guitar chord sound playback

• Apr 9, 2023 - 15:03

Is it possible to play back with sound guitar chords that have been added to song lyrics?


Comments

Since lyrics can only be added to notes or rests, yes.
In the mixer you can click on the small left arrow to open more. The right fader is for the chords. Click on it and then you can select a guitar or an other instrument sound.
See the screenshot from MuS 3.6.2.
ScreenShot_MuseScore 3.png

In reply to by HildeK

Thanks for your response.

But can the entire song be played back hearing only the guitar chords in their sequence? Just like one can instead choose to hear the entire song melody played back?

Do I need a MIDI device to hear the chord playback? Or, can it be played back without a MIDI device like the melody?

In reply to by saddla

Maybe I don't understand everything.

It is easy to write lyrics and chords in Musescore. Ctrl-K for chords, Ctrl-L for lyrics. But both belong to a note, so you should have notes on the staff of the correct rhythm. If you don't want to hear the notes, you can either mute them in the mixer or select all those notes and uncheck 'Play' in the inspector. Then the voice remains muted but you can hear the chord. The staff can also be a single line staff, e.g. for woodblock or triangle and you may hide the notes.

This is also possible with a staff without notes but with rests in the correct rhythm. However, it is much more difficult to enter, you have to click on each rest individually and use Ctrl-L or Ctrl-K to enter the note text and the chord. So better use notes and mute and hide them.

Attached an example. The voice staff is how you should enter all, the triangle staff how it could look if you do not want to see any notes. There are a lot of possibilities to hide notes (press 'v'), clef, key signatur, bar lines. Mainly in the staff/part properties menue.
MuseScore 3_Chords.png
I use MuS 3.6.2.

[Edit]
The chords may be muted. Under Format/Style/Chords you can activate 'Play'.

In reply to by HildeK

Oh, okay, I think I am beginning to understand.

But I'm not sure what you refer to as the "mixer". Is it a separate MIDI devive that I would need to get, or is the "mixer" included in the MuseScore program that I would download to my desktop computer?

Do you happen to know anything about the Crescendo program that I have been using? I have not been able to find out anything about playing back the chords of my song with Crescendo. Can it be done with Crescendo also? If not, then I guess I would have to switch from Crescendo to MuseScore.

Thanks again for your assistance.

In reply to by saddla

The mixer is part of Musescore. Press F10 to show the mixer window, as I showed in my first reply. You can use it for the volume relations between different instruments of a score and you can use it also to change the sound of an instrument.
That is what I suggest to do with the chords to change them from a piano sound to a gituar sound.

Crescendo? No, sorry. I have never heard of this program. Therefore, I cannot give any advice. Maybe someone else can.

In reply to by HildeK

Hello again, and thanks for your previous assistance. I have 2 questions.
Can the staff height be lessened while keeping the same distance between staffs?
Can the font size of chord symbols (such as A) be made smaller?
Thank you,
John

In reply to by saddla

Staff height? Do you mean a vertically smaller staff as shown in the bass line? See Staff/Part properies - Line distance. Note sizes can be switched between normal and small in the inspector.

Distances between staffs can be setup in Format/Style/Page in many ways. You may need to play with the settings.

Font size of chords and other text can be modified either directly in inspector (for MuS 3.6.2) or in general under Format/Style/Text Styles/Chord Symbol.

Distance_Size_Font.png

As I do not know which musescore version you are using, some commands may be different. AFAIK there is no inspector in MuS 4, instead there is a property function.

In reply to by saddla

Hello once again. Thanks to your assistance, I'm beginning to get the hang of things.
However, I am not able to figure out how to change the font size of the song title located within the title frame.
Thanks again,
John

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