Giovanni Ferro Luzzi writes:
|
| I am quite a new user of ABC, and would like to ask if it is
| possible to use jazz notation for chords symbols (with no notes),
| as follows:
|
| A7 Edim7 G-7 D alt.
| __________________________
| __________________________
| __________________________
| __________________________
| __________________________
|
| so that the chords appear in boldface above the staff (or in the
| middle of it), but nothing else in the staff.
Chords have to be attached to notes or rests, but a lot of
abc software has long accepted 'x' as a rest ('z') that
isn't drawn. This is useful for producing uncluttered,
blank staff space. It also works with some abc software for
what you want. I tried the following "tune" with abc2ps,
and it worked fine:
X: 1
T: TEST: Chords Only
K: C
| "Dm"x2 "Gm"x2 | "A7"x2 "Dm"x2 |
This gave me a staff with the chords evenly spaced above
the staff, but nothing on the staff except the three bar
lines.
I don't know how many other abc programs will accept this.
Many programs, including abc2ps and its clones, also use
'y' for an invisible spacer that is like a rest but isn't
played. That is, to a music formatter like abc2ps, x and y
are synonyms. They give a horizontal space in the music but
don't draw anything. But to a music player like abc2midi, x
would produce a gap in the music while y would be totally
ignored. I tried y's in the above example, too, and the
output was identical.
I should run a test like this through abc2midi, and see if
I get an accompaniment track out of it.
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