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1 | <HTML> |
2 | <HEAD><TITLE> | |
3 | Chord attributes | |
4 | </TITLE></HEAD> | |
5 | <BODY> | |
6 | <P> | |
7 | <A HREF="noteattr.html"><-- previous page</A> | |
8 | ||
9 | <A HREF="index.html">Table of Contents</A> <A HREF="midmeas.html">next page --></A> | |
10 | </P> | |
11 | ||
12 | <H3> | |
13 | Chord attributes | |
14 | </H3> | |
15 | <P> | |
16 | <A NAME="attrib">There are optional attributes that are associated with an entire chord</A> | |
17 | rather than an individual note. These are put inside square brackets | |
18 | before the list of notes and the time value. | |
19 | There are several classes of information: | |
20 | <UL> | |
21 | <LI> | |
22 | <A HREF="chrdattr.html#chstyle">chord style (grace, cue, diam, or xnote)</A> | |
23 | <LI> | |
24 | <A HREF="chrdattr.html#shaped">head shape</A> | |
25 | <LI> | |
26 | <A HREF="chrdattr.html#withlist">symbols to be printed with a chord</A> | |
27 | <LI> | |
28 | <A HREF="chrdattr.html#slashes">slashes</A> | |
29 | <LI> | |
30 | <A HREF="chrdattr.html#stemdir">stem direction</A> | |
31 | <LI> | |
32 | <A HREF="chrdattr.html#stemlen">stem length</A> | |
33 | <LI> | |
34 | <A HREF="chrdattr.html#pad">padding</A> | |
35 | <LI> | |
36 | <A HREF="chrdattr.html#ctag">chord location tag</A> | |
37 | <LI> | |
38 | <A HREF="chrdattr.html#hoffset">horizontal offset</A> | |
39 | <LI> | |
40 | <A HREF="chrdattr.html#dist">rest distance</A> | |
41 | </UL> | |
42 | </P> | |
43 | <P> | |
44 | Each class of information is | |
45 | separated from the other by a semicolon. All classes are optional, and can | |
46 | occur in any order. | |
47 | </P> | |
48 | <H4> | |
49 | Chord style | |
50 | </H4> | |
51 | <P> | |
52 | <A NAME="chstyle">Several chord styles can be specified.</A> | |
53 | <A NAME="cue">Grace note chords are designated by the word "grace," or cue note chords by "cue."</A> | |
54 | Grace notes can be specified as any undotted time value of eighth note or | |
55 | shorter, but are treated as taking no time. The time value given is merely used | |
56 | to specify how many flags or beams to put on the grace note. | |
57 | You can also specify a quarter note grace note, which will be printed as a | |
58 | small, stemless note, as is used to show | |
59 | <A HREF="tabstaff.html#prebend">a "prebend" in guitar music.</A> | |
60 | (Actually, you can force a stem if you want, by specifying a | |
61 | <A HREF="chrdattr.html#stemlen">len, as is described later.)</A> | |
62 | Cue notes have time like regular notes, but they are printed smaller. | |
63 | If there are several grace notes in a row, they will be beamed automatically. | |
64 | However, you cannot mix quarter (stemless) grace notes with shorter ones. | |
65 | Cue notes follow the same beaming rules as regular notes. | |
66 | </P> | |
67 | <P> | |
68 | It is also possible to specify "diam," or "xnote." | |
69 | In the case of "diam," the chords will be drawn with diamond-shaped notes, | |
70 | while with "xnote," the chords will be | |
71 | drawn with X-shaped notes. A diamond shaped | |
72 | note head will be used for xnotes that are half note or longer. | |
73 | Here are some examples: | |
74 | <BR><PRE> | |
75 | [grace] | |
76 | <BR> | |
77 | [xnote] | |
78 | <BR> | |
79 | [cue; xnote] | |
80 | <BR> | |
81 | [diam] | |
82 | </PRE><BR> | |
83 | </P> | |
84 | <H4> | |
85 | Head shape | |
86 | </H4> | |
87 | <P> | |
88 | If you want to have the | |
89 | <A NAME="shaped">note heads in a chord</A> | |
90 | use a shape other than the | |
91 | normal shapes, you use hs followed by the name of the head shape in quotes. | |
92 | There is an entire | |
93 | <A HREF="shaped.html">section on shaped notes,</A> | |
94 | so only the basics are covered here. The xnote and diam | |
95 | <A HREF="chrdattr.html#chstyle">described above</A> | |
96 | are really just shorthands for two common head shapes. | |
