Center chord symbols on their notes/chords
When you select a note, then press Ctrl+K to add a chord symbol with more than one character, the chord's 1st character stays centered on the note. This requires you to manually center each chord symbol you create. This is very time-consuming, especially since nudging with arrow keys isn't available yet (hint, hint).
Instead, please have MuseScore re-center the chord symbol as each character is added or removed. The one exception would be on the first or last note of a bar; in those cases, the chord symbol should not extend beyond the barline.
Comments
Actually, chord symbols are one of the few things you *can* nudge with the arrow keys - but only while in Edit mode (eg, while typing). I personally prefer left aligned chords, but if you want them centered, it *should* be possible to get that by editing the chordname Text Style and changing the alignment to centered. Except that doesn't appear to have any effect in 1.0, even for chords enter the change.
> Actually, chord symbols are one of the few things you *can* nudge with the arrow keys - but only
> while in Edit mode (eg, while typing).
Well, thanks, that's interesting. Unfortunately, it works only horizontally, not vertically. Horizontal nudging shouldn't be required when chord symbols align themselves properly; but vertical nudging can be useful when notes and chords rise above the staff.
> I personally prefer left aligned chords...
For what it's worth, I've never seen any professional notation done that way, and I've been doing this a l-o-n-g time. Left alignment could be an option, but shouldn't the standard way (centered) be the default?
> ...but if you want them centered, it *should* be possible to get that by editing the chordname
> Text Style and changing the alignment to centered. Except that doesn't appear to have any effect
> in 1.0, even for chords enter the change.
Yes, I tried that, and wondered why it didn't change anything.
Left-aligned chords are how things are done in "The Real Book" (both the old illegal volumes and the newer Hal Leonard volumes). The only odd man out is Volume 3 of the old illegal series, which does indeed use centered chords. The Chuck Sher "New Real Book" series also uses left-aligned chords. I'd bet that in fakebooks it would be more common to see left-aligned chords, but in big band arrangements - which typically use more verbose chord symbols - centered would be more common. It also seems that charts that provide guitar fretboard diagrams are more likely to use centered chords, so I'd have no trouble believing the pop world would see centered chords more often than jazz.
So I think a fine case could be made for either as the default. My bookshelf is definitely much more weighted toward left-aligned chords than centered, but I've certainly seen it both ways. But as long as you can set up your own preference, it shouldn't matter which is the default.
So the fact that alignment does not appear to with chordnames work in 1.0, even if you save, close, and reopen the file - appears to be a bug. Lots of things basically don't work about text styles in 1.0, but luckily, most are already fixed in 2.0. And the good news is, this appears to be one of them. Setting the alignment in chordname text style works as expected, and takes effect immediately.
I have implemented something that addresses this. See https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/pull/579.
What I have done is support the alignment properties in the chord symbol text style. If you set the horizontal alignment to centered, then the chord symbol will center over the note or rest to which it is attached. Seems to work well enough, even in cases where there is no note or rest - like two chord symbols in a measure containing only a whole note.
BTW, from further examination of the published literature, I think my second supposition above seems to be true: music that also includes fret diagrams does normally center chords. Looking at big band arrangements, I don't really see that leaning toward centered chords as I surmised I might, although there are definitely a few arrangements that do this. Vocal arrangements seemed roughly 50/50 at best. But music with fret diagrams were the only cases where I found it the rule. So I definitely do not see a reason to make this the default, although it could be made the default for certain templates, such as if we were to a "PVG" (piano/vocal/guitar) one.
Fixed in https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/commit/e76bb895ef446ec16c72f8109…
Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.