Playback of chords symbols

• Jun 17, 2020 - 05:12

Is it possible to attribute the sound of another instrument to Chords Symbols by Mixer?
Eg Piano Stave and Chords Symbols as guitar.

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• Jun 17, 2020 - 13:28

In this procedure would we have the melody (solo) with a piano tone for example and the Guitar chords?
I could guide myself in more detail about the procedure, which I understand as very important and of great value for arrangements.
Hug!!

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• Jul 21, 2020 - 15:16

There is discussion of possibly changing the default for guitar templates to use guitar sounds. If we get enough feedback that this would be advisable, it might happen in 3.5.1. But for other instruments that cannot play chords, it will almost certainly remain piano. The Mixer will continue to be the place to change this or any sound if you don't like the default.

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• Aug 20, 2020 - 20:17

Click the little arrow at the top of any channel strip in the Mixer to expand that channel and show its subchannels (if any). This is how you change the sound from the default piano, or change volume,. To completely turn off chord symbol playback for the score, you could mute this channel, or turn off Play in the Inspector then hit the "Set as style" button.

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• May 23, 2021 - 09:49

For the flute piece I'm trying to write at the moment I really don't like the sounds produced by reassigning the instrument for the chords in the mixer. I don't know why. Another problem is that using the chord notation the last chord written in carries on seemingly indefinitely, which is not really good or helpful.

It's slightly more work, but I think a better impression is gained by using a blank stave under the top line, then explicitly writing in some chords - say minim duration - 2 per bar - and then just copying those and pitch shifting them as desired. Clearly the pitch shifting can be done diatonically for writing pieces with a definite key centre.

My intention is to try to fill out the harmony to sound reasonable, and then adapt the rhythms to fit the melodic lines above.

As far as I know there is no macro feature in MuseScore. If there were It would be easy to set up a set of basic chords to place directly on to the staves.

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• May 23, 2021 - 09:54

You can change the sound of the chord symbols via the Mixer, default is Piano. The above link shows how to change it.
You can also set how long a chord symbol sounds, via the Inspector, default is until next chord symbol. That too should be described in the linke above.

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• May 23, 2021 - 10:49

Indeed, and I have already read a lot of that - but I already commented that I don't like the results. For flutes something which sounds like a form of organ emerges - not really nice or helpful at all. It's much better to explicity write in the chords in additional parts. Thanks for the comment re the length - though if I'm not going to use the chords in that way I probably won't use the feature.

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• May 23, 2021 - 12:56

Of course it makes sense. There might be more than one flute, and once the basic sound has been established, and the harmonies decided upon, then the chords can be presented as Alberti bass, arpeggios etc. That will work fine for duets.

I agree that it wouldn't work for sustained chords and more instruments would be needed. Using piano just sounds horrible, and the default chord method doesn't work too well if flute is specified as the instrument - probably because the chords are too expanded - not just simple triads but have too many notes.

Oh - re flutes can't play chords - there are players who can do that - though they don't always sound too pleasant.

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• May 23, 2021 - 14:53

There is no difference whatsoever between the sound you get by changing the playback sound in the Mixer versus adding a new staff and realizing the chords onto that staff. So if you don't like the sound you get that way, you won't like the sound you get by realizing the chords onto a new staff f- they will be bit-for-bit identical.

But it is certainly true that by using the "realize chord symbols" command onto a new staff, you can play around with the voicing, rhythms, introduce arpeggiation, etc. That's why the command exists - to give that flexibility. But if it's just about voicing, do check out the other voicing options in the Inspector (and also available as style settings) - drop 2, etc.

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• May 23, 2021 - 23:16

I think the issue is to do with the voicing - something which I didn't realise before. All I wanted was something very simple - and to my surprise that's made overly complex. What I wanted was something with the right timbre, and sufficient of each chord to identify it - but not with any doubling, or substituting versions pitched down an octave or two.

The way things are actually implemented should come with a health warning., but then I really don't see why all the chords have to be thickened out.

I now realise why my approach of typing in the chords which I actually want is preferable

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• May 24, 2021 - 03:59

The default voicing is meant to represent how actual professional musicians might voice the chord, but in an instrument-neutral way. That does indeed include doubling. As I mentioned, though, you can select different voicings in the Inspector, including a three-note voicing that generally won't double anything. Make that a style setting and you can have three-note voicings everywhere.

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