Chord Charts
I know, I know... not another query about chord charts.
Admission: I can only read scores with difficulty and play entirely by ear. I get the score 'furniture' and conventions completely wrong. I can work out the chords to a tune using a keyboard and a pair of ears.
I play in several jazz bands and need to produce chord charts for the rhythm guys. I work them out in Band In A Box and print as .bmp images. Recently, I have discovered charts on Android tablets and use iReal Pro and Fakebook Pro. Only iRealPro can be used to edit new charts, but Fakebook is best for gigs. Both can import chord chart pdfs and jpgs. Tablets are much better than massive binders for gig use.
I looked at MuseScore years ago and was very impressed, but I could not misuse it for my simple purpose. Recently, I discovered the ability (experimental) to import Band In A Box files. I was surprised to find that MuseScores very flexibility could be used for presentable chord charts.
iReal Pro produces the best chart layout. BIAB produces usable charts, but measures are erratic and getting large chord symbols efficiently laid out it difficult. MuseCore takes considerable messing with style templates and invisible settings and I cannot get the bar lines to line up, vertically. This is very helpful for live bandwork. I have attached three chart examples: a BIAB bmp, MuseScore mscz and iReal Pro jpg. I have also attached a MuseScore chord chart, but I have not been able to find out how to save it as a custom Template.
This is a rough and ready guide to making chord charts:
Right-click over stave
Stave Properties
Tick 'Invisible Stave Lines
At each fourth bar, insert a 'New Line' break.
Insert a minim rest in each Bar
Select the first rest
Shift-Select the last rest
In the inspector, choose 'Rests'
Untick 'Visible' and tick 'Small'
Control-click on each bar number to select them all
Untick 'Visible' in Inspector
(Have not found way to reset bar numbers at the beginning of Chorus)
Style/Text/Chord Symbol
Text/Size = 28
Offset/Vertical = 8.00sp
Style/General/Barlines
Barline thickness = 0.26sp
Tick Barline at start of single stave
Select Measure
Right-Click/Stave Properties
Line distance = 2.00sp
Layout/Page Settings
Odd and Even, Top and Bottom page margins to 10mm or less
Scaling/Stave Space set to fill page
Is there, already, a way of getting measures to be nearly the same width? If not, that's my feature request. Oh, and the addition of creating custom Templates to the Handbook.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| BIAB Honey Pie.jpg | 38.12 KB |
| Honey_Pie.mscz | 12.76 KB |
| IReal Pro Honey Pie.jpg | 154.93 KB |
Comments
Whoops, missed the Chord Chart and to untick, View/show invisible.
The BIAB image had to be converted from a bmp to a jpeg to upload it to the site.
In the future, I promise to use HTML tags for improved readability!
Saving as a template is just a matter of saving a score normally to your Templates folder. Once you do that, the next time start MuseScore, your template will show in the list of available templates each time you start a new score.
There is not currently a setting to make barlines line up automatically. There was once but it led to many layout problems where too many notes would be crammed into a measure to fit leading notes to spill over the barline etc. It's probably not an unsolvable problem, but it's more complicated than you might think to really make it work well.
BTW, your steps to producing these types of chord charts can be a bit. For one thing, you can use Edit / Tools / Add/Remove Line BReaks to add the breaks in one step. Also, you can make the rests invisible by just pressing Ctrl+A to select all followed by "V". Or, if you've already enttered chords, right click one rest, Select / All Similar Elements, then press "V" to avoid making the chord invisible as well. Also, I'm not sure what you are trying to do by increwasing the line distance, but I wouldn't recommend this - it's meant for some very particular uses and this cases doesn't seem to fit. Which si to say, the behavior might change in the future to better suit the cases it is intended but accidentally break whatever it is you are trying to do. If you are just trying to get the szies and relative positions more to your liking, I think you will be better served experimenting with the text style settings and also the system distance settings. Feel free to explain more of what you are trying to accomplish and we can make suggestions.
Not sure what you mean about resetting bar numbers, but the controls for this would be found by right clicking a measure and choosing Measure Properties. You can force a bar numebr to display or not, prevent a measure from being included in the count at all, or dd an offset to the current measure number.
