| 1 | <HTML> |
| 2 | <HEAD><TITLE> |
| 3 | Chord attributes |
| 4 | </TITLE></HEAD> |
| 5 | <BODY> |
| 6 | <P> |
| 7 | <A HREF="noteattr.html"><-- previous page</A> |
| 8 | |
| 9 | <A HREF="index.html">Table of Contents</A> <A HREF="midmeas.html">next page --></A> |
| 10 | </P> |
| 11 | |
| 12 | <H3> |
| 13 | Chord attributes |
| 14 | </H3> |
| 15 | <P> |
| 16 | <A NAME="attrib">There are optional attributes that are associated with an entire chord</A> |
| 17 | rather than an individual note. These are put inside square brackets |
| 18 | before the list of notes and the time value. |
| 19 | There are several classes of information: |
| 20 | <UL> |
| 21 | <LI> |
| 22 | <A HREF="chrdattr.html#chstyle">chord style (grace, cue, diam, or xnote)</A> |
| 23 | <LI> |
| 24 | <A HREF="chrdattr.html#shaped">head shape</A> |
| 25 | <LI> |
| 26 | <A HREF="chrdattr.html#withlist">symbols to be printed with a chord</A> |
| 27 | <LI> |
| 28 | <A HREF="chrdattr.html#slashes">slashes</A> |
| 29 | <LI> |
| 30 | <A HREF="chrdattr.html#stemdir">stem direction</A> |
| 31 | <LI> |
| 32 | <A HREF="chrdattr.html#stemlen">stem length</A> |
| 33 | <LI> |
| 34 | <A HREF="chrdattr.html#pad">padding</A> |
| 35 | <LI> |
| 36 | <A HREF="chrdattr.html#ctag">chord location tag</A> |
| 37 | <LI> |
| 38 | <A HREF="chrdattr.html#hoffset">horizontal offset</A> |
| 39 | <LI> |
| 40 | <A HREF="chrdattr.html#dist">rest distance</A> |
| 41 | </UL> |
| 42 | </P> |
| 43 | <P> |
| 44 | Each class of information is |
| 45 | separated from the other by a semicolon. All classes are optional, and can |
| 46 | occur in any order. |
| 47 | </P> |
| 48 | <H4> |
| 49 | Chord style |
| 50 | </H4> |
| 51 | <P> |
| 52 | <A NAME="chstyle">Several chord styles can be specified.</A> |
| 53 | <A NAME="cue">Grace note chords are designated by the word "grace," or cue note chords by "cue."</A> |
| 54 | Grace notes can be specified as any undotted time value of eighth note or |
| 55 | shorter, but are treated as taking no time. The time value given is merely used |
| 56 | to specify how many flags or beams to put on the grace note. |
| 57 | You can also specify a quarter note grace note, which will be printed as a |
| 58 | small, stemless note, as is used to show |
| 59 | <A HREF="tabstaff.html#prebend">a "prebend" in guitar music.</A> |
| 60 | (Actually, you can force a stem if you want, by specifying a |
| 61 | <A HREF="chrdattr.html#stemlen">len, as is described later.)</A> |
| 62 | Cue notes have time like regular notes, but they are printed smaller. |
| 63 | If there are several grace notes in a row, they will be beamed automatically. |
| 64 | However, you cannot mix quarter (stemless) grace notes with shorter ones. |
| 65 | Cue notes follow the same beaming rules as regular notes. |
| 66 | </P> |
| 67 | <P> |
| 68 | It is also possible to specify "diam," or "xnote." |
| 69 | In the case of "diam," the chords will be drawn with diamond-shaped notes, |
| 70 | while with "xnote," the chords will be |
| 71 | drawn with X-shaped notes. A diamond shaped |
| 72 | note head will be used for xnotes that are half note or longer. |
| 73 | Here are some examples: |
| 74 | <BR><PRE> |
| 75 | [grace] |
| 76 | <BR> |
| 77 | [xnote] |
| 78 | <BR> |
| 79 | [cue; xnote] |
| 80 | <BR> |
| 81 | [diam] |
| 82 | </PRE><BR> |
| 83 | </P> |
| 84 | <H4> |
| 85 | Head shape |
| 86 | </H4> |
| 87 | <P> |
| 88 | If you want to have the |
| 89 | <A NAME="shaped">note heads in a chord</A> |
| 90 | use a shape other than the |
| 91 | normal shapes, you use hs followed by the name of the head shape in quotes. |
| 92 | There is an entire |
| 93 | <A HREF="shaped.html">section on shaped notes,</A> |
| 94 | so only the basics are covered here. The xnote and diam |
| 95 | <A HREF="chrdattr.html#chstyle">described above</A> |
| 96 | are really just shorthands for two common head shapes. |
| 97 | The method using hs lets you use many other note head styles, |
| 98 | such as a slash, or triangle. |
| 99 | <BR><PRE> |
| 100 | 1: [hs "righttri"]cf; [hs "slash"]fa; |
| 101 | </PRE><BR> |
| 102 | </P> |
| 103 | <P> |
