Word "add" to chord name

• Mar 10, 2010 - 20:44

What is the character on the keyboard that activates the symbol "add" in the jazz font? Such as in "add"9? Anyway, thanks!

Comments

• Mar 10, 2010 - 22:00

Amadd9 is working.
You can see a list of working chordnames with Plugin->Chord Chart or by right clicking a chordname->Chordname properties

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• Mar 11, 2010 - 02:52

I would prefer: Am9 and Am7(9). The 9 could be superscript. Much shorter, less cluttered.

I'm sorry to keep at this, and I respect that this project is trying to answer all sorts of needs, including very detailed chordnames. I just wish I could write as simply as possible without what appears to me to be unnecessary clutter. Whenever I try a shorter form, the program does not recognize it, and the jazz font is not accepted for my symbol. Perhaps one way to deal with this would be to change the program's demand for standardized symbols and just have the program accept that anything written using the chordname entry method was valid, and allow the user to use the jazz font, whether or not it makes sense to the program..

I often place charts in front of sight readers, and anything that diminishes the chance of error is important. Some of the symbols that are apparently common use just seem so verbose and need so much processing, adding complexity.

I find too many chordnames cluttered, as the example that I had mentioned in a recent post when I wanted a diminished with a major 7. The harmony pallet only allowed dim7add#7 as far as I could find. Lasconic commented that I had chosen such a long string to write, but I couldn't find a shorter way. If I could, I would write it dimM7, or, as we have discussed before, using even shorter symbols (circle and triangle).

Anyway, best wishes to all and thanks for the hard work.

Regards.

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• Mar 11, 2010 - 03:21

"Am9" is recognized. "Am79" is redundant and non-standard and should not be added. "Am add9" means something different so it should remain in the list of chords--not removed for the sake of simplicity.

I hear you saying that MuseScore needs more flexibility when it comes to chords. I don't disagree.

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• Mar 11, 2010 - 07:40

If you don't care about:
- Transposition
- MusicXML export
- Share your score with other people who don't have the same font, chord sets/style etc...
- Future potential playback of your chordnames

Nothing can stop you using another font and put whatever you want in chords! Use existing fonts or create your own.
You can even add more chords in the chords.xml file and more chord style by duplicating the jazzchords.xml file and make your change. But be aware that you will loose all the above.

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• Mar 11, 2010 - 14:26

After sending my post above, I came to realize that the problem for me is that I want to use the Jazz font, and it won't support "odd" chordnames.

As to Lasconic's issues in "Chord Flexibility" post, the only one that is important to me right now is the ability to transpose, which, again, will not interpret "unusual" chord mnames.
Playback of chordnames would also be useful, but is less necessary to me.
I don't use Music XML export, and any scores I share are printed, not musescore files.

I understand that my wants may expand in the future, but I'm trying to solve immediate problems.

Can you please explain more re: "You can even add more chords in the chords.xml file and more chord style by duplicating the jazzchords.xml file and make your change"? This seems to imply that I can design my own changes using jazzfont.

Thanks guys,

Regards.

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• Mar 14, 2010 - 17:32

X add 9 means the root, the Major third, not the minor by the way, and the fifth PLUS the ninth!
Ok?
All of the above,
if in doubt, remember:
history can teach us something useful:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chord_notation#Chord_symbols_and_staff_not…
Carl Brandt and Clinton Roemer, in 1976, developed the "Standardized Chord Symbol Notation" system, still very used nowadays, that allows us to intercommunicate quite freely and without misinterpretations.
OK?
I hope it will be clear if you buy the book, by the way.
See ya!
Gianpaolo

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• Mar 14, 2010 - 20:58

Let's try to be constructive...
add9 is not recognized by MuseScore currently. Cadd9 is C E G D right?
Let's add it in chords.xml and add a good representation for stdchord.xml and jazzchords.xml. Ok?
Btw there is already C2 (C D E G)

@Xavier: You can make a copy of jazzchords.xml and modify it to display triangle, circle etc... If you post it on the forum for review, I'm pretty sure other people will use it and it can be add to MuseScore. There is an ongoing effort on the french forum.

@gnplglln: Carl Brandt and Clinton Roemer (1976). "Standardized Chord Symbol Notation" looks like a nice reference... but it also look like paper only, hard to find, and copyrighted and so not sharable... It's hard to become a standard without being online nowadays.

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• Mar 15, 2010 - 07:31

Can we start by solving the add9 issue first?

Don't open jazzchords.xml. Do a copy of it.
How it works? Here is my understanding. (Simplified)

When you type a chord, for example Cmaj7, MuseScore looks in chords.xml and try to match "maj7" with one of the name.

In Style->Edit Style->Chordnames, you can select a rendering for your chords. Two rendering sets are delivered with MuseScore currently: stdchords.xml and jazzchords.xml. These files associate an id with a render. Render defines how the extension will actually look in your score.

So if you want maj7 to be rendered as Δ, you can create a copy of jazzchords.xml, let's say jazzchordsSymbol.xml and change the render element of the right id.

The name in chords.xml being used by everybody, I think it's better to keep this list compact, common to everybody but also containing the maximum of possible chords. Regarding the rendering sets, everybody can create his own but if you don't share it with your mscz files, people will not be able to see the chordnames as you see them

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