Notation Software Users Forum - Chord Names for Rhythm Section

I have written a large number of scores for dance/swing/jazz bands and one of the things I have on the Notation Software Wish List is a way to provide chord names for piano, bass and guitar, as well as horn soloists for adlib soloing, and still provide an indication as to what part of the measure the chord names align with and what part of the measures are to truly be rests. The Notation Chord Name facility does not provide that.

We were taught to use slashes to replace quarter note rests to indicate when to play within the specified chord above the staff. This gives the rhythm section players and soloists freedom within the context of the chord to play what feels and sounds right to them. Generally, the rhythm section players have been seeing this all of their playing lives and know what to do. Similarly, the adlibing horn players want to know what the harmonic context is for their freeform soloing. With horn players, I usually include the melody as a guide along with the Free Text Chord Names.

So, I don't generally use the Chord Name facility, but use Free Text to put the chord names wherever I need them. This causes a problem in that the only way to do this, and give an indication of what beat a chord change occurs, is to show quarter note rests throughout all the measures, so it can easily be seen that the first chord in a measure is on beat 1 and the second chord may be on beat 4. This would help give visual separation of the harmonic structure of the piece. In some scores, I have even notated eighth note rests to provide for a chord change on a half beat.

The "how-to" on this procedure is fairly complex and I will address the technique if there is enough interest, but essentially, I hide the rests in every measure and use Free Text to place a slash (/) where each quarter rest would be if they were shown. The slash is not big enough, so when I key it in, I will do Ctrl-+ (Control and Plus) five times to make it big enough. See the attached Notation file for an example. The first two measures show the Free Text Chord Names with quarter rests. In the second two measures, I have selected the rests and hidden them. Then I use Free Text to key in the supporting slashes. The third and fourth measures is what you will see in almost all dance/swing/jazz band rhythm section parts. Using this technique, if there is a visible rest in a measure, the player knows that this beat is tacit.

Ralph Rayner