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Topic: Chordletters for Accordeon (Read 5324 times) previous topic - next topic

Chordletters for Accordeon

The bassline for Accordeon for beginners is usually written in letters e.g. C c C7 Dmin etc under the melody-staff

How do I get these?
As Lyrics won't do because it does not give me the possibillity to enter letters where there are no notes while there can be bassnotes on a longer tone.

I imagine singers with guitar accompaniment have the same trouble

Eli

Re: Chordletters for Accordeon

Reply #1 –
You can enter a text expression. Insert, Text expression via the menu, or type shortcut 'x'.

Re: Chordletters for Accordeon

Reply #2 –
Lyrics are actually the easiest to do.  Fill a new staff with quarter rests, make them invisible.  Then add your chord symbols as lyrics to this staff, and everywhere you want one to appear, replace the quarter rest with a hidden and muted quarter note.  Then set the lyric editor to place the lyrics at the top of the staff, and layer the lyric staves.

Re: Chordletters for Accordeon

Reply #3 –
Much easier just to set the lyric property of the rest to 'always'!

Re: Chordletters for Accordeon

Reply #4 –
Cool! Learn something everyday.  Thank you, Peter.

I'm not sure which I would find easier if the part is very "busy," but in most situations it sounds much better than my method.

I'm going to give your idea a shot the next time I need to write chord symbols. Good stuff.

Re: Chordletters for Accordeon

Reply #5 –
Thanks guys,
This gives me directly another way to create more spave between te lines.
I place the chord-letters above the staff and make the staff invissible. Gives me the chords and the extra space in one action

Eli

Re: Chordletters for Accordeon

Reply #6 –
Whatever works for you, great, Eli.  If you're entering the chords as individual text entries, though, you should give the lyrics idea a go, it's quite efficient and great for editing.  You'll need to know that alt=0176 gives you  °, the little circle you need for diminished chords, and that doesn't work in necessarily all the fonts. You also need to use an Ansi or Ascii character for a minus sign if you need one.  I forget what that code is.

Re: Chordletters for Accordeon

Reply #7 –
If you need to know the ASCII/ANSI/Unicode code for a character, just use Character Map. It's in Start | Accessories, or you can run it from Start | Run; the executable is charmap.exe.

Re: Chordletters for Accordeon

Reply #8 –
Thanks for that, Jussi.

On Win 98 it's supposed to be:

"You can also open Character Map by clicking Start, pointing to Programs, pointing to Accessories, pointing to System Tools, and then clicking Character Map.
Character Map works only with Windows-based programs."

Unfortunately, although I have Win 98, it ain't there.  Go figure, eh?  I probably deleted it by mistake at some unremembered time in the distant past.

However, all is not lost.  In my (old) version of Word, there are several character maps shown under Insert/Symbols.

Re: Chordletters for Accordeon

Reply #9 –
You can probably recover this utility from the Win 98 CD. Check the Windows 98 Setup utility.

Re: Chordletters for Accordeon

Reply #10 –
Thanks, Eric.  Jussi sent it to me and I've installed it.  When I upgraded my computer some time ago, I went for a Win98 load, being stubborn, and the vendor installed it as OEM.  I never got the CD, so far as I recall.

Re: Chordletters for Accordeon

Reply #11 –
I sent you what? Either it was someone else or I should get my head checked...

Re: Chordletters for Accordeon

Reply #12 –
Sorry Jussi, my memory is at fault.  It was Frank who sent it to me.

Re: Chordletters for Accordeon

Reply #13 –
Oh, no problem :)

Remember, that there are also some other, enhanced character map applications. On thing that really annoyed me in the Win98 one is that it displays the characters so small. Many of the custom ones have a bigger display, which I prefer.

Then, I once stumbled upon an application that helps you input accents, Accent Composer. You input the accented characters much in the same fashion as with the Compose key available on Unix systems; for example, you could input ä by pressing 'Compose', then ", and then a. (AC is shareware, though, but there might be freeware ones available too...)

Re: Chordletters for Accordeon

Reply #14 –
Also, generally speaking, it is not a good idea to accept any kind of binary program or utility from someone else by e-mail.

Even with an OEM install, your system might contain in the Windows CAB files.