Scale Smithy

NOTE: Thus software is prereleased! Installation methods don't work yet A graphical tool for analysis of musical scales.

Features

Work and display scales on a chromatic circle

Save and load scale families

Enter notes and find the scale Family, mode and key

Edit scale families, create new ones

Select the scale family, mode and key

Set a scale as a reference

Play scale in various patterns to midi

Stredella Bass referennce with relative intervals

Overview

I wrote this program to help me compose music for the bayan (russian Accordion). I've found it to be very helpful to look at scales from a family-mode-key perspective on a chromatic circle. Chords that fit the notes of a particular scale are printed next to each scale degree. This can be useful for composing chord progressions. You can control how many chords, chord symbology and the position of the scale root via Edit->preferences. There's a find the scale feature which analizes a series of notes and returns the matching scale (if any). Any scale can be set as a reference which is useful in modal, scale family and/or key changes in a composition.
Scales can be played via midi output to any instrument including FluidSynth in one of a few patterns.

Installation

requirements.txt lists the required libraries. Primarily PyQt6 and mido. A python virtual environment isolates this code and libraries from your system level libraries. To create a virtual environment:

mkdir scalesmithy cd scalesmithy python -m venv venu

To activate the new virtual environment:

source venu/bin/activate

To deactivate:

deactivate

While inside the activated virtual environment, you can use pip to install Python packages without affecting the system-wide Python installation.

Method 1:

git clone https://github.com/KeithSBB/scalesmithy.git
cd scalesmithy
sudo python setup.py install

Method 2

pip install git+https://github.com/KeithSBB/scalesmithy.git 

Method 3

pip install -r requirements.txt