97 | The method using hs lets you use many other note head styles, | |
98 | such as a slash, or triangle. | |
99 | <BR><PRE> | |
100 | 1: [hs "righttri"]cf; [hs "slash"]fa; | |
101 | </PRE><BR> | |
102 | </P> | |
103 | <P> | |
104 | The | |
105 | <A HREF="shaped.html">section on shaped notes</A> | |
106 | lists all the builtin head shape names, | |
107 | and explains how you can define your own. | |
108 | </P> | |
109 | <H4> | |
110 | Symbols to be printed with a chord | |
111 | </H4> | |
112 | <P> | |
113 | <A NAME="withlist">It is possible to specify one or more musical symbols or text strings to be printed with a chord.</A> | |
114 | This is typically used for | |
115 | things like staccato and accent marks. The word "with" | |
116 | is followed by one or more things to print. If there are more than one, they | |
117 | are separated by commas. They will be printed outwards from the notes in | |
118 | the order specified. | |
119 | The "with" list is only allowed on note groups, not rests. | |
120 | The list can include symbols from the following table: | |
121 | <TABLE BORDER=4> | |
122 | <TR> | |
123 | <TD><B>Symbol</B></TD> <TD><B>Meaning</B></TD> | |
124 | </TR> | |
125 | <TR> | |
126 | <TD><TT>.</TT></TD> <TD>staccato</TD> | |
127 | </TR> | |
128 | <TR> | |
129 | <TD><TT>-</TT></TD> <TD>legato</TD> | |
130 | </TR> | |
131 | <TR> | |
132 | <TD><TT>></TT></TD> <TD>accent</TD> | |
133 | </TR> | |
134 | <TR> | |
135 | <TD><TT>^</TT></TD> <TD>accent</TD> | |
136 | </TR> | |
137 | </TABLE> | |
138 | ||
139 | </P> | |
140 | <P> | |
141 | <A HREF="textstr.html">A quoted string</A> | |
142 | can also be specified (e.g., "ff", "adagio", etc.). | |
143 | This will be printed in the font and size specified by the | |
144 | <A HREF="param.html#fontfam">"fontfamily,"</A> | |
145 | <A HREF="param.html#font">"font,"</A> | |
146 | and | |
147 | <A HREF="param.html#size">"size"</A> | |
148 | parameters. Any of the | |
149 | <A HREF="textstr.html#symlist">special music characters can be printed by using the usual convention,</A> | |
150 | e.g., \(ferm) for a fermata. | |
151 | (This is described in a | |
152 | <A HREF="textstr.html">later section.)</A> | |
153 | However, it is usually preferable to use the printing of | |
154 | <A HREF="textmark.html">text strings relative to beats.</A> | |
155 | </P> | |
156 | <P> | |
157 | Here are some examples: | |
158 | <BR><PRE> | |
159 | [with ., -] | |
160 | [with ^, "\(ferm)"] | |
161 | [with "sfz"; cue] | |
162 | </PRE><BR> | |
163 | </P> | |
164 | <P> | |
165 | If the symbols acc_hat, ferm, or wedge are used by themselves in a "with" | |
166 | list item, they are handled specially. If the stem direction is such that | |
167 | the upside down versions of these characters should be used, the upside down | |
168 | version will be used. | |
169 | </P> | |
170 | <H4> | |
171 | Slashes | |
172 | </H4> | |
173 | <P> | |
174 | <A NAME="slashes">Diagonal lines to be drawn through the stem of the group</A> | |
175 | can be specified using | |
176 | <BR><PRE> | |
177 | slash <I>N</I> | |
178 | </PRE><BR> | |
179 | where <I>N</I> is the number of slashes to draw. In the case of | |
180 | <A HREF="chrdattr.html#chstyle">grace notes,</A> | |
181 | <I>N</I> can only be 1, which will produce a grace note with a slash through it. | |
182 | In the case of other notes, <I>N</I> can be 1 or greater, and is used to | |
183 | specify tremolo or repetition of the note group. Examples: | |
184 | <BR><PRE> | |
185 | [slash 2] | |
186 | [grace; slash 1] | |
187 | </PRE><BR> | |
188 | </P> | |
189 | <H4> | |
190 | Stem direction | |
191 | </H4> | |
192 | <P> | |
193 | The chord stem direction can be specified as "up" or "down". | |
194 | <A NAME="stemdir">Normally Mup chooses the stem direction, but once in a while you</A> | |
195 | may want to override its choice. There are some restrictions. | |
196 | You cannot specify a direction on grace notes. All chords beamed | |