| 104 | The |
| 105 | <A HREF="shaped.html">section on shaped notes</A> |
| 106 | lists all the builtin head shape names, |
| 107 | and explains how you can define your own. |
| 108 | </P> |
| 109 | <H4> |
| 110 | Symbols to be printed with a chord |
| 111 | </H4> |
| 112 | <P> |
| 113 | <A NAME="withlist">It is possible to specify one or more musical symbols or text strings to be printed with a chord.</A> |
| 114 | This is typically used for |
| 115 | things like staccato and accent marks. The word "with" |
| 116 | is followed by one or more things to print. If there are more than one, they |
| 117 | are separated by commas. They will be printed outwards from the notes in |
| 118 | the order specified. |
| 119 | The "with" list is only allowed on note groups, not rests. |
| 120 | The list can include symbols from the following table: |
| 121 | <TABLE BORDER=4> |
| 122 | <TR> |
| 123 | <TD><B>Symbol</B></TD> <TD><B>Meaning</B></TD> |
| 124 | </TR> |
| 125 | <TR> |
| 126 | <TD><TT>.</TT></TD> <TD>staccato</TD> |
| 127 | </TR> |
| 128 | <TR> |
| 129 | <TD><TT>-</TT></TD> <TD>legato</TD> |
| 130 | </TR> |
| 131 | <TR> |
| 132 | <TD><TT>></TT></TD> <TD>accent</TD> |
| 133 | </TR> |
| 134 | <TR> |
| 135 | <TD><TT>^</TT></TD> <TD>accent</TD> |
| 136 | </TR> |
| 137 | </TABLE> |
| 138 | |
| 139 | </P> |
| 140 | <P> |
| 141 | <A HREF="textstr.html">A quoted string</A> |
| 142 | can also be specified (e.g., "ff", "adagio", etc.). |
| 143 | This will be printed in the font and size specified by the |
| 144 | <A HREF="param.html#fontfam">"fontfamily,"</A> |
| 145 | <A HREF="param.html#font">"font,"</A> |
| 146 | and |
| 147 | <A HREF="param.html#size">"size"</A> |
| 148 | parameters. Any of the |
| 149 | <A HREF="textstr.html#symlist">special music characters can be printed by using the usual convention,</A> |
| 150 | e.g., \(ferm) for a fermata. |
| 151 | (This is described in a |
| 152 | <A HREF="textstr.html">later section.)</A> |
| 153 | However, it is usually preferable to use the printing of |
| 154 | <A HREF="textmark.html">text strings relative to beats.</A> |
| 155 | </P> |
| 156 | <P> |
| 157 | Here are some examples: |
| 158 | <BR><PRE> |
| 159 | [with ., -] |
| 160 | [with ^, "\(ferm)"] |
| 161 | [with "sfz"; cue] |
| 162 | </PRE><BR> |
| 163 | </P> |
| 164 | <P> |
| 165 | If the symbols acc_hat, ferm, or wedge are used by themselves in a "with" |
| 166 | list item, they are handled specially. If the stem direction is such that |
| 167 | the upside down versions of these characters should be used, the upside down |
| 168 | version will be used. |
| 169 | </P> |
| 170 | <H4> |
| 171 | Slashes |
| 172 | </H4> |
| 173 | <P> |
| 174 | <A NAME="slashes">Diagonal lines to be drawn through the stem of the group</A> |
| 175 | can be specified using |
| 176 | <BR><PRE> |
| 177 | slash <I>N</I> |
| 178 | </PRE><BR> |
| 179 | where <I>N</I> is the number of slashes to draw. In the case of |
| 180 | <A HREF="chrdattr.html#chstyle">grace notes,</A> |
| 181 | <I>N</I> can only be 1, which will produce a grace note with a slash through it. |
| 182 | In the case of other notes, <I>N</I> can be 1 or greater, and is used to |
| 183 | specify tremolo or repetition of the note group. Examples: |
| 184 | <BR><PRE> |
| 185 | [slash 2] |
| 186 | [grace; slash 1] |
| 187 | </PRE><BR> |
| 188 | </P> |
| 189 | <H4> |
| 190 | Stem direction |
| 191 | </H4> |
| 192 | <P> |
| 193 | The chord stem direction can be specified as "up" or "down". |
| 194 | <A NAME="stemdir">Normally Mup chooses the stem direction, but once in a while you</A> |
| 195 | may want to override its choice. There are some restrictions. |
| 196 | You cannot specify a direction on grace notes. All chords beamed |
| 197 | together and the pair of chords in an |
| 198 | <A HREF="ichdattr.html#alt">alternation pair</A> |
| 199 | (described later) |
| 200 | must have the same stem direction. |
| 201 | Examples: |
| 202 | <BR><PRE> |
| 203 | [up] |
| 204 | [down] |
| 205 | </PRE><BR> |
| 206 | </P> |
| 207 | <P> |
| 208 | For voice 3, stem direction works a little differently. By default, the |
