What chord symbols are you wishing MuseScore supported?
I'm working on an improved version of jazzchords.xml that will better support more ways of typing and displaying chords symbols, using MuseJazz and characters references from other fonts pre-installed on Windows, Mac, and Linux. I've already implemented what I care about, and most of what I know others are likely to care about, but I'm sure there are things I don't know about. I'm hoping those of you who have used the chord symbol (aka "harmony", aka "chordname") facility in MuseScore and come up with a list of chord symbols you wished it supported can check your list against this post and let me know what I'm still missing.
For the most part, the changes I made were to allow more ways of writing chords that already exist. For example, there are at least half a dozen common ways of writing a major seventh chord. I have made it so that with just a line or two change at the top of the file, you can write your major seventh chords as Cma7, Cmaj7, CM7, CMa7, CMa7, CΔ7, or CΔ, or anything else along those lines. Similarly for writing minor chords as either Cmi, Cm, Cmin, or C-, writing diminished as either dim or o, half-diminished as either 7b5 or Ø. I've also made it easy to specify whether you write suspended fourth chords as "sus4" or just "sus", and whether this symbol comes before or after any other alterations (eg, C7b9sus versus C7susb9). You can specify whether to use parentheses around alterations as in C7(b5b9), and also whether parentheses or superscripting is used for symbols like Cmi(ma7). You can also specify aug or + as abbreviations for augmented, and if you'd like to use something else for "add" or "alt", you can.
I must stress that you will still have to edit the jazzchords.xml file to actually accomplish any of the above, but my restructuring of the file should make this *much* easier.
I haven't yet figured out a good solution for representing major seventh as 7-in-a-circle (sorry, Don), but if you can find a glyph for it in some font on your system, it would be very easy to plug in. I have also not bothered to implement a scheme for stacking alterations vertically, except for the "69" chord where I felt it was especially important. Maybe some day.
Here are the only chords that I have added that did not exist at all as far as I can tell, so I had to create new entries for:
ma7#11 (chord id 210)
ma9#5 (chord id 211)
mi7b9 (chord id 220)
mi7b13 (chord id 221)
phryg (chord id 222)
7b9#9 (chord id 230)
Are the other chords that people have actually created entries for in the XML file that I should merge in? I know that there exists a version of jazzchords.xml that adds ma7#11 at chord id 208, and I could change to that if enough people want. For my own sanity, I'm trying to reserve blocks of adjacent chord id's for different basic chord types, and I'm using 210-219 for new chords in the major seventh family.
There are a few chords that existed but had very non-intuitive names in my opinion. In a couple of cases, the chords actually couldn't be typed, because they started with a flat or sharp. So C#59 would be interpreted as Csharp 59 rather than C #59 (not that the latter really is clear either). So I changed it to Caugadd9. I changed C5b to Caddb5, C#13 to Cadd#13. I also changed Cmi9ma7 to Cmi(ma9), and perhaps one or two other relatively obscure chords.
It is very likely that there are combinations of alterations that are still not supported. I haven't yet had the patience to see if every possible combination is accounted for, but if you know of any that are missing, let me know.
So the question is: what else do I need to add?
Comments
I noticed you are using the uppercase Ø instead of the lowercase ø. The lowercase is closer in size to the diminished sign.
In reply to I noticed you are using the by David Bolton
Yes, thanks for pointing that out. The first font I tried using didn't have a lower case version for some reason, so I used the capital version and set a smaller "mag" factor. But I'm now using the lower case case version in another font. I just used the capital version in the post above because the lower case version was hard to read in the size used for forum posts.
BTW, I am also using the letter "o" (superscripted appropriately) from another font instead of the MuseJazz degree sign for diminished by default, because I think that glyph is just *too* small. And if I try to make it larger via , it gets too heavy. But it's easy enough to set it to use the degree sign if you prefer, or the "dim." glyph, or the letters "dim" individually if you are bugged (as I am) by the period.
Did you pick the id in band in a box ? Or you just picked them up randomly ?
In reply to Did you pick the id in band by [DELETED] 5
I picked randomly, because I haven't been able to get a list of BIAB id's. It turns out that the processing of installing my old version version of BIAB is going to be harder than I thought - I no longer have a floppy drive (!).
In reply to I picked randomly, because I by Marc Sabatella
Well, even if I can't install the software, I can still read the manual :-). It doesn't give chord id's, but it does list the supported chords, and it's pretty obviously the exact same list as in MuseScore (include the oddities like C5b). I also checked on their site and found the same list; it doesn't seem to have been extended since the version I have.
So the answer appears to be, the chords I added aren't in Band-in-a-Box. But perhaps someone who has that program installed can tell me what happens if you enter them? Using their syntax - Cmaj7#11, Cm7b9, etc.
There are some chords in Mark Levine's "The Jazz Piano Book" that I can't quite reproduce. I could hack customchords.xml - though I haven't quite worked out how to add new chords yet. Unless you want to add them, or unless I should be doing it another way? The two I've come across are:
- maj7 sus4 (or maj7+4 / maj7#4). I know it's almost the same as a ma7#11, but it would be nice to have both options.
- sus b9. Again, I know you can write it as a 7sus b9, which is pretty much the same.
In reply to maj7 sus4 by stephens_
susb9 - good call! True, it's effectively 7susb9, but given that Musescore tries to be exhaustive about other variations, this should be there too. I'm make sure this gets added to my next version. It should be a new chord id.
maj7sus4 - same, although this has got to be much more rare. I'd use maj711 as a "close enough" synonym for now.
