voice-leading

@tonaljs/voice-leading

Contains a collection functions to find optimal transitions between chord voicings. Used by @tonaljs/voicings.

Usage

ES6:

import { VoiceLeading } from "tonal";

Nodejs:

const { VoiceLeading } = require("tonal");

API

VoiceLeading

declare type VoiceLeadingFunction = (
  voicings: string[][],
  lastVoicing: string[]
) => string[];

A function that decides which of a set of voicings is picked as a follow up to lastVoicing.

Example:

const topNoteDiff: VoiceLeadingFunction = (voicings, lastVoicing) => {
  if (!lastVoicing || !lastVoicing.length) {
    // if no lastVoicing is given
    return voicings[0];
  }
  const topNoteMidi = (voicing: string[]) =>
    Note.midi(voicing[voicing.length - 1]) || 0;
  const diff = (voicing: string[]) =>
    Math.abs(topNoteMidi(lastVoicing) - topNoteMidi(voicing));
  return voicings.sort((a, b) => diff(a) - diff(b))[0]; // return voicing with least diff
};

Usage

topNoteDiff(
  [
    ["F3", "A3", "C4", "E4"], // top note = E4
    ["C4", "E4", "F4", "A4"], // top note = A4
  ],
  ["C4", "E4", "G4", "B4"] // top note = B4
);
// ['C4', 'E4', 'F4', 'A4'] // => A4 is closer to B4 than E4

show available voice leading functions.

See @tonaljs/voicings for usage examples.