understanding chord symbol interpretation
hi all --
I am curious as what's going on under the hood with musescore's automatic chord symbol realizations -- there's an algorithm (several probably?) at work inside there and I'm wondering if you (the programmers) could say something about how they work?
also would the plug in architecture allow me to write my own interpreter?
thanks
Comments
The system is pretty straightforward - first the pitches corresponding to the chord symbol are calculated according to the standard definitions of chord symbols, then an appropriate voicing is constructed according to the settings made in Properties or as defaults for the chord in Format / Style / Chord Symbols. The default voicing is, just all the pitches played in the octave above middle C, plus the root or other specifed bass note a couple of octaves lower. The other voices work as described; the "jazz" interpretation basically adds a 9 or b9 based on harmonic context and is the only part of this that is subjective.
Plugins can't alter any of this, but you could certainly get involved with MuseScore development to add new voicing algorithms if you like!
There was also discussion of this topic at
https://musescore.org/en/node/345847