Re: number of chords

[David Raleigh Arnold]

On Monday 15 March 2004 05:58, Tiffany Weisman wrote:
> I feel that there aren't enough chord names in
> Lilypond to adequately cover most people's needs. A
> jazz chord system at minimum needs to cover the
> following chords:
>
> major
> minor

That is an interesting list.  I don't think you need C2 when
Cadd9 could be done, and I don't understand how a list of
jazz chords would not include any with more than one alteration.
I'm going to try again to explain what
"jazz chords" are supposed to be with a historical perspective.

In the forties, in NYC, there was a problem with illegible chord names
in lead sheets, partly because sheet music publishers had been using -,
+, and o's in chord names, which tended to make chord names
unreadable. (A-9, A--9, Am-9, A-b9)  It mattered because they
were writing bop, with many 5 note chords.

A more verbose way of writing chords developed, in which *only* the
sharp and flat were used, and no other special symbols were permitted.
Today most have fallen back to using not only the old -+o's but also
adding the triangle.  They are all nasty in manuscript.  You could
type jazz chords on an ordinary typewriter.

With the single exception of the dim=dim7 chord, chords were written
so:

root [m] [farthest unaltered extension] [(list alterations in ascending
order)] [add|omitNoteOrNumber]

Examples:

Em13(b5b9)
Em13b5b9

Amadd9
Comit3

In the unlikely event that you wanted the 11th in a 13th chord,
you could write:

Em11(b5b9)add13

Later, with simpler chords sometimes in style, you had sheet music stuff
come back, like Csus4 or C4 instead of C11, and the unnecessary 2
sometimes instead of 9.  The C5 was new.  Also in the
sixties, the bass note could be indicated with a slash, which was a very
welcome innovation because it could make it unnecessary to provide a
bass part.  The new practice of putting the bass note in lower case
helps to prevent the slash/bass and slash repeat-beat from being
confused.

The ultimate horror is to combine the usages for simple chords with 
the old jazz chord system.  It's unnecessary.  It serves no purpose.
It's a mess.  What improvement is C5add7 over C7omit5?  Use the
short cuts for short cuts, not to introduce more unnecessary stuff.

That leaves only the C4 or Csus and C5 to add to the jazz chord list.
You don't need stuff like C57 or C5add7 when you could C7omit3.  You
don't need C9sus4 instead of C11, and C7sus4 is C11omit9, as if anyone
would play the 3rd anyway.

The whole idea of jazz chords or any other sheet music chords is instant
recognition.  It doesn't matter to the soloist what a chord *means*, he
just has to work with it.  Using a flat thirteenth instead of a sharp
fifth, for example, brings an unnecessary and unwelcome complexity to
the chord names.  The player is either playing the chord, in which case
he doesn't have to understand the logic of it, or soloing, in which case
he will play many notes between the "suspension" and its resolution,
rendering the distinction between a suspension-resolution and added
note, and every other such analytical distinction, completely
meaningless.  The person who wrote the tune doesn't have to read it.
The system did not arise to teach any sort of chord analysis, and it
should not be adapted or perverted to that purpose.

There is nothing wrong with having a G7(b5) chord along with a csharp
in the score, for example.

One who is fussy about where the 3rds and 5ths or the spelling of notes
in chords should go should perhaps write out what he wants and forget
chord names, or even use figured bass.  It certainly has nothing to do
with jazz.

I know that I am in a minority, but I have seen sites on the net where
chord names in jazz chord style, which I guess is conservative now, are
still preferred.  I wouldn't mind having them available in lilypond, but
for now, chords are markup only.  daveA

-- 
It's not that hard to understand the lesson of Viet Nam.  Never never
never never defend one tyrant against another, because The worst thing
that can happen is you might win.  The *Gulf* war was worse than Nam.
D. Raleigh Arnold dra@ (http://www.) openguitar.com address@hidden