Inserting chords: how?
Hi,
I just discovered MuseScore, which I want to use to play chords for me. Basically, I would just like to enter some chords, and have them play. However, I don't know much about music notation so writing out Em7 one note at a time is a frustrating experience. Looking at the docs and searching, I haven't found the answer to this, although I suspect it can be done.
Am I correct? If so, how do I do it?
Thanks,
L
Comments
Chordnames such as Em7 are not being played when you play the score. I currently don't know notation software which plays chordnames actually.
There is unfortunately no fast way yet to insert chords other than using a MIDI keyboard connected with MuseScore or simply using the computer keyboard. See note entry how to insert a chord.
In reply to Chordnames by Thomas
OK, I see. I noticed that there is a plugin called "Create a chort chart" which, I was hoping, can generate a chord chart to cut and paste into a score. That would help a lot, but when I run it I get:
TypeError: Result of expression 'cursor.add' [undefined] is not a function.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
L
In reply to OK, I see. I noticed that by lduperval
What version of MuseScore are you using? The "create chart chart" does not notate the chords on the staff, it only lists the ones MuseScore recognizes. It shouldn't give an error if you are using the latest stable version of MuseScore.
If you want to hear your chord names during playback take a look at Band-in-a-Box or Impro-Visor
In reply to What version of MuseScore are by David Bolton
Oops, I thought I had given the version. It's 0.9.6, which is the version in the Ubuntu repositories. I'll have to update to 0.9.6.3.
I'm not sure what you mean by "hear your chord names" but I'll check out Impro-Visor nevertheless. I'm really looking for something where I can insert guitar chords automatically (and if I can specify which version of the chord I want, even better), and have them play as a voice. I can understand that it isn't supported directly, but is there a "score" of chords that someone has created that they can share? That would allow someone like me (hmmm, not that I'm advocating writing the program just for me...) to use it more easily. And it could be augmented with contributions from anyone, actually. Then who knows, someone might come up with a way to write a plugin that inserts the chords automatically, and cuts down on the cut'n'paste.
While I'm at it, (and if I should start a new thread for this, let me know), how do I get ties to play as a single note instead of two notes?
L
In reply to Oops, I thought I had given by lduperval
Read Tie and Slur
In reply to Read Tie and Slur by [DELETED] 5
I did, thanks.
L
In reply to Chordnames by Thomas
Does anything changed in Musescore in the last two years?
Thomas wrote: " I currently don't know notation software which plays chordnames actually.".
There is such a program: Lilypond. It plays not only music notes, but also chords. It available both for Linux and Windows.
In reply to Software for chords names by Milimetr
What? AFAIR LilyPond does play nothing, it is only for engraving
In reply to What? AFAIR LilyPonds does by Jojo-Schmitz
Well, to be precise, Lilypond can generate PDF files, so it engraves, but it can also generate MIDI files (and in MIDI files you can here chords that you have typed in), so it also "plays" :)
In reply to Well, to be precise, Lilypond by Milimetr
Ah, news to me, but are you talking about Chords in the sense of Chord Symbols like Am or as collection of notes of same voice and same lenght at same beat? Here in this thread we mean the former. The latter work in musScore ever since.
In reply to Ah, news to me, but are you by Jojo-Schmitz
I'm talking about typing in "Am" and then, when playing the piece, hearing a-moll chord being played. I dunno which one - first or second - your meaning is that :] Nevetheless I think that I'm talking about the same as the author of the first post in this topic (lduperval) who wrote:
"I just discovered MuseScore, which I want to use to play chords for me. Basically, I would just like to enter some chords, and have them play. However, I don't know much about music notation so writing out Em7 one note at a time is a frustrating experience."
So we are talking about typing letters and hearing sets of three notes being played and not about typing in all three notes manually, because it's too slow when there are many chords in a song.
In reply to Software for chords names by Milimetr
I know Finale Printmusic 2011 plays chords. When I had a melody line and entered chord names, I would hear the chords played back.
In reply to Software for chords names by Milimetr
I'm unclear on the extent to which any given program that can convert Lilypond to MIDI might try to interpret chords, but Finale can definitely make an attempt at it, and I think Sibelius can too. It's *extremely* rudimentary, though. Real musicians would take the chord symbol and arrange the notes to connect to the previous and/or next chord smoothly, spread the notes out in a pleasing way, possibly add some notes or leave some out, and impart some sort of rhythm to the proceedings. Simplistic root position whole notes could be done easily enough by a plugin, I would think - even in 1.2, but probably more easily in 2.0? Anything beyond that extremely rudimentary and very unmusical playback is a much more serious AI research project. There are programs out there that specialize in this - Band in a Box being the most famous, iReal b being very popular now, and Impro-Visor being a good open source alternative.
In reply to I'm unclear on the extent to by Marc Sabatella
Of course that creating "intelligent" chords is an advanced AI project, but notes for smooth chord progression can be done manually. What could be done automatically is treating chords' names typed over the staffs as another instrument to be played - just for "demo" how the melody (e.g. a song) with such chords would sound.