Chord Symbol Defaulting to Ma7 I just want a triad damn it!

• Dec 9, 2018 - 22:08

I'm not new at all to Muse Score, I'm a long time user currently on MacOS Mojave, have been for months. I like the "sym" style for chord symbols because I do a lot of jazz so it's my default. That means the triangle for Major7 and the circle with a slash for minor7flat5 etc. But always before if I really want just a PLAIN OLD D chord I type in D and that's what I get. All of a sudden it's started defaulting all major chords to a Major7, so like if I type in just a D, once I move out of that field it shows a D(triangle) totally not what I want in this case, since I happen to be doing a folk song, and that would just be WRONG. It didn't always exhibit this behavior. I downloaded the latest and greatest of Muse Score a couple months ago, but today is the first time I have seen this bad behavior. Root cause ideas? Fix or work around? I guess use some other style but if possible I would like this one to work because I also prefer the way it looks.
Sample file provided: There should not be any major 7 chords in this at all!

Attachment Size
I wonder as I wander leadsheet.mscz 18.83 KB

Comments

"Sym style??? That hasn't been a thing for many years; I guess you must be trying to use the old 1.3 version of this file? Don't do that. Current versions of MuseScore just allow you to use symbols any time you like, no need to load special "Sym" styles. Assuming you are using a recent version of MsueScore, just switch back to the "Standard" or "Jazz" style (in Style / General / Chord Symbol) and chord symbols will display as you asked, no conversion. So if you want C, type C. If you want Cma, type Cma. If you want C(triangle) type Ct. And so on. This works either in Standard or Jazz styles, but you will probably prefer Jazz.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

haha... I have been a user since the 1.? days and then the sym style file was the only one that came with the package at the time that did what I wanted. I just kept using it, cuz if it ain't broke...... Well now it seems to be broken. Trying the jazz style. OK that fixed the folk song, but How do I know what to type to get the symbols I want? I tried Ct for triangle that worked. The small o seemed to work for diminished. How do I get circle slash for m7b5?

That triangle actually just means major, not major 7, just like the minus means minor. I'm sure the style just puts it for clarity. I don't know why it would have recently changed to that other than a program update, but rest easy that it just means major.

In reply to by jgraffis

I only used the 7 because that was the chord the OP was talking about. Starting a chord with a triangle doesn't make sense to me. Without a base pitch, it seems meaningless. I don't use chord symbols a lot and I probably have a lot to learn about them. If it makes sense to have a triangle start a chord I'm willing to learn, but as I stated, if it doesn't make sense to MuseScore it won't be converted. Marc Sabatella is the person who wrote most of the code for chords, and since he's part of this conversation he would be a good candidate to fix this if it's necessary.

In reply to by mike320

I never START a chord with a triangle, because, as you said, a chord needs a root, either an absolute note like D or a scale degree note in Roman Numerals like II if you want to be key agnostic. But I like to use the most terse and unambiguous notation possible for chord symbols. So D triangle for DMaj7 takes way less symbols, is easier to layout and easier to read under combat conditions. The same with m7b5. Never use it alone but Bm7b5 is a thing. I much prefer the circle with a slash. That is three symbols less for my overworked eyes to process. In my parlance, a C without anything is the way to indicate C major. That's the most terse and well recognized way to express that. In Ireal pro the triangle means major 7 if my ear doesn't deceive me, you only need to spell out the 7 if you're doing extensions. Since Muse Score doesn't actually render chord symbols, I guess they can mean whatever you want them to.

In reply to by Tixrus

As I previously explained, I'm no where near the expert on chord symbols that you and others are, I was only responding to what was previously said. The delta (triangle) replaces the letter t when it's in the correct position, and 0 (zero) is replaced by the circle with a slash.

These substitutions are used to make entering the chords easier to input on most keyboards. This means there is no need to go to a symbols palette to find them. In fact, if you DO use symbols, (including # and flat), MuseScore will not understand these and the chords will not be understood.

To understand what MuseScore does, then reading https://musescore.org/en/handbook/chord-symbols is highly advised if you have not already.

In reply to by jgraffis

There has not been any change to that code or to that chord description file. but there has long been code in there that can detect new chords added that weren't part of the original chord description file and then add those to the list of recognized chords. Probably this is what happened on this particular score. You should find other scores unaffected though. To fix this one, it should work to change to Jazz style and then back.

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