Re: guitarist: how write chord names like Gadd5

[Tim McNamara]

On Feb 1, 2011, at 8:13 AM, Jürgen Ibelgaufts wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I want to write down guitar chords and frets with extra voicings, say a G 
> chord with an extra Fifth on the B string, 3rd fret, or Em chord with an 
> extra G on the treble e string. As these extra notes belong to the chords, 
> you can write g:5, but Lilypond ignores the :5 and prints only G, and the G 
> fret diagram gets overwritten by the G:5 fret diagram.
> 
> Is there any best practice how to use and print such extra chord names, 
> anyway?

Since G5 isn't really a chord (it's either redundant to specify the 5th because 
the 5th is already part of the chord or you want to actually play a perfect 
fifth double-stop rather than a chord) I am not surprised that the results are 
odd.

What you appear to be wanting is often called a "slash chord" which is usually 
a triad or tetrad over a specific bass note.  It is denoted by a slash between 
the chord and the bass note (different from a polychord which is usually 
denoted as two triads stacked, separated by a horizontal line).  You'll find 
more in the documentation under \chordmode, but the short answer for entering 
the chord name with a specific bass note is:

     g:1/d to produce G/D
     e1:min/g to produce Emin/G
     etc.

I have no idea how to get those as correct chord diagrams as I don't use that 
feature.

Hope this helps somewhat.