Guitar chord instrumejt

• Sep 1, 2021 - 21:35

I can’t find a way to change the sound of the playback for guitar chord symbols. Right now, it’s piano. I’d like it to be nylon string guitar, but it does not show up in the mixer. Help? I am in version 3.6.2.548021803.

Comments

• Sep 2, 2021 - 00:13

It's the same for all of them, so here's one that has both a guitar line and chord symbols. The guitar chords sound like a piano. The guitar line itself sounds fine. I normally turn off the playing of the chord symbols in the Format /Style page, but it doesn't allow me to change the instrument. That's what I'd like to find. Right now it's a piano.

Attachment Size
Los Bilbilicos lower key w guitar.mscz 22.37 KB

Reply

• Sep 2, 2021 - 00:14

BTW, I LOVE Musescore. I used a clunky application called ScoreWriter for years, didn't want to spend the time on the learning curve for Sibelius. I find Musescore really user-friendly, especially with all the online tips about how to find the more obscure controls (like turning on a Segno). Thank you for your work on this!

Reply

• Sep 2, 2021 - 17:06

It would always be attached to the instrument you've attached the chord symbols to.

So if you attach the chord symbols to the top instrument, then yes, it'll also be a subchannel of the top instrument.
If you however for example have an SATB+Piano score and attach them to the Piano top staff, then they'll be a subchannel of the Piano instrument.

Reply

• Sep 3, 2021 - 14:52

For the record - for scores of just vocal and guitar and/or piano, it's indeed common to put chord symbols above the vocal staff. But consider, even though it's common, it's really completely illogical when you think about it - it's not the vocalist that is singing the chords! It works because the pianist or guitar at least doesn't have to look too far away from their actual staff to find the chords. But for scores or more than just two or three staves, it's pretty much universal that the chords go on the staff they actually apply to. The piano staff in a big band chart is buried a dozen staves down, one would never simply put the chords on the top staff.

Reply

• Sep 3, 2021 - 15:42

Makes sense. But a lot of scores by amateurs and singer-songwriters are just a vocal line and guitar chords, nothing like full orchestration. Folk songs, for instance, just put the chord above the vocal line. I think fake books do, too. I imagine the Musescore guitar tablature feature is offered for amateur musicians who don’t even really know the fingering for some chords.

That’s the wonderful thing about Musescore - unlike, say, Sibelius, you can learn the basics without a long learning curve, and it’s really easy to use at that level, very fluent work flow. Then more complicated things are pretty well documented. Asking Google takes you to the right information, without needing to take a tutorial (or read the Handbook). This particular issue of changing the instrumentation on chord symbols was an exception, because not well documented and obscured by the software updates. I hope you will add the info to the documentation.

I use a lot of high end software at a good level of functionality, but the only thing I ever actually did the tutorials for is Photoshop. A good interface IMHO allows the user to learn the basics without having to take a course or tutorials. Musescore is a good example - but I use ArcGIS, InDesign, Vegas Movie Studio, Sound Forge, etc. productively, with only occasional dives into documentation for the fine points. In the case of ArcGIS, the documentation is so dense and so based on taking all their tutorials in their sequence that I usually end up calling a friend who is more expert rather than wrestling with the online “help.” I also rarely use templates, preferring to design my own. The readymade “styles” in MS Word 2019 are totally useless and annoying, for one example.

In general, I’m trying to get work done, not take a course, much of which is instantly forgotten if it isn’t used regularly.

Reply

• Sep 3, 2021 - 15:01

For the record, internally, chord symbols are referred to as Harmony objects, probably because that's what they are called in the MusicXML standard. Probably didn't help that original developers of MuseScore were not native English speakers. So one used to see lots of references to "Harmony" in MuseScore - for instance, I think that was the name of the text style for a whole. For the most part, the word "Harmony" has been phased out of the user interface in favor of the phrase "Chord Symbol", but when the chord symbol playback feature was introduced not so long ago, it did initially use the internal term harmony for the mixer channel. This was corrected via the translation at some point, but due to the way things work, obviously it's possible to end up with a configuration in which the translation is still out of date. And I just realized that's the case on my system as well. So I just did the translation update as well, and now my channels are labelled "Chord syms." as well. So thanks all for the impetus to do that update (wonder if there is anything else that was fixed by that?)

Reply

• Sep 3, 2021 - 15:20

Interesting to know the history. I’m also glad I raised the issue. Perhaps this can be added to the handbook? I’m sure I’m not the only one!

I’m one of those people who contact Tech Support when something seems wrong with an interface - I wish someone would hire me as a usability tester. (Apple, are you listening? Microsoft, hello?) Perhaps that’s because I have been using software in some form since the 1970’s. But you folks hold the record for fast and effective communication.

Reply

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.