Re: sus7 chords in \chordmode

[Tim McNamara]

> On Jan 25, 2015, at 7:44 PM, Thomas Morley <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> 2015-01-26 2:18 GMT+01:00 Tim McNamara <address@hidden>:
>> I have repeatedly run into difficulties getting Lilypond to properly render 
>> sus7 chord names in \chordmode.  It comes up with silly things like "G7sus4 
>> 3” and the like.  What is the correct syntax to get a simple “Gsus7” to 
>> print?  I’ve tried every combination I can think of.
>> 
>> (By the way, I am also using the pop-chords exception list as I don’t like 
>> the Ignatzek standard that is the default in Lilypond).
> 
> Because different people understand different things under the same
> chord-symbol, please give us a minimal example. Also I'm not aware of
> the 'pop-chords exception list’.

pop-chords.ly is available in the snippet repository to provide more readable 
chord names than are provided by the default Ignatzek chord names.  I’ve never 
understood how those got to be the default because they are not very 
attractive.  I can make no pretense of understanding the Scheme code used in 
pop-chords.ly as my knowledge of coding is virtually nil; the definitions of 
the chords themselves within that file are pretty straightforward. 

> Which notes does a Gsus7 contain, the following ones?
> 
> \notemode { <g c d f> }

Yes, G C D F   The 3rd is replaced with the 4th and the flat 7th is added.  
That is the standard definition of a sus7 chord (there are sus2 chords as well, 
but those are usually specified as sus2 whereas sus chords are understood to 
replace the 3rd with the 4th).

g1:4.7 and g1.7.4 both give a result of "G7 sus4 3” which is suboptimal.

g1:sus results in “G5” which makes no sense.

g1:4 results in "G4 sus4 3” which again is suboptimal.

With a bit more experimenting, I find that g1:7sus4 results in “G7sus4” which 
is a big improvement but I’d like to trim that down to “sus7” if possible.

I am puzzled by this- I cannot imagine that I am the first person attempting to 
get Lilypond to print a sus7 chord in \chordmode.  There must be a correct 
syntax but I can’t figure it out.  There is a reason I am not a coder!  :-P

Thanks!