The last chord of the James Bond theme is known as the James Bond chord. If you’ve ever seen a Bond movie, you’ll recognize it. Here’s a quick video showing how to play it on guitar.
I tried asking Grok 3 to generate some LilyPond code for sheet music a few days ago. LilyPond is pretty obscure as programming languages go—it’s not like asking for Python code—so I was skeptical, but Grok did well.
This afternoon I asked Grok to create sheet music for the James Bond chord. Specifically, I asked
-
What is the “James Bond chord”?
-
Create sheet music for the James Bond chord using Lilypond.
-
Move the chord up an octave.
Here’s the output of each step.
What is the chord?
According to Grok,
The “James Bond chord” is a distinctive musical chord famously associated with the James Bond film franchise. It’s not just a single chord but rather a specific voicing and progression that evokes a sense of mystery, danger, and sophistication—perfectly matching the suave spy’s persona. Officially, it’s often identified as an E minor major 9 chord (EmMaj9), though its exact interpretation can vary slightly depending on the context.
The chord was first introduced by composer Monty Norman in the “James Bond Theme” for Dr. No (1962), arranged by John Barry, whose orchestration gave it its iconic swagger. …
First output
Grok produced the following LilyPond code
\version "2.22.0"
\score {
\new Staff {
\clef treble
\key c \major % Default key, no sharps/flats; we'll specify accidentals manually
\time 4/4
<e g b dis' fis'>1 % EmMaj9 chord: E G B D# F#
}
\layout {}
\midi {}
}
When compiled this gave the following music.
Grok also produce a MIDI file.
Second output
I wanted to move the chord up an octave for aesthetic reasons, putting the notes inside the staff. Grok complied, changing one line in the code, essentially adding an extra prime mark after each note.
<e' g' b' dis'' fis''>1 % EmMaj9 chord moved up an octave: E' G' B' D#'' F#''
This compiled to the following music.
Problems and prospects
Grok’s not perfect. In another experiment it produced code that wouldn’t compile. But when I told Grok that the code didn’t compile and asked it to try again, it worked.
I tried to remove the time signature, the C symbol. I asked Grok to remove it, and it did not. I asked Grok “How do you get LilyPond to produce music without a time signature?” and it told me two ways, neither of which worked.
I’ve used LilyPond occasionally for years, not to produce full sheets of music but to produce little fragments for blog posts. I’ve always found it a bit mysterious, in part because I jumped in and used it as needed without studying it systematically. There have been times when I thought about including some music notation in a blog post and didn’t want to go to the effort of using LilyPond (or rather the effort of debugging LilyPond if what I tried didn’t work). I may go to the effort more often now that I have a fairly reliable code generator.