The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    Hello,


    I use Band in a Box and iRealPro on my Mac for practice and to write out songs. However, despite iRealPro having a mediocre jazz notation, it’s not more than that: mediocre. I am looking for something with which I can easily write down my compositions in a grid with sometimes a diagonal line when two or more chords are required in a measure. Preferably a ‘handwritten’ font. I call it the French gypsy jazz notation, but I imagine there is an official name for it.


    I am classically trained and know how to use the computer for all sorts of music notation, but here I get stuck. If you look at You Tube:
    , you see exactly what I would like to do. Now I am doing this on paper, and scan them and then send them as pdf to my fellow band members. But oh, how I would like to have a programme/app on my Mac (or Windows, I can run that also) that could do this.



    Just to be clear: I am NOT looking for something like iRealPro. It’s just for notation and it needs to have a grid and flexibility. All help is much appreciated!


    Have a great one,
    Herman
    Attached Images Attached Images Looking for advice on jazz notation software-screen-shot-2020-12-13-12-22-29-png 

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    It took me 5 minutes of google search to find this (if you can read french that is ...) :


    Grilles, un logiciel de saisie de grilles d'accords - Le blog qui gratte

    You can join this site and use the online editor program to fashion your own grilles :
    Editeur de grilles harmoniques


    This method of writing chord changes is called "grilles (de jazz)" and is widely spread in France.

  4. #3

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    Quote Originally Posted by gitman
    It took me 5 minutes of google search to find this (if you can read french that is ...) :


    Grilles, un logiciel de saisie de grilles d'accords - Le blog qui gratte

    You can join this site and use the online editor program to fashion your own grilles :
    Editeur de grilles harmoniques


    This method of writing chord changes is called "grilles (de jazz)" and is widely spread in France.
    Well, that's why I called it French notation:-)
    But I didn't know what to look for!

    I will have a look at it because it seems to do what I am looking for. And yes, my French is good enough.

  5. #4

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    Finale and Sibelius are the leading programs, but they are quite expensive.

    A great free program is Musescore, very popular also.

  6. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by Alter
    Finale and Sibelius are the leading programs, but they are quite expensive.

    A great free program is Musescore, very popular also.
    I have Guitar Pro and Finale and all payed for. I also had (once) Sibelius. Cresendo is also nice and easy! Again, I am a classical trained musician. I have been using music notation programmes from the early days of DOS Score and NOTE editor, had keyboard-code input. And later in Win 3.1 MusicTime to Finale. For almost all sort of editing, I have the tools:-)

    I was just looking for a way to get these 'Grilles', as I now know how they are called. The Windows programme is very old and although usable, a bit limited. I found another online editor. Handwritten fonts and very easy! Looks very slick. Only limit is that you have a max of two chords in one measure. If they just had the 4 chords in one measre option! But for now, it most certain will suffice!

  7. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by Geitekaas
    I found another online editor. Handwritten fonts and very easy! Looks very slick. Only limit is that you have a max of two chords in one measure. If they just had the 4 chords in one measre option! But for now, it most certain will suffice!
    Any chance you would provide the link?

  8. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by v281
    Any chance you would provide the link?
    Naturellement!

    Guitare Jazz Manouche - Liste des Grilles Transposables
    Here you find lots of ready-made grilles. If you click on "Proposer une grille" you can make one for yourself. Be aware, it has lots of restrictions, but it looks darn fine.

    https://www.puissancejazz.com/Editeu...isieMesure.php
    Again, you need to have a good knowledge of the French language. And you have to make an account first. With that account, you can make several grilles. The looks are okay.

    Accueil
    Now if you really want to go old school 1273 and you have Windows or Windows emulated in Parallels, you can use this programme for free. It has really all the options you could possibly need, but the font is so ugly that I cannot possibly make a nice grille with it. If I just could change the font into some handwritten or even Comic Sans, it would be fine.

    With all the possibilities, it has all the same restrictions that you don't have with iRealPro or other good music editors. I just wish that iRealPro could make grilles as well. Now I just draw them by hand and scan them into a pdf. Works fine, but hey, it's 2020 right? It all so much more shows that we are living in an Anglosaxon-ruled world

    We could use a little bit more of the French approach...

    Have a great one,
    stay healthy,

    Herman

  9. #8

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    You could knock something up in Word if you are really desperate. I did this in a few minutes (I haven’t used Word for ages, most of the time was spent looking for the menu options I wanted).

    This is just a table, I then used Insert - Shapes to draw the diagonal lines inside a cell. The fiddliest bit is getting the text into the right part of the cell. The first cell I just selected cell alignment = centre. The second cell I just used Return and spaces to get the letters in the right place. All a bit fiddly but I suppose once each chart is done, that’s it.

    Looking for advice on jazz notation software-200ffe04-3034-4882-b440-349ad554a079-jpeg

  10. #9

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    There’s always the Anthologie des grilles de jazz:

    http://www.jazzbanjo.nl/files/Anthol...es-de-Jazz.pdf

  11. #10

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    Nicely done! It is an option:-)


    Quote Originally Posted by grahambop
    You could knock something up in Word if you are really desperate. I did this in a few minutes (I haven’t used Word for ages, most of the time was spent looking for the menu options I wanted).

    This is just a table, I then used Insert - Shapes to draw the diagonal lines inside a cell. The fiddliest bit is getting the text into the right part of the cell. The first cell I just selected cell alignment = centre. The second cell I just used Return and spaces to get the letters in the right place. All a bit fiddly but I suppose once each chart is done, that’s it.

    Looking for advice on jazz notation software-200ffe04-3034-4882-b440-349ad554a079-jpeg

  12. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by grahambop
    There’s always the Anthologie des grilles de jazz:

    http://www.jazzbanjo.nl/files/Anthol...es-de-Jazz.pdf

    Great one.
    However, I make my own arrangements/songs. Sometimes parts of a song. I just like the grilles more than let's say, the standard Jazz notation. That's why, I thoughy, I can't be the only one...

  13. #12

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    The Nashville numbering system might be apropos. I don't know of any computer-based systems that will render it, however.


    In all honesty, I would not be well pleased if I was playing somewhere and that chart was handed to me.

    I use Lilypond ("freeware" at LilyPond – Music notation for everyone) exclusively for the past 12 years or so. The learning curve is steep; you write out a text file which the application then engraves into sheet music as a PDF. The app itself is "faceless" and the file is written in a text editor, although there are a couple of affiliated user interface apps to radically simplify this (Frescobaldi is the one I use).

    Lilypond is very powerful, there is a lot of fine grained control over the output but even when the application is left to make those decisions the output is very readable and very attractive. But as with with all powerful applications, the operator has a significant responsibility in learning how to use that power.

    I have a set of templates set up and can go from manuscript notes to finished lead sheets for concert, B-flat, E-flat and bass instruments in about 15 to 20 minutes per page, less when I'm doing a lot of it and don't have to stop to look things up.

    But it will not do what the OP demonstrated.