Ableton.

What's new in 0.5.0

Theory view. Hold Shift and click the main jog wheel to swap the piano for a theory card: the chord's spelled tones, its interval construction, its harmonic function and resolution tendency, and your eight progression slots as roman numerals with the playing step highlighted.
Roman numerals everywhere. The chord line now shows the current chord's roman numeral in the key, including secondary dominants (V/IV) and borrowed chords (bVII).
Export Chords. The Menu can export the stored progression as an Impressive Chords preset and a standard MIDI file. Every export gets its own preset named after the key and scale, so exports accumulate and stay selectable.
Store chords with one hand. Hold a right-pad chord and press a Step button to store it, in addition to Shift + Step.
Calmer controls. Parameter knobs need two encoder ticks per step, and parameter overlays stay on screen twice as long.
Exports survive updates. The module's exports folder is preserved when Chord Finder is updated.

Who it is for

Chord Finder is useful if you:

know the key or scale of a song but are not sure which chord should come next;
want to compare chord colors, extensions, inversions, and voicings by ear;
want to sketch a progression directly on Move before recording MIDI in a DAW;
want the pads and piano display to help connect chord names with notes.

It is not a replacement for Move's sequencer or a full music-theory course. It is a fast way to audition and capture chord ideas.

Requirements

Ableton Move 1.8 or newer
Schwung 0.11.6, or a host newer than 0.12.1 that includes the active overtake Move-injection fix
Move and your computer connected to the same network for installation
A Move track with an instrument, or a MIDI device connected to Move's USB-A port, so the generated MIDI has something to play

Schwung is unofficial software that modifies Move's software. Back up important sets and samples and read Schwung's recovery guidance before installing it.

Schwung 0.12.0 and 0.12.1 cannot send native Move-track MIDI while an overtake screen is open. Chord Finder detects those hosts and disables its MOVE/USB-C leg instead of queuing notes that would play later. USB-A and SCHWUNG preview remain available. Upgrade Schwung when a release containing shadow_overtake_move_inject_active() is available.

Install with Schwung Manager

First install Schwung if it is not already on your Move.

Turn on Move and make sure it is on the same network as your computer.
Open http://move.local:7700 in a web browser.
Open Modules in Schwung Manager.
Choose the option to install a custom module from a GitHub URL.
Enter https://github.com/lukeco11/chord-finder-for-move.
Confirm the installation and wait for Schwung Manager to finish.

You can also download chord-finder-module.tar.gz from the latest release and upload that tarball through the custom-module installer.

To update later, return to Schwung Manager's Modules page. It compares the installed version with this repository's release.json.

Open Chord Finder on Move

Open Schwung's Tools menu with Shift + Volume touch + Step 13.
Scroll below the divider to Chord Finder.
Press the jog wheel to load it.

Press Back to park Chord Finder and return to Move while leaving its progression armed. Press Shift + Back to exit fully, disarm the progression, and stop its notes.

Make it play sound

Chord Finder generates MIDI; it does not contain its own instrument.

For a Move instrument:

Load an instrument on a Move track.
Set the track's MIDI input to the same channel used by Chord Finder. The default Chord Finder channel is 1.
In Chord Finder, open Menu and set Preview Route to MOVE/USB-C.
Press a left note pad or a right chord pad.

For an external instrument, connect it to Move's USB-A port, set Preview Route to USB-A, and match the MIDI channels. Choose BOTH to send the same notes to both destinations. The Test Output item in Menu plays a short test chord and is useful when checking routing. Export Chords saves the stored progression to two places:

A new preset for Impressive Chords, named after the current key and scale (for example Chord Finder A Lydian, then Chord Finder A Lydian 2 for a repeat), at modules/midi_fx/impressive-chords/presets/chord_finder_<key>_<scale>.chords. Every export appears as its own entry in the Impressive Chords preset list. Impressive Chords only reads presets when it starts or rescans, so turn its Scan Presets knob to 1 (or re-add the module to a chain) to load new exports.
A standard MIDI file plus the same .chords text at modules/tools/chord-finder/exports/chord_finder_<key>_<scale>.mid and .chords (under /data/UserData/schwung/ on the Move). Copy them off the device with scp, for example: scp ableton@move.local:/data/UserData/schwung/modules/tools/chord-finder/exports/chord_finder_a_lydian.mid .

To audition through a synth loaded in Schwung's signal chain, set Preview Route to SCHWUNG and match the Chord Finder MIDI channel to the chain slot's receive channel. Set Output Route to SCHWUNG to play the saved progression through the same chain slot.

