SCALESAPI.JS

Purpose

This library / module is your javascript swiss knife to easily work around musical scales even if you are not a musician. Clearly, it will allow you to "sound good" and more importantly "sound in key" when you want to randomly play sounds.

• use cases
  • Find the scale you're in, from a set of chords or notes (Ideal for composers)
  • Find all existing chords and notes in a scale you're interested in working with
• related libraries
  • notePlayer
  • chordPlayer

Installation:

You may import the code into an existing node.js project or import it directly into your HTML code

• Node module import

# local install to your project
npm install --save-dev scalesapi

// import module into your js code
var sc = require('scalesapi') 

• plain JS import

<!-- minified version, not human friendly, 56kb-->
<script type="text/javascript" src="scalesAPI.min.js"></script>
<!-- uncompressed version, human friendly, 422kb -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="scalesAPI.js"></script>

The module is instanciated in the object sc, which you can use right away

getScales("info")

Constructors

No constructor, the library consists of methods only. It consists of three main functions :

• getScales: information about chords and notes existing in a scale
• getChords: information about chords existing in a scale
• getNotes: information about notes existing in a scale

Methods

getScales(action, [value])

• getScales("names")

getScales("names")        //returns a list like ["Major", "Natural Minor", ...]

Get the list of names from all scales available in the config

• getScales("info", [scaleName])

getScales("info")         //returns data for all scales
getScales("info","Major") //returns data for the Major scale only

Get scales meta-data information (object) from the config: - chord sequence for 3 notes chords - chord sequence for 4 notes chords - interval sequence If is not provided, return data for all scales

• getScales("object")

getScales("object")       //returns object

Get scales content from the config, for all keys in all scales:

scaleName
  \__ keyName
      \__ Chords3: [list of chords with 3 notes] 
      \__ Chords4: [list of chords with 4 notes] 
      \__ Notes:   [list of notes present in the scale]

• getScales("fromChords", chordsArray)

getScales("fromChords",[])                          //returns all keys in all scales
getScales("fromChords",["Amin","Cmaj","Dmin"])      //returns keys in two scales

The most popular method. It allows you to know which keys in various scales a set of chords belongs to. Returns an object containing this info:

 scaleName
   \__ keyName

• getScales("fromNotes", notesArray)

getScales("fromNotes",[])                  //returns all keys in all scales
getScales("fromNotes",["A","C","Db"])      //returns keys in two scales

The most popular method. It allows you to know which keys in various scales a set of notes belongs to. Returns an object containing this info:

 scaleName
   \__ keyName

getChords(scaleName, [key], [nbNotes])

• getChords("*")

getChords("*")        //returns a list of chords

Get the full list of unique chords in all scales

• getChords("byRoot")

getChords("byRoot")   //returns a list of chords

Get the full list of unique chords in all scales, grouped by key

• getChords(scaleName)

getChords("Major")   //returns a list of all chords present in the Major scale, all keys included

Get the full list of unique chords in a specific scale . The list of available scales can be obtained from getScales("names")

• getChords(scaleName, keyName)

getChords("Major","E")   //returns a list of all chords present in the key of E in the Major scale

Get the full list of unique chords in a specific scale for a specific key

• getChords(scaleName, keyName, nbNotes)

getChords("Major","E", 3)   //returns a list of all 3 notes chords present in the key of E in the Major scale
getChords("Major","E", 4)   //returns a list of all 4 notes chords present in the key of E in the Major scale

Get the full list of unique chords in a specific scale, for a specific key and a specific nb of notes in the chords

getNotes(scaleName, [key])

• getNotes("*")

getNotes("*")        //returns a list of notes

Get the full list of unique notes in all scales and all keys. This is the equivalent of the chromatic scale.

• getNotes(scaleName)

getNotes("Harmonic Minor")        //returns a list of notes in the harmonic minor scale

Get the full list of unique notes in a specicif scale for all keys

• getNotes(scaleName, keyName)

getNotes("Harmonic Minor","Eb")        //returns a list of notes in the harmonic minor scale, key of Eb

Get the full list of unique notes in a specicif scale for a specific key