Re: "repeat" slashes and the nature of lilypond

[wintryblue]

> You're spot on that the authors come from a classical background, but
> "getting things right" unfortunately doesn't exist. The current chord
> name system as well as the chord-comping notation was recommended to
> us by a Jazz-piano graduate from (I believe) Berlin conservatory. She
> may still be lurking, in which case I hope she will reply to
> this. This was in response to many complaints that the chord names
> weren't Right.  If anything, dealing with popular notation has taught
> us that noone agrees on the proper way to do things. At this point we
> have a working system chord name system that's documented. Of course,
> you're welcome to add a new system.

I'd have to say I'd be wary of anyone who has a degree in jazz from a
conservatory. Jazz is not a classical art form; conservatories are for
teaching classical forms of music, and no decent jazz musician has
ever received his/her education from such a place. (I could say
something about how I'd trust a European one even less than an
American one, but that would be a bad generalization.) Now, that's
just my opinion. But if this person actually plays jazz she should
well know that tying chord symbols directly to notes is a bad idea.

> > http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/gnu-music-discuss/2001-03/msg00327.html
> >
> > Either way, the chord symbols should not be tied like they are current
> > to actual NOTES. The symbols should just be that, symbols. No
> > connection to notes. You want Csus4/b9/b13 whatever, you get it, no
> > matter if it makes sense or not. They should just be a bunch of
> > letters and symbols you get to pick and put up in whatever order you
> > want on the top of the staff. The current system of saying "these
> > notes make up this symbol" is antithetical to how any musicians thinks
> > about chord symbols.
>
> Consider using lyrics for getting the symbols. You can just do
>
>   \lyrics { \markup {  C \super { sus4 / \flat 9 / \flat 13 } }

I suppose I will do that. And while the current system may be more
efficient from a programming perspective than what I proposed, you do
realize that the outputing in MIDI of those block chords is rather
ridiculous? Nobody plays block chords, for any reason. The reason why
chord symbols book give those notes is merely for a rough outline.
Chord symbols may represent scales or modes. Tying them to certain
notes just gives the wrong impression about what they really are.