Find chords

The 32 pads are divided into two halves:

Left 4x4: notes from the selected scale. Pressing one plays the note and makes it the root for the chord choices.
Right 4x4: 16 chord choices ranked for the current root or musical context. Brighter pads rank higher. Green shades are diatonic choices; yellow and orange shades are color chords such as borrowed chords.

You do not have to press and release the root before playing a chord. Hold a right chord and press a different left note: the held chord immediately moves to the new root. This makes it possible to play through root changes and chords as one continuous gesture.

Press the main jog wheel to cycle through three views:

ROOT: different chord types and voicings for the selected root.
NEXT: suggestions for what could follow the chord you just played.
VOICE: inversions, spreads, and registers of the same harmony.

Hold Shift and press a left pad to require that pitch as the top note of the suggested chords. Press it the same way again to remove the constraint.

Hold Shift and click the main jog wheel to toggle the Theory view. It replaces the piano with a theory card for the sounding chord: its spelled tones (for example A C# E G#), its interval construction (1 3 5 7), its harmonic function and where it tends to resolve (DOM>I, SEC DOM>V), and your eight progression slots as roman numerals in two rows of four. During playback the active step is highlighted, so you can watch the analysis move through your progression. The chord name line also shows the roman numeral of the current chord on both views.

Build a progression

There are eight progression slots, shown on Step buttons 1-8.

Hold a right-pad chord and press Step 1-8 to store it in that slot. You can overwrite a populated slot this way.
Hold a chord, then press Shift + Step 1-8 to store it in that slot. You can also store the last chord you auditioned.
Press a populated Step button to preview its chord.
Press Delete + Step to clear a slot.
Press Capture to turn on append recording. Each chord you audition is placed in the next empty slot. If you hold a chord and change its root, each audible revoicing is captured as the next step.
Press Play once to arm the progression and control Move's transport. Once armed, Move's Play button starts and stops both Move and Chord Finder from any screen. Press Back to edit another track while the progression continues.

Chord Finder follows Move's absolute beat position, so the progression restarts at slot 1 with Move and cannot gradually drift away from Move's sequences. The display shows LOOP OFF when disarmed, LOOP WAIT when armed while Move is stopped, and LOOP PLAY while following Move.

The Rate encoder changes how long each progression slot lasts, from a 1/16 note to one bar. Gate controls how much of that step the chord is held. Strum delays the notes within each chord to create a played rather than simultaneous attack.

Saved slots store the musical chord rather than fixed MIDI notes. Changing the key or octave transposes the saved progression.

Controls

Control	What it does
Encoders 1-8	Key, Scale, Color, Extension, Inversion, Spread, Strum, Rate (two ticks per step)
Up / Down	Move the playable range by octaves
Main jog click	Cycle ROOT, NEXT, and VOICE modes
Shift + jog click	Toggle the Theory view (chord tones, intervals, function, progression numerals)
Shift + left pad	Set or clear a required top note
Step 1-8	Store a held right-pad chord, or preview / fill a gap
Shift + Step	Store the held or last-auditioned chord
Delete + Step	Clear a progression slot
Capture	Toggle append recording
Play	Arm the progression and start or stop Move transport
Back	Park Chord Finder while its armed progression follows Move
Shift + Back	Fully exit, disarm, and stop Chord Finder
Menu	MIDI channel, output routes, gate, output test, and Impressive Chords export

Record MIDI in a DAW

The most direct, predictable route is USB-A: connect a class-compliant USB MIDI interface or device to Move's USB-A port, select USB-A or BOTH, and record that MIDI in your DAW. Chord Finder sends musical USB MIDI on Schwung's cable 2 path so channel voice messages reach the external device correctly.

MOVE/USB-C injects notes into the configured native Move track. On Move firmware that forwards that track through the USB-C Standalone Port, set the track's MIDI input and output to the same Chord Finder channel, then record the Move MIDI port in your DAW. USB-C forwarding depends on Move's track routing and firmware; use USB-A if it does not work in your setup.

Development

The release archive contains a JavaScript takeover UI and an aarch64 native C DSP engine. Docker is the easiest way to cross-compile it:

git clone https://github.com/lukeco11/chord-finder-for-move.git
cd chord-finder-for-move
./scripts/build.sh
npm test

./scripts/build.sh creates dist/chord-finder-module.tar.gz. With SSH access to a Move on move.local, ./scripts/install.sh installs the archive while preserving settings.json. Override MOVE_HOST and MOVE_USER when needed.

The harmony rules and test fixtures in this repository are original. They do not copy commercial chord databases or branding.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.