| 209 | stem direction for voice 3 is up, |
| 210 | but for voice 3 on any given staff, when you specify a stem |
| 211 | direction, that direction will remain in effect until explicitly changed. |
| 212 | Thus, for example, if you want all voice 3 stems on a given staff |
| 213 | in an entire song to |
| 214 | be down, you only need to specify "[down]" on the first chord. |
| 215 | </P> |
| 216 | <H4> |
| 217 | Stem len |
| 218 | </H4> |
| 219 | <P> |
| 220 | <A NAME="stemlen">Normally, Mup sets stem lengths as appropriate, but sometimes you might</A> |
| 221 | want to make a stem longer or shorter than normal. This is done with |
| 222 | the keyword "len" followed by a length in stepsizes. |
| 223 | Some examples: |
| 224 | <BR><PRE> |
| 225 | [ len 14 ] |
| 226 | [ len 7; up ] |
| 227 | </PRE><BR> |
| 228 | </P> |
| 229 | <P> |
| 230 | You cannot specify stem length on chords inside of beams. |
| 231 | The len can be set to 0 to produce a note head with no stem at all. |
| 232 | </P> |
| 233 | <P> |
| 234 | There is a |
| 235 | <A HREF="param.html#stemlen">stemlen parameter</A> |
| 236 | that can be used to set the default stem length. |
| 237 | If you don't want any stems, setting that parameter to 0 is more |
| 238 | convenient than setting len to 0 on each chord individually. |
| 239 | </P> |
| 240 | <P> |
| 241 | On beamed chords, Mup will sometimes shorten a stem slightly |
| 242 | from its normal minimum length. By default it will never shorten by |
| 243 | more than one stemsize, but there is a |
| 244 | <A HREF="param.html#sshorten">stemshorten parameter</A> |
| 245 | that lets you adjust how much it will shorten. If you don't want Mup |
| 246 | to ever shorten stems, you can set this parameter to zero. |
| 247 | </P> |
| 248 | <H4> |
| 249 | Padding |
| 250 | </H4> |
| 251 | <P> |
| 252 | Sometimes it may be desirable to space notes somewhat differently than |
| 253 | Mup would normally place them. |
| 254 | <A NAME="pad">It is possible to specify "padding" before any note group.</A> |
| 255 | This is done by specifying the word "pad" followed |
| 256 | by a number of stepsizes of white space padding to add before the chord. |
| 257 | The number can be fractional, as in 0.5 or 2.25. |
| 258 | For example: |
| 259 | <BR><PRE> |
| 260 | [ pad 2.5 ] |
| 261 | </PRE><BR> |
| 262 | </P> |
| 263 | <P> |
| 264 | The padding can also be negative. Padding affects the minimum amount of |
| 265 | width allocated to a chord, so you can use positive padding values to |
| 266 | force additional room in front of a chord, or negative padding to allow |
| 267 | things closer together. |
| 268 | </P> |
| 269 | <H4> |
| 270 | Chord location tag |
| 271 | </H4> |
| 272 | <P> |
| 273 | <A NAME="ctag">It is possible to set a location tag</A> |
| 274 | which is |
| 275 | associated with an entire chord |
| 276 | rather than an individual note. This |
| 277 | <A HREF="tags.html">tag</A> |
| 278 | is specified like |
| 279 | <A HREF="noteattr.html#ntag">location tags for notes,</A> |
| 280 | with an "=" followed by a name, but is inside |
| 281 | the square brackets rather than after a note. |
| 282 | <BR><PRE> |
| 283 | 3: 2cf; [=h] egc+; |
| 284 | 1: [cue; with >; =_ch] fa; |
| 285 | </PRE><BR> |
| 286 | </P> |
| 287 | <H4> |
| 288 | Horizontal offset |
| 289 | </H4> |
| 290 | <P> |
| 291 | <A NAME="hoffset">A horizontal offset can be applied to a chord by specifying "ho" followed</A> |
| 292 | by a number of stepsizes. The number can be positive or negative, |
| 293 | and can include a fractional part. A positive number will cause the chord to |
| 294 | be placed that far right of where the horizontal center of the chord |
| 295 | would normally be; a negative number will place it that far to the left. |
| 296 | It is also possible to simply specify a "+" or "-" which says to place the |
| 297 | chord to the right or left, |
| 298 | as close as possible without running into something. |
| 299 | </P> |
| 300 | <P> |
| 301 | A horizontal offset is most commonly used on the third voice of a staff, |
