Chord symbol playback: "Realize chord symbols" dialog shows an extra root note

• May 21, 2020 - 13:50
Reported version
3.x-dev
Type
Graphical (UI)
Frequency
Once
Severity
S4 - Minor
Reproducibility
Always
Status
active
Regression
No
Workaround
No
Project
MuseScore

OS: Windows 10 (10.0), Arch.: x86_64, MuseScore version (64-bit): 3.5.0.11829, revision: 461f048

  1. Open the attached score.
  2. Click on Csus4, then right-click and select "Realize Chord Symbol."
  3. Click on the "Show more" button and look under "Notes."

Result: There is an extra root note. This happens for all chords.

Attachment Size
chord_playback_root_notes.mscz 5.01 KB

Comments

• May 21, 2020 - 13:59
Status active ⇒ by design
Type Functional ⇒ Ergonomical (UX)

That is indeed the desired effect and as such by design. There are other options to tweak that behavoir

Reply

• May 21, 2020 - 14:27
Status by design ⇒ active

Surely, it must be a bug. Every chord has an extra root note in the "Notes" column of the "Show more" box which is not present in the realized chord. There doesn't appear to be any didactic reason for it.

Reply

• May 21, 2020 - 17:05

Just want to sanity-check. Here's what I'm seeing for the Csus4 chord symbol in the attached score:

Intervals: 0 0 5 7
Notes: C, C, C, F, G

Is this really correct?

Reply

• May 21, 2020 - 17:19
Status by design ⇒ needs info

My question exactly. Here's the realized chord on the staff:
csus4.png
And, as Spire42 has pointed out, the notes in the "Show more" display are "C, C, C, F, G."

Reply

• May 21, 2020 - 17:26
Status needs info ⇒ by design

Indeed, absolutely by design. The point is to hear the root in the bass range as would normally happen in any professional realization of the harmony, independently of how the notes might happen to be arranged in the mid-range voicing. The point is to get pleasing playback, not a literal spelling of the chord.

Reply

• May 21, 2020 - 17:29
Status by design ⇒ active
Type Ergonomical (UX) ⇒ Graphical (UI)

OK, wait, I see the issue isn't about the actual realization, just the display in the dialog. Yes, there is an extra root displayed there. This is displayed, I think because the bottom note of the chord may not be the root (if you write C/E). But probably that's not needed.

Reply

• May 21, 2020 - 17:32
Status active ⇒ by design
Type Graphical (UI) ⇒ Ergonomical (UX)

But why are there three Cs instead of two?

Further, don't the first two intervals listed (0 and 0) indicate that those three Cs are the exact same note (and octave)?

Reply

• May 21, 2020 - 17:43

The intervals are simplified (octaves reduced). The intervals are correctly showing the actual voicing, which includes the bass note. The notes is for whatever reason starting out by always showing the root, then appending the intervals to it. So it's technically by design, but I don't get the design even though I mentored the project, so I'll leave this open pending comment from the author.

Reply

• May 21, 2020 - 18:02

These intervals are semitones above the root. The 5 and 7 are thus the F & G. It's not necessarily meant to be very interesting to the user, but it's a raw dump of the internal data structure.

Reply

• May 22, 2020 - 10:11

A suggestion :

  1. In "Realize Chord Symbols" > "Show More", Change "Intervals" to "Intervals (semitones)"; …
  2. … and add the octave number to each note in "Notes: e.g. C major = C2, C4, E4, G4.
  3. Allow tooltip to appear when hovering over a chord symbol, showing "Notes".

Reply