How to teach your computer to play guitar
summary
A working pipeline turns bracketed chord sheets into structured tokens using parser combinators rather than a giant regex, implemented in Elm with the parser library (P.run). Code parses notes and qualities, converts chords to integer semitone notation, builds an in‑memory guitar tuning model, enumerates playable fingerings and selects the easiest, then triggers a JavaScript synth to play the result. Live demos compile and run in the browser, and the repo includes the slides and two demo apps.
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chapters (9)
- 0:00Introduction to the talk
- 2:08Live coding setup
- 7:26Limitations of regex
- 8:30What are parser combinators
- 12:07Building a chord parser
- 15:16Parsing full sheet lines
- 19:32Why parser combinators matter
- 22:01Live demo with guitar chords
- 25:00Q&A and resources
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