197 | together and the pair of chords in an | |
198 | <A HREF="ichdattr.html#alt">alternation pair</A> | |
199 | (described later) | |
200 | must have the same stem direction. | |
201 | Examples: | |
202 | <BR><PRE> | |
203 | [up] | |
204 | [down] | |
205 | </PRE><BR> | |
206 | </P> | |
207 | <P> | |
208 | For voice 3, stem direction works a little differently. By default, the | |
209 | stem direction for voice 3 is up, | |
210 | but for voice 3 on any given staff, when you specify a stem | |
211 | direction, that direction will remain in effect until explicitly changed. | |
212 | Thus, for example, if you want all voice 3 stems on a given staff | |
213 | in an entire song to | |
214 | be down, you only need to specify "[down]" on the first chord. | |
215 | </P> | |
216 | <H4> | |
217 | Stem len | |
218 | </H4> | |
219 | <P> | |
220 | <A NAME="stemlen">Normally, Mup sets stem lengths as appropriate, but sometimes you might</A> | |
221 | want to make a stem longer or shorter than normal. This is done with | |
222 | the keyword "len" followed by a length in stepsizes. | |
223 | Some examples: | |
224 | <BR><PRE> | |
225 | [ len 14 ] | |
226 | [ len 7; up ] | |
227 | </PRE><BR> | |
228 | </P> | |
229 | <P> | |
230 | You cannot specify stem length on chords inside of beams. | |
231 | The len can be set to 0 to produce a note head with no stem at all. | |
232 | </P> | |
233 | <P> | |
234 | There is a | |
235 | <A HREF="param.html#stemlen">stemlen parameter</A> | |
236 | that can be used to set the default stem length. | |
237 | If you don't want any stems, setting that parameter to 0 is more | |
238 | convenient than setting len to 0 on each chord individually. | |
239 | </P> | |
240 | <P> | |
241 | On beamed chords, Mup will sometimes shorten a stem slightly | |
242 | from its normal minimum length. By default it will never shorten by | |
243 | more than one stemsize, but there is a | |
244 | <A HREF="param.html#sshorten">stemshorten parameter</A> | |
245 | that lets you adjust how much it will shorten. If you don't want Mup | |
246 | to ever shorten stems, you can set this parameter to zero. | |
247 | </P> | |
248 | <H4> | |
249 | Padding | |
250 | </H4> | |
251 | <P> | |
252 | Sometimes it may be desirable to space notes somewhat differently than | |
253 | Mup would normally place them. | |
254 | <A NAME="pad">It is possible to specify "padding" before any note group.</A> | |
255 | This is done by specifying the word "pad" followed | |
256 | by a number of stepsizes of white space padding to add before the chord. | |
257 | The number can be fractional, as in 0.5 or 2.25. | |
258 | For example: | |
259 | <BR><PRE> | |
260 | [ pad 2.5 ] | |
261 | </PRE><BR> | |
262 | </P> | |
263 | <P> | |
264 | The padding can also be negative. Padding affects the minimum amount of | |
265 | width allocated to a chord, so you can use positive padding values to | |
266 | force additional room in front of a chord, or negative padding to allow | |
267 | things closer together. | |
268 | </P> | |
269 | <H4> | |
270 | Chord location tag | |
271 | </H4> | |
272 | <P> | |
273 | <A NAME="ctag">It is possible to set a location tag</A> | |
274 | which is | |
275 | associated with an entire chord | |
276 | rather than an individual note. This | |
277 | <A HREF="tags.html">tag</A> | |
278 | is specified like | |
279 | <A HREF="noteattr.html#ntag">location tags for notes,</A> | |
280 | with an "=" followed by a name, but is inside | |
281 | the square brackets rather than after a note. | |
282 | <BR><PRE> | |
283 | 3: 2cf; [=h] egc+; | |
284 | 1: [cue; with >; =_ch] fa; | |
285 | </PRE><BR> | |
286 | </P> | |
287 | <H4> | |
288 | Horizontal offset | |
289 | </H4> | |
290 | <P> | |
291 | <A NAME="hoffset">A horizontal offset can be applied to a chord by specifying "ho" followed</A> | |
292 | by a number of stepsizes. The number can be positive or negative, | |
