[Dixielandjazz] Writing Chord Symbols

[Bruce Stangeland]

Dick,

I have worked out an Excel spreadsheet that can be used to enter chords in a
way very similar to the one shown at:
http://www.massifjazz.com/images/aintmis.jpg

I was able to draw boxes and diagonal lines to separate several chords to be
played in a single measure. I put my spreadsheet for "Ain't Misbehavin'" on
my website, where it can be downloaded:

www.bestangeland.com/music.chords.xls

I used Excel 98 on a Macintosh. I believe any later versions, on PC or Mac,
should open when you download it.

You can cut and paste the three different drawings for measures at the
bottom of the page in order to fit the needs of your tunes. I used 18 point
font for the chord symbols so they should be legible even in low-light
situations.

The spreadsheet will barely fit on one 8.5 x 11" sheet of paper, in
landscape mode.

I hope this helps.

Bruce Stangeland
Berkeley banjoist


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Message: 11
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2006 10:23:40 +0100
From: "d.  sleeman" <d.sleeman at hccnet.nl>
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] What I called "European Chord Symbols"
To: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Message-ID: <003001c62325$5f62a420$e020fb3e at x>
Content-Type: text/plain;    charset="Windows-1252"

----- Original Message -----
From: "Craig I. Johnson" <civanj at adelphia.net>
To: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Friday, January 27, 2006 2:36 AM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] What I called "European Chord Symbols"

Craig wrote a.o.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
I totally understood the "structure" of the tabular version and like it. I
wish I could 
extend my music program to create such tables for the banjo player.
(Most songs could fit in a pocket of 3x5 cards for him.)

Sibelius is somewhat the same as Finale in its notation. However, as I said
my issue
is to be able to print out chord only "sheets" which would require an
extension to either program
to scan the chords and output them in the 'spreadsheet like" format of the
Boudoin chord book.
I may do some research to see if I can write something that will do that. I
believe I could do it
more easily for FInal than Sibelius as Finale has a more powerful language
for writing
personal "add-ons" -- but no guarantee that I will succeed..
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

I have tried to do that too, in Word and in Excel but to no avail. Should
you find a solution, please publish it on DJML because - apart for the
symbols - Boudoin's 'spreadsheet like' notation is pretty easy to read!

The discussion about 'Finale' versus 'Sibelius' is an endless one. I have
them both (and 'Noteworthy', 'Magix Notation' and 'Harmony' - there will be
others out there), but I always use 'Encore', because it does everything
that all the others do, and more and easier. And when I want to write a
chord sheet, I use 'Band-in-a-Box'.

Dick Sleeman, Lelystad, Holland. <d.sleeman at hccnet.nl>

"...Of all the musical instruments in use today, the trombone is one of,
if not THE most difficult of instruments. I know, 'cause I have one..."

 (Dewsnap in "THE TROMBONE", December 10, 2002)