Add recognition for dash to denote minor in chords (jazz style)

• Jun 21, 2018 - 18:01

When writing lead sheets for Jazz it is common to adopt the 'real book' style of writing minor chords with a dash; e.g. "F-7" instead of "Fm7".
It is possible in the current version 2.2.1 to input dashes, but they are not recognised as an 'alternative spelling' of minor.
I would suggest that this would be integrated as an option under Style -> general -> Chord symbols(...) -> Note spelling as something like "Show minor as -"

I've attached a lead sheet drum part I was working on as well as a copy of a page from the real book.


Comments

Dashes are recognized as meaning minor. Not sure what's making you think they aren't? I just entered D-7 into your score and it worked perfectly. Just type the dash normally using the hyphen key on your keyboard.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Thanks for looking into this so quickly :-)

I just did a test, in a way I didn't think of originally. If I have the setting "Lower case minor chords" enabled, Musescore will change the inputs Cm C- and Cmi to cm c- and cmi respectively, so I was wrong to think dash isnt recognised as a minor.

I think it's probably a question of expectation.
If i enter a dash, it is not changed to an m, nor is an m i enter changed to a dash , but having both 'spellings' isn't done.
I still think there is a feature request here - do you agree?

In reply to by bosworthdk

Not sure - what is it you'd like to see happening that isn't? It's a feature that you can enter either "m" or "-" and it gets recognized correctly as minor. Do you mean, you'd like to be able to enter "m" but have it converted to "-" automatically? If so, this is possible with a bit of work (you need to create a custom chord description file, see Style / General / Chord Symbols). If you want to take a chart that was originally created using "m" and convert it to use "-" instead, that's something that would indeed be interesting to be able to do someday. It could probably be done via some sort of plugin or script.

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