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Jazz chords

How can I type (using the "insert text" tool) chords for jazz tunes? more specifically, chords which have the sharp or flat symbols in their names?

Basically what I need is either a font containing these 2 symbols.. I need the ascii code for them.

I'm just about sure that there isn't one here who uses this to write jazz and even cares about my question, but still..

Re: Jazz chords

Reply #1 –
There has been considerable discussion of this both here and in the newsgroup. There are some musical fonts available at the Scriptorium (e.g. "Bach") at
http://www.noteworthy.beyondtheweb.com

which might do the job for you. That being said, if you plan on publishing your NWC files as on a website, it would be wiser to avoid exotic fonts, (sticking only with the "de facto standard" font "Boxmarks"). This leaves basically two options:

1: Use lower-case "b" for the flat symbol, and shift 3 for sharps.

2: Mix a standard font (e.g. TNR or Arial) with the native NWCV15.TTF font for the sharps and flats. (The ASCII equivalent for sharps is lower-case d, for flats it's lower-case f). Warning: this approach can be frustrating to get the proper spacings.

Re: Jazz chords

Reply #2 –
Yes - There are some of us that use chord symbols in our scores.
I use Fred's method.
Use the lower case B for flats and the Hash on Shift/3 for sharps.
If you need the Dim symbols hold down Alt and type 0176.(°)
For Half-Dimished (m7b5) use Alt and type 0216.(Ø)

Re: Jazz chords

Reply #3 –
Chords ..... This is personally the only thing lacking from this product ..... I had a bit of a play at putting chords above a stave with the lyrics function - and using underscores for beats without a chord. This is personally a BETTER method than using text - But the problem is a piece of music with only melody, lyrics, and chords - NWC does not allow a "melody part" to include parts both above and below the stave (at least not that I can find).

Conclusion: I have not purchased this product - but may consider doing so if there was a dedicated "chord" version of a lyric track - Also required, would be transposition of chord symbols. The behaviour of the chord track would need to allow rhythm to be entered for the chords (and not printed). Eg: chords over a bar of melodic rests - with text or lyrics it only allows one chord per bar (doh!)

Theres my two cents worth anyway.

Re: Jazz chords

Reply #4 –
Put this on the wish list.

Re: Jazz chords

Reply #5 –
To put lyrics (or chords, in your case) both above and under a staff, duplicate the staff and superimpose them. Set lyrics above for one, and under for the other.

About transposing chords:
if NWC could transpose C#m, could it also transpose Do#min? The same chord, but its name in another language... (guess which :)

I've found a way to do it with macro recorder, but it ain't really quick. Algorithm is:
go (yourself) to each teXt item,
(now macro:) copy the text,
switch to a text file containing lines of pair of chords: normal + transposed (one text file per transposition),
search for text (call search in notepad, paste text, enter),
get right part of line (transposed chord),
copy it,
get back to NWC,
replace text.

It does work, but still a bit tedious since you have to go to each text item.
Using the "lyrics way" as Greg K. does it, could improve usability of this trick :-)

HTH,
Marsu

Re: Jazz chords

Reply #6 –
The big advantage of using the Lyric Editor for chords is that the beams dont become broken as they do if you insert text.
However the tedium of adding _ underscores to avoid notes makes this method a bit hard to live with.

Re: Jazz chords

Reply #7 –
THe "_Space_Space" sequences are, imho, only tedious when we do not know where we are.
Personally I insert a break line to each lyric "line", and a double one between verses (or musical phrases, it depends).
This helps not to get lost, but is often insufficient.
What would be *very* helpful is to get at the place (in the lyrics) matching the place where is cursor in the staff is. Let's go to http://www.noteworthysoftware.com/composer/wishlist.htm ...

Re: Jazz chords

Reply #8 –
One problem that I had doing this was that all the symbols I wanted weren't easily available. You can use b # m and numbers from the regular keyboard, and o for diminished chords, but to get the half-diminished sign (theta ø), you have to hit alt+0248, and the delta sign is only available in Symbol or Math fonts. I used Bach, as Fred Nachbaur suggests, but I was happier when I created my own font.
All the symbols I need for chords are available as capital letters: A-G are in their normal positions, and I use H for the half-diminished sign, J for delta, S for sharp, and so on. It's quick now that I'm used to it.

I also have the symbols for making chord fake sheets in a word processing program.

I made the font using the free demo of an earlier version of Fontmaker, available from http://www.high-logic.com

I would be happy to send you my font as a .ttf file if you like. The downside is that it may replace the font Lydian if that's installed on your computer, and of course if you share files with people who don't have that font installed the symbols will show up as garbage.

The number of symbols we actually need is small enough that
thay could be incorporated into a modified Boxmarks font,
which still has a lot of empty characters.

John Kavanagh

Re: Jazz chords

Reply #9 –
I have thought about the chord dilema a little more - I have a solution (for my own purposes). Is it possible to have a staff that one can layer, but not have the notes print - Eg. Include the rhythm of where the chords appear, and have the lyrics above the notes containing chord info. Then superimpose this rhythm part with melody. The effect is having lyrics below melody line, and chords above matching above in the correct rhythmic locations.

One more feature request; the ability to "hide" individual notes/rests from printing - especially useful when doing layering.

And another request; fonts included with NoteWorthy for all the symbols people seem to want - dim etc. If it were standard as part of the package, there would be no hassles with file portability. Lastly, also included in this font - guitar chord fingering symbols would be great <grin>. Thats a little harder - but would be nice.

I dont own noteworthy yet - but with the above features, I'd buy in a flash.

Greg

Re: Jazz chords

Reply #10 –
Hello! I only want to say that I have some good ideas for people who love jazz.I am thinkin about share our chords and riffs and some standars to learn more.Mail me!
.

Re: Jazz chords

Reply #11 –
"boxmarks - the de facto stand" ?
Do you guys really believe in that?
Why don't NWC put it in then?
This is really freaky, is NWC 25% company supported and 75% user supported?
 

Re: Jazz chords

Reply #12 –
> "boxmarks - the de facto stand" ?

As the first font specifically designed specifically for NoteWorthy, and the one that's still in the broadest usage, I'd say this is an accurate description. This may change, however, once NoteRow is in public release.

> Do you guys really believe in that?

Which guys would you be referring to?

> Why don't NWC put it in then?'

Presumably because different users have different requirements. NoteWorthy supplies six user-fonts slots that can be used to incorporate as many (or as few) custom fonts as you wish.

> This is really freaky, is NWC 25% company supported and 75% user supported?

Not sure about your percentages, but yes: NWC users (most of them) believe in the product, find it extremely useful, flexible, stable, cost-effective, and versatile. If you'd prefer software on the other end of the spectrum, buy something from Microsoft. Oh, wait a minute... you already did. So sorry...