Stacked RNA symbols? Actually they are possible!

• Aug 23, 2021 - 09:27

Is it possible in some way to have a stack of Roman Numeral Analysis symbols under a note or a chord?
This could be achieved with an image or some other text format - but a symbol stack could be helpful.

"Why?" - you might ask. Sometimes it's helpful to have good options for chords/harmonies shown under the staves in which can then be used to help make a decision about which chords to actually use in a composition.

Before hitting the send button on this question I did my own tests. It seems it is possible to have more than one bit of RNA text associated with any note - so it is in fact possible. That can be combined with an image fragment of an appropriate scale in order to make the harmony writing easier.

If anyone wants to see how - I can post an example later. This might not be too well known - but if "everyone" knows it already - sorry to have bothered you.

Oddly it looks as though it's also possible to have multiple chord symbols associated with notes, thus a bass note could be associated with - for example a G7 chord and also a D chord. The actual symbols on the page can be dragged around to give a suitable layout. Thus if someone wants to figure out one of several chord options to use, they can all be put in - as possible alternatives, and the actual chords to use determined later.

I think if multiple chord possibilities are put in using chord notation, that the MS player will actually play all of them when that note is reached.


Comments

Yes, it is indeed quite possible - as you say, jJust add two RNA symbols to the same note/rest. Autoplace will automatically push the second further away. But you can also explicitly set the vertical offset, to make it easy to align multiple "alternate" RNA symbols, or even make it a separate text style, much as is provided by default for chord symbols. Nothing odd about that, alternate chords are extremely common. No need to drag - almost always better to either allow autoplace to avoid collisions automatically, or using explicit vertical offsets / text styles for greater precision and ease.

And yes, both chords play by default, which can be useful if you are doing this to create a polychord. You can always disable playback for one if you like.

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