In reply to Saving as a template is just by Marc Sabatella
Thanks for the quick reply. I'm afraid that between gigs and plumbing emergencies, I have been a bit preoccupied.
I will approach a chord chart procedure from another direction based on your suggestions and see if I can get a better result. If a setting to make the measures equal sized causes that much of a problem I will find another way. The empty Chord Chart template is laid out just fine. It's when I import songs from BIAB that it goes a bit haywire. I will try entering the chords manually and see what happens.
I honestly don't understand why you want to use a scorewriting program to produce that sort of chart. You could produce the whole thing using an ordinary word-processing or spread-sheet program more quickly and easily, I would think.
MuseScore is a music notation program that has a limited ability to set text matter, but it is in no way a word-processor and bullying it into behaving like one will cost you lots of time and frustration. OTOH, what you want to produce with is entirely alpha-numeric in content, and if your main concern is even, grid-like spacing of the chord symbols, that is one of the things that word-processors (or spreadsheet programs) are good at. Sure, you could pound in a nail with pipe-wrench, but why would you want to? Hammers are cheaper and they do it better.
In reply to I honestly don't understand by Recorder485
I disagree. Chords charts are very efficient music notation that compactly provide a lot of information, and MuseScore provides the following abilities that word-processing/spreadsheets don't: nicely-format complicated jazz chord symbols, easily transpose, indicate rhythms for chords, deal with changing/odd time signatures, easily convert leadsheet to chordsheet, 1st/2nd voltas with nice repeats, nice DS/Coda signs, text annotation, section markers inside rectangles nicely-positioned, and occasionally include noteheads (e.g. intro basslines), etc.
In reply to I disagree. Chords charts by ericfontainejazz
I won't argue with most of your points as you are quite correct. Although I am not a jazz musician, in a former life I busked and performed in folk clubs using index cards scribbled over with lyric clues and chord names, Scotch-taped to the side of my guitar where only I could see them. The folk-singer's equivalent to the jazz chart; less complex, for certain--most folk music can be played with very simple triads and an occasional seventh chord--but the same basic idea.
My comments earlier were in response to what the OP posted as an example of the sort of chart he wants to produce. All I saw was chord names--no rhythms; no lyrics; no key sigs--and I assume that his fellow musicians know all those standards well enough that that's all the information they need to perform them. If a jazz musician needs a fuller chart containing musical notation as well, then a notation program is obviously the appropriate tool. But what I saw in the OP's chart could be produced way more easily with Excel or Word than with MuseScore.
One question: Can MuseScore actually transpose the text of chord names the same way it can transpose musical notation? I don't work with that type of material, so I have never explored that part of the program.
In reply to I won't argue with most of by Recorder485
I understand your argument.
"Can MuseScore actually transpose the text of chord names the same way it can transpose musical notation?"
Yes. "Notes"->"Transpose" has an option "Transpose Chord Symbols" which is selected by default. Also toggling "Concert Pitch" button will change the root for chords on a staff of transposing instrument.
In reply to I honestly don't understand by Recorder485
I appreciate that I am 'misusing' MuseScore, but I get a real advantage over page layout programs. ericfontainejazz gives a good explanation, although I wish I had his knowledge on chart notation.
For a new song, I start with BandInABox, choose a suitable rhythm section and enter the chords in a similar way to MuseScore. I can hear the melody in my head and 'play' along to the BIAB rhythm section. Once I have the chords to my satisfaction, I can use BIAB for practising melodies and solos and also print out chord charts for the band. The example chord chart I gave for BIAB is about as good as it gets and is not good for dingy bars and old eyes.
I run BIAB in Linux using Wine. I have two or three excellent word processors and page layout programs in Linux, but BIAB needs to run in full screen to see the whole tune. There is no horizontal scroll. Trying to remember measure and chords whilst bringing the word processor to the front is not easy. Also, each chord symbol has to be approximated accurately; no bb for Bb and no nicely formatted complex chords (I chose my example tune as deliberately undemanding in this respect). Transferring from BIAB to a word processor or spreadsheet is not a simple matter.
