Stacking chord symbol extensions vertically instead of horizontally
This would be really helpful, chords with lots of extensions are very hard to read horizontally and requires Measures per System to be set lower than ideal. Vertical stacking is a common best practice in professional Jazz charts. Any plans for this?
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You're in luck! This feature has just been implemented. It will be available in the upcoming version 4.6, announced for September. You can try it out with the Alpha version released two weeks ago: https://musescore.org/en/node/382028
For discovering the new options, go to menu Format / Style / Chord symbols.
In reply to You're in luck! This… by cadiz1
Thank you, that's great news!!!
In reply to Thanks you, that's great… by Keyscapes
For my own personal knowledge (jazz is not a style I use frequently, even never, with MuseScore), could you attach a few images of this type of chords (I quote you: " chords with lots of extensions are very hard to read horizontally (...) Vertical stacking is a common best practice in professional Jazz charts"
I thought that the use of these stacked symbols was more intended for 20th-century contemporary music, bitonality, polytonality (in Stravinsky, for example).
In any case, to get now the desired effect (i.e. "stacked"), instead of the usual slash, you need to type the shortcut Alt Gr + 6 (for Windows and Linux, well at least for AZERTY keyboard...) or Shift + alt/option + L (for Mac).
In reply to For my own personal… by cadiz1
Sure. I've attached Veils, a Musescore example of how I write the chord extensions now. Look for the #5 # 9 chords.
I've also attached a partial scan of a piece called Holy Land (my scanner is terrible.) It shows what I mean by vertical stacking. Look for the #5 #9 chords and in a couple of cases a triple stack of #5 b9 #11. They are vertically stacked inside the parentheses. Easier to read than horizontally, and more space efficient. Some people will stack the extensions without the parentheses. For example imagine a Db 6/9 chord written simply as Db with a small stack of 6 and 9 to the right of Db. Just like the attached example, but without the parentheses.
I'm familiar with polychords and the stacking used to indicate polytonality. That is a useful but different type of notation from what I'm asking for.
Thanks again!