(ab)using chord symbol entry
I would like to ask anybody who may know a question about the content of chord symbols.
A bit of background: I have written a plugin that generates correctly voiced guitar parts from text added to the chord symbol. To do this, two more pieces of information are required in addition to the chord symbol. These are a pattern identifier, and a chord type.
Currently I am using commas to delimit the data within the chord symbol as:
chord,patternId,chordtypeId
The benefit of using the chord symbol field is that, even with odd names and extra data entered, the chord root is transposed with the score, from which the plugin calculates the required position to play a chord.
What I obviously want to avoid is to cause problems with a score in way that I can't foresee by encouraging users to add this information. I've been using it myself for a couple of weeks and have seen no ill effects, but I probably only use 30% of musescores capability.
I would not anticipate the staff with these symbols would be printed.
Could anybody give me an indication of potential problems that this may cause.
Thanks in advance
Comments
Well, if MuseScore cannot parse the chord, it might not render properly, might not export to MusicXMl meaningfully. It should indeed transpose as long as it starts off reasonably.
In reply to Well, if MuseScore cannot by Marc Sabatella
Thanks Marc, I hadn't considered export to MusicXML, I will test it to make sure it doesn't break it totally, and at the very least mention it in the plugin documentation.
As it's not a "No, don't do it under any circumstances" answer, I will continue to test using this structure and perhaps work out how I could automate a 'score cleanup' to temporarily or permanently get rid to the plugin specific data as required.
In reply to Thanks Marc, I hadn't by stevel05
Having thought more about this, I have changed the way it will work. The data will now pass through the harmony item and be stored in a separate hidden staff text. This should avoid any potential long term issues and look much tidier.