| 302 | although it can be used on other voices too. |
| 303 | By default, Mup places third |
| 304 | voice chords as close as it thinks is safe for avoiding |
| 305 | most collisions. Sometimes it may actually be okay visually |
| 306 | to place the chord a little closer than that, |
| 307 | or perhaps there is a better "nook" to tuck it into on the left side. |
| 308 | By specifying a horizontal offset, you can place chords anywhere you want. |
| 309 | Mup makes no checks to avoid collisions when you specify a horizontal |
| 310 | offset, so this attribute needs to be used with some care. |
| 311 | </P> |
| 312 | <P> |
| 313 | Here is an example of the use of horizontal offset and stem direction |
| 314 | on voice 3. |
| 315 | <BR><PRE> |
| 316 | score |
| 317 | vscheme=3f |
| 318 | |
| 319 | music |
| 320 | 1 1: c+;b;a;c+; |
| 321 | 1 2: e;d;e;f; |
| 322 | 1 3: [ho+1] g; [ho-5.2; down]; [ho-] f; [ho+; up] a; |
| 323 | bar |
| 324 | </PRE><BR> |
| 325 | <IMG SRC="mugex16.gif" ALT="Picture of Mup output"><BR> |
| 326 | </P> |
| 327 | <H4> |
| 328 | Rest distance |
| 329 | </H4> |
| 330 | <P> |
| 331 | <A NAME="dist">Usually Mup's placement of rests is satisfactory, but once in a while</A> |
| 332 | you might want to force a rest to be placed a little higher or lower |
| 333 | than Mup would place it. You can specify a "dist" which is the number |
| 334 | of stepsizes from the center of the staff to place the rest symbol, |
| 335 | with positive numbers being above the center and negative numbers below. |
| 336 | If the staff is |
| 337 | <A HREF="param.html#xpose">transposed,</A> |
| 338 | the placement of the rest symbol will be adjusted accordingly. |
| 339 | <BR><PRE> |
| 340 | // The first and last rests are in normal position. |
| 341 | // The second is forced higher, the third is forced lower. |
| 342 | 1: r; [dist 6]; [dist -4]; r; |
| 343 | bar |
| 344 | </PRE><BR> |
| 345 | <IMG SRC="mugex17.gif" ALT="Picture of Mup output"><BR> |
| 346 | </P> |
| 347 | <H4> |
| 348 | Repeated attributes |
| 349 | </H4> |
| 350 | <P> |
| 351 | <A NAME="rptattr">If two or more chords in a row have the same bracketed attributes,</A> |
| 352 | there are two shorthand notations. Specifying an empty set of brackets "[]" |
| 353 | means to use the same attributes as were specified on the previous chord. |
| 354 | The previous chord must be within the same measure. |
| 355 | Some examples: |
| 356 | <BR><PRE> |
| 357 | 1: [cue] 4c;[]d;[grace; slash 1] 8f;2e; |
| 358 | bar |
| 359 | |
| 360 | 1: d; [with .,-]d; []e; []f; |
| 361 | bar |
| 362 | </PRE><BR> |
| 363 | <IMG SRC="mugex18.gif" ALT="Picture of Mup output"><BR> |
| 364 | </P> |
| 365 | <P> |
| 366 | The other shorthand is to put 3 dots after a set of bracketed items. |
| 367 | This means to repeat the same bracketed items on all chords for the |
| 368 | rest of the measure, or until a new set of bracketed items is specified. |
| 369 | If you wish to cancel this before the end of a measure but without |
| 370 | specifying a new set, the special set "[-]" can be used. |
| 371 | <BR><PRE> |
| 372 | // put staccato marks on all notes |
| 373 | 1: [with .]... c; d; e; g; |
| 374 | bar |
| 375 | // put several cue size notes in the middle of a measure |
| 376 | 1: c; [cue]... 8d; f; e; g; [-] 4c+; |
| 377 | bar |
| 378 | </PRE><BR> |
| 379 | <IMG SRC="mugex19.gif" ALT="Picture of Mup output"><BR> |
| 380 | </P> |
| 381 | <P> |
| 382 | You can use more than one set of backets on a single chord. |
| 383 | For example "[len 5][down]" and "[len 5;down]" are equivalent. |
| 384 | However, [-] can only be used by itself, and if you want to use [] along |
| 385 | with another backeted set of items (to duplicate the items on the previous |
| 386 | chord plus add some more), the empty [] needs to be first, before the |
| 387 | other set of items. |
| 388 | </P> |
| 389 | <HR><P> |
| 390 | <A HREF="noteattr.html"><-- previous page</A> <A HREF="index.html">Table of Contents</A> <A HREF="midmeas.html">next page --></A> |
| 391 | </P> |
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