How to notate strummed chords w/o slash?
I often include guitar chords in my writing that use 3-4 voices, but I don't actually play guitar myself, so I'm never sure how I could represent the rest of the chord that would be played around them. What should I keep in mind when notating strummed chords? I know guitars are tuned in fourths with a major third on top, but not the limitations of play, like accidentally writing 2 notes that end up on the same string, where fingers are capable of moving on the neck, and which strings one would hold on higher frets, where they cross over the open strings above them.
Trying to count out frets to figure out where inversions would be is so far proving beyond me, so what are some general rules of strumming in regards to fret positions?
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| zombie chord.JPG | 15.72 KB |
Comments
I'm not sure there is a good substitute for learning the fretboard. You don't have to be fast at it (I'm certainly not), but you need to be able to work out which finger on which fret gives which note.
You could try using a linked tab staff and using that to check that your notes pan out OK. Also be sure you don't have too big a difference between the lowest and highest fret - e.h., your hand probably can't physically play the A string on the first fret but the D string on the ninth.
BTW, the major third isn't between the to two strings but the second-to-top.
In reply to I'm not sure there is a good… by Marc Sabatella
Do you mean anything particular by linked, or do you just mean notating and also copying everything onto a tab?
In reply to Do you mean anything… by VitalEXess
When you open the instruments by pressing i you can select staff 1 for the instrument, then click the Add linked staff button. Change the gray dropdown to the far right of the new staff to an appropriate tablature option. When you click OK there will be a new staff added to the existing staff. Now, everything you add to one staff will also be added to the other.
See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/create-new-score#add-staff for more info.