What's New

Added a mention of Suggester 2 in the store.

App Description

Suggester is a tool for writing songs and chord progressions. This app will help you find chords that work together. It is efficient and fun; use it to build musical phrases that will carry emotion through tension and release.

Select chords for their harmonic function. The app makes full use of the roman numeral notation.

Simply touch a chord to hear how it sounds. Press the play button to hear the chord progression sequentially and adjust the playback speed.

You can work either forward or backward:
FORWARD - Pick a scale, then build your song from the chords that the app suggests. That's the quickest way to assemble chords that are compatible.
BACKWARD - From the catalog, pick a set of chords that you like. The app will tell you what scales it matches with. After you have selected the scale you want to use, the app can tell you what chords will fit in with the ones you entered before. That is extremely useful in jam sessions!

Pick chords and scales from our huge catalog. To go even further, you can create your own custom scales and custom chords.

To spice things up, you can borrow chords from parallel scales.

Explore new territories by using modulation.

Browse the classic chord progressions to find inspiration.

Use Drag and Drop to reorder chords. Hold your finger on an item for a second to start the drag operation. On iPad, you can also drag chords directly from the suggestions to anywhere in your progression.

Tap the note button on the left to change the duration.

Swipe a chord from right to left to delete it.

Export your songs as audio, MIDI or text.

Every sound generated with the app is also sent to the MIDI output, configurable in the Options. You can route these notes to another app on your device, an external MIDI port, or remotely to another computer by setting up a MIDI Network Session.

You can trigger chords through the MIDI input.

Use drag and drop between apps! ChordPadX and Suggester can communicate through drag and drop. You can also drag pads and chords into another app if it supports MIDI drag and drop.

Sync up your tempo with other apps with the help of Ableton Link.

You can choose between the english notation (C, D, E) and the fixed-do notation (do, re, mi).

In the free version, some of these features are locked. Reach full productivity by purchasing a Full Unlock or a Feature Pack. You only need to buy it once for all your iOS devices. To unlock your purchase on another device, select "Restore Purchases" in the Options. The macOS version is sold separately.

Instruments:
• Piano
• Electric Piano
• Vintage Electric Piano
• Organ
• Strings
• Guitar

Chromatic Harmony Devices:
• Secondary dominant chords
• Secondary leading-tone chords
• Tritone substitution
• Neapolitan chord
• Augmented sixth chords (Italian, French, German)
• Borrowed chords
• Modulation

Scale Types :
• Major (Ionian)
• Natural Minor (Aeolian)
• Dorian
• Phrygian
• Lydian
• Mixolydian
• Locrian
• Harmonic Minor
• Harmonic Major
• Jazz Minor
• Minor Blues
• Major Blues
• Prometheus
• Augmented
• Diminished
• Neapolitan Major
• Neapolitan Minor
• Persian
• Double Harmonic Major
• Altered Dominant
• Pentatonic Major
• Pentatonic Minor
• and more!

Chord Types :
• major triad (maj)
• minor triad (m)
• power chord (5)
• dominant 7th (7)
• minor 7th (m7)
• major 7th (M7)
• minor major seventh (mMaj7)
• half-diminished seventh (m7b5)
• 9th (9)
• minor 9th (m9)
• major 9th (Maj9)
• minor major 9th (mMaj9)
• diminished (dim)
• augmented (aug)
• suspended 2nd (sus2)
• suspended 4th (sus4)
• dominant eleventh (11)
• minor eleventh (m11)
• major eleventh (Maj11)
• dominant thirteenth (13)
• minor thirteenth (m13)
• major thirteenth (Maj13)
• and much more!

Additional features:
• Contains AudioUnit Extensions (Music Instrument and MIDI Processor).
• Compatible with Ableton Link.
• Support for the Dark Mode.
• Support for drag and drop between apps.
• Support for multitasking on iPad.

iPhone Screenshots

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Suggester | Chords and Scales screenshot 1 Suggester | Chords and Scales screenshot 2 Suggester | Chords and Scales screenshot 3 Suggester | Chords and Scales screenshot 4 Suggester | Chords and Scales screenshot 5

iPad Screenshots

(click to enlarge)

Suggester | Chords and Scales screenshot 6 Suggester | Chords and Scales screenshot 7 Suggester | Chords and Scales screenshot 8 Suggester | Chords and Scales screenshot 9 Suggester | Chords and Scales screenshot 10

App Changes

  • June 11, 2014 Initial release
  • July 26, 2014 New version 2.0
  • October 12, 2014 New version 2.1.4
  • January 04, 2015 New version 2.1.6
  • February 03, 2015 New version 2.2
  • February 17, 2015 New version 2.3
  • March 20, 2015 New version 2.4
  • April 15, 2015 New version 2.4.2
  • May 03, 2015 New version 2.5
  • July 30, 2015 New version 3.0
  • November 14, 2015 New version 3.1
  • November 17, 2015 New version 3.1.1
  • November 21, 2015 New version 3.1.2
  • March 02, 2016 New version 3.1.3
  • March 10, 2016 New version 3.1.4
  • March 12, 2016 New version 3.1.5
  • July 05, 2016 New version 4.1.3
  • August 19, 2016 New version 4.2
  • November 09, 2016 New version 4.3
  • November 24, 2016 New version 4.4
  • December 15, 2016 New version 5.0
  • June 14, 2019 New version 7.2.3
  • August 16, 2019 New version 7.4
  • September 04, 2019 New version 7.5.1
  • October 05, 2019 New version 8.0.4
  • October 09, 2019 New version 8.1
  • October 21, 2019 New version 8.2.1
  • October 28, 2019 New version 8.3.1
  • November 18, 2019 New version 9.0.1
  • November 26, 2019 New version 9.0.3
  • December 17, 2019 New version 9.1
  • December 24, 2019 New version 9.2
  • July 15, 2020 New version 10.1.1
  • July 16, 2020 New version 10.1.2
  • October 23, 2020 New version 10.3
  • December 09, 2020 New version 10.4
  • August 06, 2021 New version 12.4.2
  • September 16, 2023 New version 14.1.10

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