But unless I'm missing something, maj7+4 or maj7#4 would be a different chord from ma7sus4. And this one is not just "almost" the same as a ma7#11; it's *exactly* the same. If you'd rather actually write this chord as maj7#4 (not recommended; it's a very non-standard way of writing a very standard chord), I would just edit the definition of that chord directly. I don't think there should be a separate chord id for this, since it's just another way of writing the same chord.
No, you're not missing anything - I was in too much of a hurry. You're quite right, maj7sus4 would be much more rare - and the chord Mark Levine actually has is maj7+4 (yes, written as +4). So unless somebody else wants a maj7sus4, maybe don't bother.
The only way to show a "add9" chord is to now mark it as "2", but "add9" is more commonly written so as to show that it exlcude 7th but still include the third, "minor add 9" is there but not major chord with add 9
In reply to "add9" by angusyhchan
Thanks, I had already added that as chord id 214, as well as chord id 213 for "add2" in the customchords.xml I posted earlier. These are all really the same chord as "2", so really, one could just redefine chord id 15, but just in case someone wanted the ability to sometimes spell it one way and sometimes another way I do have them as separate id's. The idea of using one symbol to imply a third and another to mean no third is definitely one reason for this, although actually, none of these symbols definitely say not to include the third. Even "sus2" (chord id 186) doesn't necessarily mean omit the third, as the third would normally be present in a 9-8 suspension in classical notation, but that's probably the symbol that would be most likely to get someone not to play a third.
On the subject of chord symbols we'd like to see, could I please ask to add the little circle for dimished chords and make this recognizeable, so e.g. if You type an A and a zero or a lower-case "o", to make it look like: A⁰
I also think the plus "+" for an Augmented chord symbol could do with a better lay-out, like: B⁺
Many thanks for thinking about this.
In reply to Please add the "0" symbol for Diminished chords, Thank You!! by Hilvert
These are already implemented - see the Handbook entry on Chord name . You just have to be sure to select a chord name style that uses the abbreviations in question. Also try the Create Chord Chart plugin in (under Plugins / Lead Sheet) to see the options supported by any given chord name style. "cchords_muse" is the default style used by the Jazz Lead Sheet template, and it does things exactly like you describe. So simply using that template may be all you need, depending on what abbreviations you prefer for major and minor (you might still prefer one of the other chord name styles described in the Handbook).
I'm trying to do a lead-sheet but the half diminished symbol still not working.
In reply to half diminished by Ramon Bau
I assume you are referring to the circle-with-a-slash-though-it symbol used in classical Roman numeral analysis. This symbol isn't all that commonly used in pop/jazz chord charts - this chird more commonly rendered as minor seventh flat 5. But the one chord symbol style provided with MuseScore that does use the classical symbol is the one called cchords_sym.xml. So you have to first select that in Style / Edit General Style / Chordnames. You'd then be able to get the classical half-diminished symbol by typing mi7b5, and it will then automatically be rendered with the classical symbol. In this style, you also enter "ma7" for major sevenths, and it renders as a triangle, and you use "-" for minor. If you want to use the classical half-diminished symbol in conjunction with one of the other chord name styles instead, you'll have to edit the appropriate XML file byh and.
Starting with MuseScore 2.0, the need to pre-select specific chord name styles and enter chords the "right" way for that style will go away. Chords will always be recognized however you type them, within reason. You'll be able to get the half-diminished symbol by simply typing "0". See http://musescore.org/en/node/21202
In reply to I assume you are referring to by Marc Sabatella
I wasn't refearing to the slashed cercle, I wasn't getting the "mi7b5" rendered in any of its forms. I've tryied with a new document in it has perfectly worked the way you explain. I think that the document were I was working got corrupted(at least it finally crashed twice and I wasn't able to recover it) probably I messed to much around with the diferent styles to check out each look.
thanks again
In reply to thanks for the good answear by Ramon Bau
You can get a complete list of all chord symbols supported by a given chordname style by running the "Create Chord Chart" plugin that I believe comes pre-installed (Plugins / Lead Sheet / Create Chord Chart). Basically, though, cchords_muse and jazzchords uses mi7b5, cchords_nrb also has you type this but renders it with parens, cchords_rb uses -7b5, cchords_sym uses the classical symbol but has you type mi7b5, and stdchords uses m7b5
I suffer from the lack of the "omit3" chord... and I didn't really understand how to implement it in the list by myself.
In reply to I suffer from the lack of the by Daniele Russo
There 's "5" chords which do omit 3 and also "Maj9(no3)"
ma69#11?
In reply to ma69#11? by jazz_trpt
For the record, this thread is moot. For MuseScore 2.0, there will no lonnger be a fixed list of chords you have enter exactly as expected. Anything that is basically legal/understandable syntax will be accepted and undertood/rendered reasonably. That includes ma69#11, and it won't matter if you spell that way or Maj6(9)#11 or ^69(#11) or ma(6,9,#11) or whatever. Even "nonsense" chords like min13b13#3add9sus(no 5) will be handled faithfully.
Eagerly waiting for MuseScore 2... When it's going to be released?
In reply to Eagerly waiting for MuseScore by Daniele Russo
As always, the answer remains "when it's ready". It's been said more than once that it is expected before the end of the year, and to me, that still seems a safe bet.