jazz chord symbols

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vee6610
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2011 7:48 pm

jazz chord symbols

Post by vee6610 » Sun Mar 13, 2011 7:56 pm

I am adding Jazz chord (names) above my melodies. Is there any symbols for major 7th, ie the triangle or half diminished (circle with slash thru it).
Also, an alternative way to write half diminished (m7flat5) i am unable to do also because the flat symbol doesn't work in this case.

maestro
Site Admin
Posts: 162
Joined: Tue May 01, 2007 9:06 am

Re: jazz chord symbols

Post by maestro » Mon Mar 14, 2011 8:56 am

Chords can contain any text. The first letter should be the chord name and transposes. Any following characters are left unchanged during transposing. V2.9.14 accepts characters codes up to 255. Experimental version 2.10 accepts unicode characters. The Windows Charmap program shows you all characters available in each font. You can probably find the special characters you're looking for. If you do, let us know the font and code.

vee6610
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2011 7:48 pm

Re: jazz chord symbols

Post by vee6610 » Mon Mar 14, 2011 3:40 pm

Thanks for that suggestion (and for all other replies recently - they have been very helpful!). I had thought of that but I know that if I change the font of the chords, it changes all of them. This is very useful, except in this instance when I just want the one character from a different font. Is there any way of getting around this?

maestro
Site Admin
Posts: 162
Joined: Tue May 01, 2007 9:06 am

Re: jazz chord symbols

Post by maestro » Mon Mar 14, 2011 6:56 pm

Looking at the Windows 7 Arial Unicode MS font, I noticed some interesting looking symbols in the range of 20DD-3007. These would only work in experimental version 2.10 but if the symbols are close enough you could use that font for chords. Could you post an image with explanation of the chord symbols you use, or provide a website that explains them accurately? You're the first to ask about jazz chord symbols but I'll add it to the list for future versions.

Another work-around would be to enter the 2nd part of the chord name as text. Each text item can have it's own font.

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