Chord Inversions or Slash Chords

[musicdevelopments]

Hmm... how would it look when there are many chords per bar? Would several voicing editors being displayed still look legible without zooming?

Right. Maybe RC could check the shortest chord used (1/4 or maybe 1/8) and would zoom horizontally to have a minimum width even for the shortest chords.
You cannot have an overview and detailed view at the same time...

Your suggestions are very logical. I added them to my notes.
Thanks!
Attila

[padillac]

Hi Tiger,

the current way of specifying a separate bass note will soon be removed from the program. It was confusing and was not meant for inversions.
The good news is that version 3.4 (to be released TODAY ) includes an inversion/voicing editor with many presets, so that will be the place to specify voicings.

Also, is there any way to specify the slash chord as meaning a separate lower bass note to be played, not just an inversion?

Yes, this is how it works today, the bass note is independent of the chord, it is a separate, added note. Now I don't see that a good idea.

Thanks,
Attila

Please don’t remove this. Slash chords are commonly used in notation and specifically indicate the bass note that should be played, leaving the treble voicing flexible for interpretation.

In other words, C/G does not mean a C chord in second inversion, it means a bass note of G with a C chord played above it in any inversion.

I haven’t played with the voicing editor yet so I don’t know how it would handle this, but slash chords are a useful and important notation tool.

[musicdevelopments]

Thank you for your input. Now I understand slash chords better, so it won't be removed.
Thanks,
Attila

[odelay6815]

Totally in favour of slash chord displaying & voicing! Please do your best to make it work in your next update! Thanks! And Merry Christmas everybody!

[musicdevelopments]

I'll do my best to improve this area in January. I am happy that so many of you joined the discussion!
Thanks,
Attila

[yellukhan]

huh!
are we talking about this one (slash chords?)



to me it was rapidly ways to alter the bass notes
and i just realized it wasn't there anymore

if so .. +1
after holiday times over

[musicdevelopments]

Yes, sorry, the slash buttons will be added again.

[nexussynth]

+1

[spassbeisaite]

Tiger:

Please don’t remove this. Slash chords are commonly used in notation and specifically indicate the bass note that should be played, leaving the treble voicing flexible for interpretation.

In other words, C/G does not mean a C chord in second inversion, it means a bass note of G with a C chord played above it in any inversion.

I haven’t played with the voicing editor yet so I don’t know how it would handle this, but slash chords are a useful and important notation tool.

I agree! I'm new here and i spent the last days exploring RC. And I was missing the slash chords! I'm glad to read, that they will be built in (again) as soon as possible.

[BluGenes]

Tiger:

Please don’t remove this. Slash chords are commonly used in notation and specifically indicate the bass note that should be played, leaving the treble voicing flexible for interpretation.

In other words, C/G does not mean a C chord in second inversion, it means a bass note of G with a C chord played above it in any inversion.

I haven’t played with the voicing editor yet so I don’t know how it would handle this, but slash chords are a useful and important notation tool.

I agree! I'm new here and i spent the last days exploring RC. And I was missing the slash chords! I'm glad to read, that they will be built in (again) as soon as possible.

me too.. love to see that return.. as a workaround, you can also edit with the voicing editor, for now..

[musicdevelopments]

Yes, the slash chords will return shortly in the Chord Selector. You can still assign a bass note to a master track chord if you right-click on a chord. Thanks for the feedback!
Thanks,
Attila

[elvistcb3577]

late to the party but a couple of my thoughts. (anyone that knows of any formal definition of this in music theory literature please correct me or point me to links)

Keeping slash chords are needed as highlighted in this thread. But one thing I always sort have interpreted (and maybe it is just my own ideas) with the bass note in slash chord is that the note can also be understood as an anchor note. Meaning you don't ONLY have to play this note (if for example you want to play a line under this chord). BUT and this is important whatever you play should give weight to this note. This is more art than hard rules. But maybe you play that note on beats or start and end with it... etc.

That said it would be interesting if we could add this dynamic interpretation to RC as well when generating bass lines (using the bass in slash chord as a weighted anchor).

Now with that said. I am not sure if what am about to describe is an invention of mine or it exist in the annuals of music lore (please correct me). But I have always had this notion of a thing called "triple slash chord". exm. E\Cmaj/G (I use "\" to be dis-ambiguous). What this note on top of the chord is basically the same function as the bass in traditional slash chords BUT it applies to the instrument/voice that is considered the function of "lead/melody". I hope that makes sense. But also you can put a scale on top as well (which I call vertical lead scale) that last in context of the chord. It indicates the scale the lead instrument should use overriding the current key of the song. exm. Clydian\C/G. By default the key of the scale is used if no scale given. So a I chord in Imaj key actually means Imajor\I/I.

All chords when sounded imply toniczation even if not explicit in indication (This is what makes modulation possible). The top of a triple slash chord gives more explicate indication of what the toniczation is. At the very least EVERY chord change is a potential modulation with toniczation implied by the chord. So I IV V I - the IV and V are ever so very slight toniczation on the major triads as new tonal centers. This is why cadences work.

Anyway sorry for the brain fart.

I am not sure if triple slash chords are something that could of value in RC or not. I can see the value, but I am not sure if I described it in coherent detail or not.

[elvistcb3577]

just to be clear i am not describing alternative to voicing here. voicing here is a valid thing... but it Only applies to the chord part of the slash chord. Also this a triple slash chord still can be used on polychord notation.

exm.

E/(Fmaj/Cmaj)/G

The chords still apply to ONLY the chordal/rhythm function instrument. This could be one instrument or even two (guitar and piano) Each chord gets assigned to only one instrument.

That said we are starting to not really describe chords anymore. But what I call "Harmonic Color". maybe eventually RC will not have Chord Progression Changes in the main track, but something more descriptive like "Harmonic Color" changes.











onl

[musicdevelopments]

Many thanks for your thoughts, elvistcb3577, very interesting ideas!

The slash notes are back in the new beta version:
- you can select them in Quick Suggestions and Chord Selector
- there is an option which sets the slash note automatically when you change voicing to match the lowest note. I am not sure if it is useful, you can turn this off if you don't like it.
- Chord Generator has an option to add the bass note

What is still missing is that RC should be smarter about recognizing slash chords when importing MIDI.

Thanks!
Attila

[sj1]

Since this is the topic-of-old for Slash Chords, I'll ask relevant questions and offer suggestions about same here.

Considering how we can drag phrases up and down in the composition view to create inversions, I was wishfully/naively thinking that slash chords might operate along similar lines by doing inversions for all the notes except the designated bass note when so dragged. This does not seem to be the case, at least not by default with the phrases I've tried such with so far.

Indeed, with the phrases I've tried so far, the slash note (bass note) does not even appear in the phrase at all. Example: the chord E7/Bb is seemingly no different than a simple E7. I do not see the Bb note appearing anywhere.

Quite possibly I just don't yet understand what I need to do to get the "slash chord" effect. In this case I would appreciate some education and/or references to where such info resides (as my searches so far have not revealed very much other than this thread).

OTOH, aside from what the user can/must do to get effects, what does RC itself do/not-do wrt. slash chords?

The discussion earlier in this thread already says most of what I would also say about what the desirable goals are.