free Chordify - recommendation/review

[fazool]

Many of you probably know of this but I've had some really good luck with it recently.

I use the free version of chordify. The premium paid version is pricy - they do add a lot of features but I have no use for them.

What chordify does is similar to riffstation. It analyzes a song you either upload or link and figures out the chords.

The limitation of the free version is that you can only store 3 uploaded songs at a time, although you can link unlimited online files, such as Youtube videos. It even plays the video for you in a picture-in-picture format.

That's the only thing I would want from premium but the price covers a lto of features I have no insterst in.

The chords are only approximations but can be a good starting point for figuring out a song by ear. The thing I really love is the playback looping - you can pick any section, beat by beat, highlight what you want and it will continually loop it. When figuring out a song, by ear, I will loop a section I am struggling with - this works very well for that.

The playback window gets a little confused and scrolls off screen when not in maximized window mode and the web player controls sometimes don't respond right away so you might have to click pause a second time, etcetera.

But those are really tiny issues, for what this offers - a really nice free looper for figuring out any song bits.

chordify.net

Although I'm cheaping with the free account - I do recommend it highly.

[AZLiberty]

I've been using it for a bit over a year and didn't even know it had a looping function.

Biggest complaint I have is how it scrolls off screen when not maximized. I like to keep my windows 1/2 screen so I can have a Word file open in another window for typing notes.

Other than that, the chord changes are usually "not quite" in the right place, but close enough that I can figure out what I need to.

[Muffinhead]

Originally Posted by fazool

Many of you probably know of this but I've had some really good luck with it recently.

I use the free version of chordify. The premium paid version is pricy - they do add a lot of features but I have no use for them.

What chordify does is similar to riffstation. It analyzes a song you either upload or link and figures out the chords.

The limitation of the free version is that you can only store 3 uploaded songs at a time, although you can link unlimited online files, such as Youtube videos. It even plays the video for you in a picture-in-picture format.

That's the only thing I would want from premium but the price covers a lto of features I have no insterst in.

The chords are only approximations but can be a good starting point for figuring out a song by ear. The thing I really love is the playback looping - you can pick any section, beat by beat, highlight what you want and it will continually loop it. When figuring out a song, by ear, I will loop a section I am struggling with - this works very well for that.

The playback window gets a little confused and scrolls off screen when not in maximized window mode and the web player controls sometimes don't respond right away so you might have to click pause a second time, etcetera.

But those are really tiny issues, for what this offers - a really nice free looper for figuring out any song bits.

chodify.net

Although I'm cheaping with the free account - I do recommend it highly.

Fazool, you left the r out of the chordify link so you end up going to chodify.net instead.

[Captaincranky]

The only thing I question is how useful is it in the larger sense, as there are so many tabs online.

You can paste tabs into a M$ "Word" file, and then convert it to "rich text" format, for portability.

Occasionally, I'll run into something I can't find a tab for.....but.....I tried with Emerson, Lake, & Palmer's "Battlefield" , (from "Tarkus") the other day. The verse progression is Em, Am, Bm, Em. (it's a dirge). When the translation came up with the A minor as A major, I called it quits.

[fazool]

Originally Posted by Muffinhead

Fazool, you left the r out of the chordify link so you end up going to chodify.net instead.

Oops....fixed

[fazool]

Originally Posted by Captaincranky

The only thing I question is how useful is it in the larger sense, as there are so many tabs online.

You can paste tabs into a M$ "Word" file, and then convert it to "rich text" format, for portability.

Occasionally, I'll run into something I can't find a tab for.....but.....I tried with Emerson, Lake, & Palmer's "Battlefield" , (from "Tarkus") the other day. The verse progression is Em, Am, Bm, Em. (it's a dirge). When the translation came up with the A minor as A major, I called it quits.

As I said its only a starting point, but the looping function is inbvaluable I think.

[personatech]

Old thread, I know. Still, I thought I'd pass on that the paid version of Chordify is now actually pretty reasonable. On the down side, they have become more intrusive in the free version - you start up a song and, about 10 seconds into it, a popup appears that halts the song and asks you to upgrade to premium. Dismiss the popup, start the song over, and all is good.

