C2sus Chord Display
Please, forgive me if I post duplicate topic, also it may be not in the correct forum but tried to find anything similar with no success.
My question is how to display this chord C2sus? It's not Csus2 (suspended second) but it is C2 suspended. Example is shown below, red encircled.
I'm using cchords_sym.xml file as most appropriate for me and there, as much as I could see, only C7sus (and similar) is defined for displaying. Tried to add some new declarations but obviously lack the proper knowledge of the file's structure. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!
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Comments
Have you tried giving the chord it's proper name - C11?
As in fact it is not a C2 sus chord at all as both the D and F are suspended, resolving into a C minor chord.
Maybe we should never have abandoned the old method of adding chords to a part - figured bass :)
In reply to Have you tried giving the by ChurchOrganist
I'm not so theory-educated but doesn't C11 include all degrees upto 11th (1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th and 11th)? While C2sus contains only 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th, I guess. Ignore next step - the eighths C and E. Or if C2sus sign is not correct then how should be labelled a chord containing those degrees and, of course, how can it be displayed in Musescore?
By the way the example is from the tune "Oh The Glory Of Your Presence", if that could help, and if you are really a church organist you may know it :)
Excuse me if my term language is not correct, english is not my native language.
Thanks!
In reply to Trying to make it clear for myself... by fruitful
All notation is an attempt to put musical gesture into a "textual" format so others can reproduce it, or some facsimile of it.
There will always be differences in the explanations of fine details because each instance can be expressed in numerous ways, and so will be.
We try to get it clearer.
In reply to Trying to make it clear for myself... by fruitful
C11 theoretically does contain all those degrees of the scale, but certainly in much of the jazz music I have played is often used to describe such a suspended chord as you have there.
Actually I would define C2 as requiring the 3rd of the chord as well, but we're into an area where modern chord symbols are not specific enough to describe the harmonic progression, hence my comment about figured bass.
Presumably, the chords are there for the benefit of the guitarist, and so basically any chord symbol which is descriptive enough to tell what chord to play is going to be fine, bearing in mind that a guitarist would probably not play the full C11 chord anyway, and the introduction of a Bflat is not going to wreck the harmony in this case.
I haven't come across that particular worship song before - I work in a UK Anglican context so much of the US Evangelical stuff passes me by :)
I suppose basically I'm trying to say that chord symbols are only really a guide, they are too blunt an instrument to use to tell a player exactly what notes to play.
HTH
PS Marc Sabatella is the resident chord guru here. Marc defined several of the chord styles for 1.3 so he may be able to tell you how to get that exact chord symbol.
A few things:
1) Yes, literally C2sus means C D F G only. But the point of a chord symbol is not to describe the exact set of notes that are written in the piano part. It's to describe the general quality of a chord to enable a player to construct a voicing that is "compatible". For this purpose, there are several of names that would have the desired effect including C11, C9sus, Csus, etc. Or, for that, matter, just Cm. The D and F are not functioning as chord tones here, but are just appoggiaturas (not chord tones). It would really be more appropriate *not* to double them in any other instrument. To me, specifying C2sus and then Cm is "too much information", distracting from the essence of what is going on. At most, though, I'd put Csus. The 2 doesn't add any useful information, and it's definitely not a note anyone would need doubled.
2) To see a full list of the chords defined by a given chord symbol style, so to Plugins / Lead Sheet / Create Chord Chart.
3) If you want to add a chord not already defined, the syntax is not that bad. The "cchords" files use a fancy format to make it easy to change something at the top of the file and have it affect all chords (the only difference between the various cchords files are the settings at the top). Also to make MusicXML export work. But you don't have to do all that. All you need is the following:
You'll need to add angle brackets around "name" etc as you see for the other entries - I couldn't enter them here because the
4) For 2.0, none of this will be necessary. You won't need enter chords the exact right way - more or less anything will be accepted and understood.
I would like to thank all of you who so thorough explained me the matter. I, as mostly self-educated amateur musician (drummer) have a basic knowledge in harmony and no professional experience where musicians use chord notation as a guideline. So learning that from experienced ones is a good point for me! I graduated IT and may be that's why I'm so strict in giving correct chord names (as far as I think they're correct). :)
Thanks for the suggestion about xml-file. I really appreciate advices of both of you - ChurchOrganist and Marc Sabatella!
Great application! It helped me convert many hard copy tunes into e-format ones. Keep on doing the good work! Looking forward for 2.0. When can we expect its official release? Also, I consider contributing a help with translating instruments into bulgarian, if needed.
Csus+2 or Csus2+4
In reply to Csus+2 or Csus2+4 by Tommy Arsenault
The + sign is generally used for augmented five (#5, aug or +).
I prefer: G7sus/C -> Cm