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For a tool I'm developing, I'd like to have a database of all playable chords (and voicings) on guitar.

"playable" would mean either :

  • any position that the human with the biggest stretch could play
  • all chords that were ever used (maybe by looking as some tab database ?)
  • Any other reasonable criteria

Ideally it would include :

  • every voicing (and all inversions and partial chords)
  • all common tunings
  • It's probably pushing it, but 7 and 8 string chords could be represented too
  • proper labels (tuning, chord name, fret numbers or notes played/muted).

I found a lot of lists of chords but they're not exhaustive at all.

As some online tools are able to identify chords and propose alternatives, I thought maybe they'd use a database of some sort ? And if so there might be a version of this database in the open ?

I'll also happily take any hint as to how to build it myself, and If you know an equivalent for another instrument (piano ?) it'll be useful too!

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    hakwright.co.uk/guitarchords seems to have done something similar? – topo Reinstate Monica Jul 7 at 9:40
  • What is the actual question? Requesting resources is supposed to be off-topic. – Michael Curtis Jul 7 at 12:55
  • I’m voting to close this question because finding external resources is off topic. – Dom♦ Jul 7 at 13:23
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    the hakwright.co.uk / Howard's Big List of Guitar Chords site seems quite extensive, but it looks like it was missing a whole category of chord alternatives - those where you leave out something like the root or the fifth. Or for example in an A11 chord, you look at it as a G/A or G6/A. And it didn't have a x 12 12 12 12 12 for A11 for example. Or sometimes a plain minor triad rooted on the fifth can be enough for the essence of a 9 chord etc. If you're making a program that gives alternatives for chords, consider the actual musical side of it too, not just technical. – piiperi Reinstate Monica Jul 7 at 18:12
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The R library tabr contains such database:

enter image description here

It features 4000 chords.

The website given by @top in the comments contains more (40k) and is convenient to scrape.

None of those addresses non standard tuning nor 7 or 8 strings.

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