On Monday 15 March 2004 05:58, Tiffany Weisman wrote: > I feel that there aren't enough chord names in > Lilypond to adequately cover most people's needs. A > jazz chord system at minimum needs to cover the > following chords: > > major > minor
That is an interesting list. I don't think you need C2 when Cadd9 could be done, and I don't understand how a list of jazz chords would not include any with more than one alteration. I'm going to try again to explain what "jazz chords" are supposed to be with a historical perspective. In the forties, in NYC, there was a problem with illegible chord names in lead sheets, partly because sheet music publishers had been using -, +, and o's in chord names, which tended to make chord names unreadable. (A-9, A--9, Am-9, A-b9) It mattered because they were writing bop, with many 5 note chords. A more verbose way of writing chords developed, in which *only* the sharp and flat were used, and no other special symbols were permitted. Today most have fallen back to using not only the old -+o's but also adding the triangle. They are all nasty in manuscript. You could type jazz chords on an ordinary typewriter. With the single exception of the dim=dim7 chord, chords were written so: root [m] [farthest unaltered extension] [(list alterations in ascending order)] [add|omitNoteOrNumber] Examples: Em13(b5b9) Em13b5b9 Amadd9 Comit3 In the unlikely event that you wanted the 11th in a 13th chord, you could write: Em11(b5b9)add13 Later, with simpler chords sometimes in style, you had sheet music stuff come back, like Csus4 or C4 instead of C11, and the unnecessary 2 sometimes instead of 9. The C5 was new. Also in the sixties, the bass note could be indicated with a slash, which was a very welcome innovation because it could make it unnecessary to provide a bass part. The new practice of putting the bass note in lower case helps to prevent the slash/bass and slash repeat-beat from being confused. The ultimate horror is to combine the usages for simple chords with the old jazz chord system. It's unnecessary. It serves no purpose. It's a mess. What improvement is C5add7 over C7omit5? Use the short cuts for short cuts, not to introduce more unnecessary stuff. That leaves only the C4 or Csus and C5 to add to the jazz chord list. You don't need stuff like C57 or C5add7 when you could C7omit3. You don't need C9sus4 instead of C11, and C7sus4 is C11omit9, as if anyone would play the 3rd anyway. The whole idea of jazz chords or any other sheet music chords is instant recognition. It doesn't matter to the soloist what a chord *means*, he just has to work with it. Using a flat thirteenth instead of a sharp fifth, for example, brings an unnecessary and unwelcome complexity to the chord names. The player is either playing the chord, in which case he doesn't have to understand the logic of it, or soloing, in which case he will play many notes between the "suspension" and its resolution, rendering the distinction between a suspension-resolution and added note, and every other such analytical distinction, completely meaningless. The person who wrote the tune doesn't have to read it. The system did not arise to teach any sort of chord analysis, and it should not be adapted or perverted to that purpose. There is nothing wrong with having a G7(b5) chord along with a csharp in the score, for example. One who is fussy about where the 3rds and 5ths or the spelling of notes in chords should go should perhaps write out what he wants and forget chord names, or even use figured bass. It certainly has nothing to do with jazz. I know that I am in a minority, but I have seen sites on the net where chord names in jazz chord style, which I guess is conservative now, are still preferred. I wouldn't mind having them available in lilypond, but for now, chords are markup only. daveA -- It's not that hard to understand the lesson of Viet Nam. Never never never never defend one tyrant against another, because The worst thing that can happen is you might win. The *Gulf* war was worse than Nam. D. Raleigh Arnold dra@ (http://www.) openguitar.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Lilypond-user mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user