Re: New feature: automatically invert chords or drop/rise chord notes (issue 365840043 by address@hidden)

[Valentin Villenave]

On 2/3/19, Lukas-Fabian Moser <address@hidden> wrote:
> This statement surprises me. I always thought of 'drop n' (with 'drop 2'
> being the most common one) as a means to transform closed-harmony
> _upper_ voices into open harmony _upper_ voices, without changing the
> bass at all.

I see what you mean (and I did share your surprise when, also coming
from a classical/baroque background, I first started hanging out with
jazzmen: for example referring to `drop n’ voicings by counting notes
from the _uppermost_ remains absolutely baffling to me).

Much like continued bass, what we’re dealing with here is the "right
hand" positions, which most certainly does not affect the bass line,
except in jazz music it will typically be played by the _left_ hand
(or with both hands) whilst the actual bass line (often heavily
anchored in root notes, much more so than in baroque music) is left to
the bass player. In this regard, what I referred to as "changing the
bass note" would actually be better phrased as "changing the lowest
note played by the guy in charge of chords, regardless of what the
global bass note will be". At least, that’s my understanding of how
jazz music is conceptualized, which YMMV with.

BTW, there’s no proper notion of inversions as such in jazz music
(AFAICT); so the purpose of an \invertChords function here is left to
our appreciation, with the minimal requirement being that the lowest
note of the chord changes each time -- but traditionally, I think the
lowest note of the previous inversion *should* become the highest note
of the next inversion (and reciprocally when proceeding in reverse).
If that means moving said note by two octaves instead of just one,
then so be it (IMO).

(And yes, I need to stop using acronyms in every sentence :-)

Regards,
V.