That being said, I have found it to be a useful tool and, since they are having a 50% off sale (bringing the price to under US$19 annually - the prices on the site are in Canadian dollars) I went for it. Well worth under $2 a month for a guitar noob.

[jtwine]

I signed up for the premium subscription last year and used it some but not enough to renew but this morning they sent e mail that I had been automatically charged for next year. Sent reply to cancel and drop next years charges. I will see how their customer service handles it. jt

[jemartin]

I have been using the Premium version for awhile now. I am pleased with its abilities. Yes it is not perfect...a few chords are either wrong or in wrong position sometimes throughout the song.. but easy to figure out... But for saving tons of time in learning new songs it is invaluable to me! My history shows that I have used it 353 times in the last few years. It gets the basic info that i need... and it has controls for the tempo as well (only a couple difficult songs that i used that for). The program used to have trouble and couldn't download and "chordify".. every song that i tried to import into it... but not so since going to the premium version.

An example today.... I have been struggling with the sudden loss of my wife last July, over this Thanksgiving weekend. While I am dealing with it.... this song finds me and when I get home I looked it up on YouTube... andsent the link to Chordify.. and in no time... I can thoroughly enjoy the music and the lyrics. Also, since it was written in the key of Eb… I just hit the transpose button up 1/2 step and played it in E major....with no capo on my 12 string which is tuned down 1/2 step. Or transpose down 1/2 step to the key of D....with capo on 1st fret..on the 6 string.. (then it starts with that beautiful Bm chord) and it sounds incredible also. A beautiful song... and haunting as it hits home.. to me.

https://youtu.be/b3LJlZBWI8w

[menhir]

I've tried Chordify several times in the past hoping for a quick way to learn songs that have a lot of complex chords and a lot of chord changes... Songs that would have taken me a lot of work and time to figure out myself.

If there were a lot of passing tones in the music the chords would be off, and even more irritating, the timing between the song and the display were not in sync. Put those two together and the process became very frustrating.

For simple songs it works fine. But I can do simple on my own.
Chordify fell flat on the songs I had needed it most for.
So, as of now, there is no incentive to pay up.

I'm hoping that as time goes by, the program will improve.

[JAMKC]

I’ve got the full version but what bothers me is that when you have a lot of songs they are all jumbled up in order due to whether it is band name, song title, partial song title etc.

[jtwine]

Their customer service canceled my subscription and made refund. Good job.

[Zandit75]

Just received an email from Chordify with a 50% off sale for Cyber Monday.

[bls82261]

Originally Posted by Zandit75

Just received an email from Chordify with a 50% off sale for Cyber Monday.

I took advantage of this. It's not perfect but at my stage it helps me a lot. Less that $2/month

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by menhir

I've tried Chordify several times in the past hoping for a quick way to learn songs that have a lot of complex chords and a lot of chord changes... Songs that would have taken me a lot of work and time to figure out myself.

If there were a lot of passing tones in the music the chords would be off, and even more irritating, the timing between the song and the display were not in sync. Put those two together and the process became very frustrating.

For simple songs it works fine. But I can do simple on my own.
Chordify fell flat on the songs I had needed it most for.
So, as of now, there is no incentive to pay up.

That's my experience too. I've been transcribing songs for over 50 years (assisted by tape decks first, and now software), and chordify is too unreliable to be of any use to me. (Riffstation is worse, mind.)

At best it gives you a kind of ballpark to start from. Some broad guesses that might be mostly accurate, but you can then go on and correct and fill out.
It's not bad if the chords are plain and simple - but in that case I can easily hear them for myself. But the more complicated the chords, or the more distortion in the audio, the more I need assistance - and the more chordify fails. (And I always find my ear is better anyway.)

Originally Posted by menhir

I'm hoping that as time goes by, the program will improve.

Why? I actually enjoy using my ear (assisted by Transcribe) to work songs out. I don't want software to do it all for me, any more than I want a robot to play my guitar for me.

IMO, if you need chordify to identify chords in a track, you need more ear training. If you find chordify (as currently programmed) is better than your ears, that casts a very poor light on your musicianship. If your ear is that bad, how can you be sure of what you're playing? How can you judge?

If OTOH, your ear is good enough to know when chordify is getting things wrong ... well then, you know how seriously to take the program (and whether you think it's worth paying for).