single note or empty octave in chord notation?

• Jan 28, 2024 - 02:21

Hi, I would like to write (and have properly playbacked) a single note and an empty octave in chord notation.

I found that a open fifth can be noted e.g. "A5" where only A and E should be played. For thirds, the chord can be noted "A(no5)" or "Am(no5)". So far so good.

For an octave I seem to be bound to write "A(no3)(no5)" which looks quite strange, is a pain to write, and a pain to read for the guitarist or pianist. But at least it playbacks as an octave. Natural way would be writing "A8" but MS would ignore this and playback an A major chord instead. Setting the voicing to root only gives only one note but not an octave, which is not what is wanted.

A single note, as it seems, cannot be noted as a chord symbol which MS automatically recognizes. Of course I can write "A1" and set the voicing for this chord to root only. But this comes as a clumsy workaround as it would have to be done for each and every such chord in a score. And, if for some reason I decide that not only a single note should be played, I would have to change the voicing to automatic again.

Is there any way for making MS to automatically recognize notations like "A1" and "A8" just as they are meant?

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