On Fri, Feb 16, 2001 at 02:25:42PM -0800, Robert Bley-Vroman wrote:
> Laurie is right to ask this question. In the spirit of "KISS," consider how
> the typical abc user uses chord notation. It is NOT used to indicate
> precisely what notes are to be played. Rather, it is deliberately kept
> non-specific, suggesting something about the harmony-structure of the
> piece, but deliberately omitting many details of realization. If the abc
> transcriber wants to specify particular notes, then the notation permits
> the explicit statement of notes in square brackets. I think it would be a
> definite error to build definitions of chords in terms of notes into the
> abc notation. The standard should say that "Gm" means G minor. The standard
> should not say what G minor means.
I beg to differ a little.
The standard should say that "Gm" means a chord containing G Bb and D,
it should *not* give any indication of voicing, inversion, repeated notes,
rhythm, etc etc etc. That's down to the player program. (A thought:
a version of abc2ps that generates guitar chord *boxes* would be sweet -
just a light hearted-thought, that's all... *grin*)
Bear in mind that a folk musician's 'sketch' of harmony can be a three chord
trick, a rock musician's often includes suggestions of bass lines, and a
jazzer's can be a whole bunch of altered ninths and 13ths.
I'm aware that abc's *primary* intent was to transcribe folk tunes, but
it clearly lends itself to lead-line-plus-chords music, anf folk musicans
don't have a monopoly on that: it seems a shame to restrict its use for
want of a tighter spec on chords.
This all started from me wanting to know if abc2midi handled slash chords.
The reason why is that I'm using abc2midi to help me *write* a song,
and having the chordal backing is proving *really* useful, as is/will be
the ability to teach it to friends in the States by sending them a file several
orders of magnitude smaller than an MP3...
>From little acorns...
--
Mike Whitaker | Work: +44 1733 766619 | Work: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
System Architext | Fax: +44 1733 348287 | Home: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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