Slash Chords in Nashville notation are weird.

• Jul 1, 2021 - 10:58

When using slash chords in Nashville notation the behavior is not what I expected.
For a piece in C major I would think that C/D and 1/2 would be the same thing.
Instead 1/2 is realized as a C2/D and 1²/2 as a C/D which seems to be flipped.

nashville-slash-chords.png

For the first scale degree this not a huge problem, since C2/D and C/D don't sound that different.
However having a 2ᵐ/2 where you wanted a 2ᵐ²/2 and vice versa is problematic, since the 2 after the slash is relative to the key but ² is relative to the chord.

nashville-slash-chords2.png
A dm2/D is dissonant while a dm/D is not.

On a semi-related note, I would be preferable it if the slash and number after it where not in superscript in line with normal chord symbols and roman numeral notation.

The score was created from scratch on:
OS: Arch Linux, Arch.: x86_64, MuseScore version (64-bit): 3.6.2

Attachment Size
nashville-slash-chords.mscz 10.19 KB

Comments

I'm not an expert on Nashville notation, but I think I see what you mean. In a symbol X/Y, the "Y" is meant to specify a scale degree to use as the bass note, but the playback faciltiy is also adding tit to the upper portion of the voicing, relative to the root rather than the scale. Presumably it's seeing this like a regualr chord symbol in that respect. Seems to be a bug, I'd recommend submitting it as a bug report to the issue tracker with just a very simple example like key of C, and a notation 4/6 that shows the issue clearly (should be the same as F/A, but it actually plays back as F6/A - an inappropriate added D).

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