The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
  1. #1
    I have used MuseScore sporatically for years, but this year I did something I hadn't really done as much: I went ahead and made some legit charts out of my hand-scrawled transpositions for the wife's versions of some Christmas tunes. Anyway, I remembered the Jazz template on MuseScore, which basically defaults to a Real Book look, and I have to say that it's just beautiful. It really makes everything about these tunes more enjoyable.

    Every year I look at the worst, most microscopic, blindness-inducing Christmas charts with crap changes, because... well, December is over before you know it. Anyway, I just love this look. I find myself looking for the next chart to make. Honestly, *that aspect* is a thing unto itself.

    I hope all of you are enjoying your holidays as a musician. Super busy. Merry Christmas. Now, back to it.

    MuseScore's Jazz Template-screen-shot-2021-12-14-1-53-33-pm-png

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    I find you've gotta screw around with the chord symbols a lot on MuseScore; they don't line up with the beats of the melodies all the time.
    If you click on the symbol and move it, then another chord in the measure will move.
    You did a good job on this one, although in the first line, it's hard to tell if the Bb9 comes in on the 3rd or 4th beat.

  4. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by sgcim
    I find you've gotta screw around with the chord symbols a lot on MuseScore; they don't line up with the beats of the melodies all the time.
    If you click on the symbol and move it, then another chord in the measure will move.
    You did a good job on this one, although in the first line, it's hard to tell if the Bb9 comes in on the 3rd or 4th beat.
    Is this something that has changed, or am I remembering another software platform? Whatever I used to use allowed for the option of putting a chord on every beat at least, and then additionally, chords-per note if there were 8ths etc.

    This one doesn't allow for that the way I had remembered, but it's been a while. Basically, with this one, I figure real book standard w/aging eyes... I'll use fewer measures per line. I learned how to add a space in chord symbols. So, you can cheat and do something like D-7_G7 as a single entity. If you stretch the measures of those tricky spots, you can mostly work around it, but the second chord after the space doesn't transpose. So, you have to get all of those manually. Works for most things, but The Christmas Song is pretty busy.

  5. #4

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    Great looking chart

  6. #5

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    I use Musescore a lot and it's great for my needs. The bonus is that it's free.

    You can line up the chords when inputting them over whatever note or rest you need it to show on. Aligning after the fact does cause other chords to move and changes the spacing. Sometimes if the font used is large, that will skew the look of the placement as well.

    What I also like about it is the ability to import/export a sound file in xml and to create mp3 files so that you can let the rest of the band hear what you've got especially if it's your own composition and it's new to them.

    But, bottom line, this would be excellent software at twice the price.

  7. #6

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    Matt,
    Freemusiced.org has a Public Domain Christmas Jazz Fakebook in pdf and musescore format for C, Bb, Eb, and Bass Clef . The changes are decent and because its in .mscz format you can edit it.

    Public Domain Fakebooks - Home

  8. #7

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    I have to play Mendelssohns wings of song. song of wind. something like that.
    Maybe that font would be a good idea..