Cannot use natural sign in chord symbols

• Sep 29, 2024 - 19:37

I was trying to enter some chords with tensions, e.g., E♭7(♭9♮13), but it doesn't seem working with natural signs. The one you can add by using "Insert a special character" appears to be subscript, and after entering the chord, you get a blank rectangle instead of a natural sign. Ctrl-Shift-H mentioned in https://musescore.org/en/handbook/4/chord-symbols#enter-chord-symbol doesn't work either, it just doesn't add any symbol.

Any help / workaround?

OS: macOS 14.6, Arch.: x86_64, MuseScore Studio version (64-bit): 4.4.2-242570931, revision: 3130f97

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Comments

• Sep 30, 2024 - 02:23

Thanks, it's an interesting workaround to show the correct natural sign, but it's still not really a solution. As you mentioned, it doesn't play, so MuseScore doesn't seem to recognize it as a legitimate chord that way.

PS Also, it's kind of weird to even write that whole "natural" term to get the right character. Isn't is supposed to be "h" to be consistent with https://musescore.org/en/handbook/4/chord-symbols#enter-rna? And shouldn't Ctrl-Shift-H work? (see the screenshots I am attaching)

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Reply

• Sep 30, 2024 - 18:55

Sounds like you have a solution to the specific case at hand here, but Just a couple of general observations:

1) on Mac, you can pretty much expect that any time the documentation for MuseScore or any other cross-platform application mentions "Ctrl", you can mentally substitute "Cmd" even if the documentation doesn't specifically say so. Exceptions exist are are few and far between.
2) The use of natural sign in chord symbols as you are proposing is not standard and is likely to confuse many musicians. More typical for the chord in question would be Eb13b9. Some would write Eb7(b9,13). But natural signs are hardly ever used in this context.

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• Sep 30, 2024 - 19:06

Not really a solution, as the chord doesn't play.

Re 2): I think you are making assumptions here regarding confusion, etc. The natural sign can be applicable to any note/degree, and just should be treated the same way; it just means that it's the natural note, not altered. FYI, I am evaluating Dorico right now, and I did manage to have it the way I needed in that tool. I had to add some custom configuration (but via the UI, though, so it was fine), but it did work there just fine, and the chord is still playing.

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• Sep 30, 2024 - 19:34

While it’s true that there does exist a very tiny percentage of publishers who choose to use natural signs in chord symbols, not a single major publisher does, nor do any of the major style guides sanction their use. There isn’t a single chord symbol that can’t be better (more widely understood) notated with a more standard notations. So unless you’re working for one of the outlier publishers who uses the natural sign, there really is no case where you’d ever need the natural or even be better off using it.

But if you do find yourself in one those rare cases where for whatever reason you do decide it makes sense to use and are positive that the musicians reading your score won’t be confused by it, at least MuseScore does support it. And even if the built-in playback doesn’t recognize all non-standard notations one might choose to use, you can always disable playback and add the more standard notation as an invisible element. And feel free to open a feature request to add playback support for this if there isn’t one already on GitHub.

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