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ChordEase lets you play music with difficult chords easily on any MIDI instrument. Though it's intended for jazz, it could be useful for any type of music that modulates frequently. ChordEase ensures that all your notes are harmonically correct, but leaves their sequence and rhythm up to you. In other words, ChordEase handles the rapid music theory calculations, so you can relax and concentrate on groove, feel, and aesthetics. If (like me) you're a musician who struggles with improvising to jazz or similarly harmonically challenging music, you owe it to yourself to try ChordEase. It's free software, and it runs on Windows XP, 7 or 8.

ChordEase plays songs, which are prepared beforehand. You're expected to stay in sync with ChordEase, and it provides a metronome to facilitate this. Normally you play only in the key of C major, and your notes are then adjusted in real time to fit the song's harmony, using various schemes. Any number of performers can perform through a single instance of ChordEase, using any number of MIDI instruments. MIDI input is translated to MIDI output according to various parameters, which are contained in a part. Any number of parts can be defined, splits and layers can be set up, etc. The available part functions (so far) are as follows:

Lead: Input notes are transposed in position by adding accidentals as needed, so that the output notes remain as close as possible to the input notes; this scheme minimizes the differences between chords and is very useful for soloing.

Comp: A single input note triggers a tetrachord, with user control over variations, voicings, arpeggiation, etc. The input note's pitch determines the pitch window within which the output chord is voiced.

Bass: Input notes are transposed via shifting, so that C is always the chord root, E is always the third, G is always the fifth, etc. Bass mode also supports an approach mode, which shifts the current scale so that C is the root of the chord being approached (or as close as possible). Approach can use a fixed time window, or be triggered manually.

ChordEase parameters can be changed in real time via MIDI controllers for additional effects. ChordEase can also record its output and export it as a standard MIDI file.