> On Dec 29, 2025, at 2:42 PM, Flaming Hakama by Elaine > <[email protected]> wrote: > > Parens do not convey any additional information so they simply take up space.
I can't speak to the OP's intended use, on jazz lead sheets parenthetical extensions and tensions are often considered choices, whereas non-parenthesized voices are expected. > Especially with the intended horizontal layout, chord symbols with more than > one extension end up being horizontally long and this creates layout issues > when space becomes an issue, such as when there are half-measure chords. > > Rather, in general I would suggest an approach that stacks extensions. I don't care for stacked extensions/tensions as they're harder to parse out on the fly, at least for me. FWIW I use a chord exceptions file (pop-chords.ily) via \include to control formatting of chordnames. Since my approach to this is consistent, my exceptions have been stable for years with only occasional tweaks if an unusual chord pops up and formats weird. I just had one earlier this year, AAMOF, that the mailing list solved expeditiously.
