Re: Chord notation in files output by Rosegarden

[Carl D. Sorensen]

On 1/20/09 8:06 AM, "Lorenzo Bicci" <address@hidden> wrote:

> My band and I are using Rosegarden to transcribe our songs, with all the
> vocal parts and the chords. I found that by writing chords directly with
> Lilypond notation (for example: fis:7 or bes:dim) it's possible to make
> Lilypond treat them in a smarter way, avoiding graphical collisions
> among chords' names and keeping the possibility to change chords'
> language with a simple change in the .ly file.
> 
> Example of the chords' section of a .ly file output by Rosegarden:
> 
>     \new ChordNames \chordmode {
>         \set chordNameExceptions = #chExceptions
>         \skip 1*16 ees4*0:m \skip 1 des4*0:sus4 \skip 2 aes4*0/c \skip 2
> ees4*0:m \skip 1 des4*0:sus4 \skip 2 aes4*0 \skip 2 ees4*0:m \skip 1
> \skip 2 ees4*0:m \skip 2*2 des4*0:sus4 \skip 2 aes4*0/c \skip 2 ees4*0:m
<...snip...>
> \skip 2
>     } % ChordNames

This seems to me like  very strange way to output chords, with no durations
on the chords and all the between-chord spacing set by skips.  Maybe it's
necessary because of the GUI for Rosegarden...


> 
> 
> The problem is I couldn't find in Lilypond's documentation the symbols
> for:

LilyPond doesn't have any symbols for chords.  There's just a system for
building chords following some simple rules.  You can read about it in the
Notation Reference, section 2.7.1 Chord mode, under the subheading Extended
and altered chords.


> - add9 chords (for example, d:9 outputs a D9, not a Dadd9)

I think that to do an add9 chord, you have two choices:
d:9^7, which creates a D9 and removes the seven, or

d:5.9, which creates a D and adds the 9.



> - No Chords.

I'm not sure what you mean by No Chords.  And I don't know Rosegarden at
all.  So take this for what it's worth.

In your Rosegarden output (the .ly file that Rosegarden creates), you can
just delete the chord symbol (e.g., ees4*0:m), and that will eliminate a
chord name.  This works only because the way Rosegarden sets up the chord
names they have a zero duration (4*0 = 0).
> 
> I don't even understand how to specify the chords note by note (and not
> with a single symbol) in the .ly file in the lines where Rosegarden
> writes the chords.

If you want to specify the chords note by note (which I would recommend
against), you would replace

c4*0:maj7

with 

<c e g b>4*0

Now, for the last bit of advice I have.

If you're needing to mess around with the Rosegarden output to get a .ly
file that you like, I'd recommend that you eliminate the use of Rosegarden
and just learn to write your own .ly files directly.  You'll be able to make
simpler, easier to understand .ly files, and you'll have one less step to go
through.

YMMV, however.

HTH,

Carl