With MuseScore, I can import the whole BIAB tune, directly, complete with intros, verses, choruses, voltas etc. and just need to reformat to increase the chord symbol size, pack the invisible staves more efficiently and make the bar lines heavier (and, sometimes, taller) to make them easier to follow during gigs. Hopefully, the comments of Marc Sabatella will make this easier.
The Android tablet app, iReal Pro does a similar job to BIAB, including playback. It provides ways of entering chord symbols and playing them back with a rhythm section, but is much more tedious and has poorer playback abilities. The best app for gigs is Fakebook with its simple playlist editing and fast and powerful search. However, the chord charts must be generated in another app or program and imported as an image file or pdf. Exporting from iReal Pro and importing to Fakebook is possible, but messy. The BIAB to Fakebook path is best for quality and lack of errors.
I know that this is not what MuseScore is supposed to be used for and I would not wish for any significant changes for my minority use. I do, however, value greatly the advice I have been given on chord chart production.
My latest procedure for creating chord charts from Band In A Box songs:
Select Measure
Right-click: Stave Properties
Only tick 'Show Bar Lines' and 'Invisible stave lines' Untick 'Show Key Signature' in Advanced.
Select Rest
Right-click: Select/All Similar Elements. In the Inspector, untick 'Visible'.
If the line breaks are wrong,
Edit/Tools Add/Remove Line Breaks, Remove current line breaks
Edit/Tools Add/Remove Line Breaks, Break lines every 4 bars
Styles/General, Barlines
Tick 'Barlines at start of single stave'. Increase Barline thickness ot '0.7'.
Layout/Page Settings
All Page Margins set to 10.00mm. Adjust Page Scaling to fill one page.
Select Title Frame
In the Inspector, reduce Height to suite.
Style/Text, Chord Symbol
Size 28. Offset Horizontal 1.00sp. Offset Vertical 6.50sp
This procedure produces the chord chart in the file I'm_Sorry_I_Made_You_Cry.mscz
It is an acceptable chord chart, but the height of the barlines is the same as the chord symbols which reduces readability.
The only way I have found to make the barlines higher is to make the following changes:
Select Measure
Right-click: Stave Properties. Set Line Distance to 1.75.
Style/Text, Chord Symbol
Size 28. Offset Vertical 8.00sp
This procedure produces the chord chart in the file I'm_Sorry_I_Made_You_Cry Long Lines.mscz which makes playing much easier.
Marc Sabatella warned against changing line distance, but it is the only setting I could find that changes the barline height.
In reply to My latest procedure for by royleith
Barline height should depend on the number of staff libnes, so changing number of staff lines should do it as well. Or just change the barline size directly - you can double click to edit barlines. But there is nothing "wrong" with changing line distance, necessarily - the feature *does* exist - it's just that it is best to use the msot appropriate tool for the job. And I wasn't understanding the purpsoe of your line distance change.
In reply to Barline height should depend by Marc Sabatella
I tried the double click method of editing barline size (in the Linux version of MuseScore), but the drag squares just sprang back to the current length. I am happier doing it in Staff Properties and so this is no loss to me. I had tried increasing the number of stave lines during early experiments, but I get more satisfying results using barline size.
I used your method of excluding a verse from the bar count. I notice that ticking the 'Exclude from bar count' box only affects the last bar in a multiple selection. That is easily dealt with by selecting the last bar to be excluded, ticking the box, clicking 'Apply' and using the 'previous bar' arrow to move to the previous bar and repeating the process.
Finally, the barlines can be made to line up very satisfactorily. The 'problem' bars are those with chord changes and the problem is increased by complex chords. It can be resolved by selecting the 'wider' bars, right-clicking and choosing 'Bar properties'. Reduce the 'Layout stretch' until the bar length is about right.
With complex chords and multiple changes in a bar, the Chord Symbol font size may need reducing. Select any Chord Symbol, right-click and choose 'Text style'. Then change the Font Size until all the chords fit the bars.
The result is 'close enough for jazz'!
All that I have left is the minor issue of a superfluous barline before the 'Start Repeat' barline as a result of using 'Barlines at start of single stave'. I have not found a way of making the first barline invisible.
Thank you very much for your help. I've added the book to my 'Wish List'.