293 | and can include a fractional part. A positive number will cause the chord to | |
294 | be placed that far right of where the horizontal center of the chord | |
295 | would normally be; a negative number will place it that far to the left. | |
296 | It is also possible to simply specify a "+" or "-" which says to place the | |
297 | chord to the right or left, | |
298 | as close as possible without running into something. | |
299 | </P> | |
300 | <P> | |
301 | A horizontal offset is most commonly used on the third voice of a staff, | |
302 | although it can be used on other voices too. | |
303 | By default, Mup places third | |
304 | voice chords as close as it thinks is safe for avoiding | |
305 | most collisions. Sometimes it may actually be okay visually | |
306 | to place the chord a little closer than that, | |
307 | or perhaps there is a better "nook" to tuck it into on the left side. | |
308 | By specifying a horizontal offset, you can place chords anywhere you want. | |
309 | Mup makes no checks to avoid collisions when you specify a horizontal | |
310 | offset, so this attribute needs to be used with some care. | |
311 | </P> | |
312 | <P> | |
313 | Here is an example of the use of horizontal offset and stem direction | |
314 | on voice 3. | |
315 | <BR><PRE> | |
316 | score | |
317 | vscheme=3f | |
318 | ||
319 | music | |
320 | 1 1: c+;b;a;c+; | |
321 | 1 2: e;d;e;f; | |
322 | 1 3: [ho+1] g; [ho-5.2; down]; [ho-] f; [ho+; up] a; | |
323 | bar | |
324 | </PRE><BR> | |
325 | <IMG SRC="mugex16.gif" ALT="Picture of Mup output"><BR> | |
326 | </P> | |
327 | <H4> | |
328 | Rest distance | |
329 | </H4> | |
330 | <P> | |
331 | <A NAME="dist">Usually Mup's placement of rests is satisfactory, but once in a while</A> | |
332 | you might want to force a rest to be placed a little higher or lower | |
333 | than Mup would place it. You can specify a "dist" which is the number | |
334 | of stepsizes from the center of the staff to place the rest symbol, | |
335 | with positive numbers being above the center and negative numbers below. | |
336 | If the staff is | |
337 | <A HREF="param.html#xpose">transposed,</A> | |
338 | the placement of the rest symbol will be adjusted accordingly. | |
339 | <BR><PRE> | |
340 | // The first and last rests are in normal position. | |
341 | // The second is forced higher, the third is forced lower. | |
342 | 1: r; [dist 6]; [dist -4]; r; | |
343 | bar | |
344 | </PRE><BR> | |
345 | <IMG SRC="mugex17.gif" ALT="Picture of Mup output"><BR> | |
346 | </P> | |
347 | <H4> | |
348 | Repeated attributes | |
349 | </H4> | |
350 | <P> | |
351 | <A NAME="rptattr">If two or more chords in a row have the same bracketed attributes,</A> | |
352 | there are two shorthand notations. Specifying an empty set of brackets "[]" | |
353 | means to use the same attributes as were specified on the previous chord. | |
354 | The previous chord must be within the same measure. | |
355 | Some examples: | |
356 | <BR><PRE> | |
357 | 1: [cue] 4c;[]d;[grace; slash 1] 8f;2e; | |
358 | bar | |
359 | ||
360 | 1: d; [with .,-]d; []e; []f; | |
361 | bar | |
362 | </PRE><BR> | |
363 | <IMG SRC="mugex18.gif" ALT="Picture of Mup output"><BR> | |
364 | </P> | |
365 | <P> | |
366 | The other shorthand is to put 3 dots after a set of bracketed items. | |
367 | This means to repeat the same bracketed items on all chords for the | |
368 | rest of the measure, or until a new set of bracketed items is specified. | |
369 | If you wish to cancel this before the end of a measure but without | |
370 | specifying a new set, the special set "[-]" can be used. | |
371 | <BR><PRE> | |
372 | // put staccato marks on all notes | |
373 | 1: [with .]... c; d; e; g; | |
374 | bar | |
375 | // put several cue size notes in the middle of a measure | |
376 | 1: c; [cue]... 8d; f; e; g; [-] 4c+; | |
377 | bar | |
378 | </PRE><BR> | |
379 | <IMG SRC="mugex19.gif" ALT="Picture of Mup output"><BR> | |
380 | </P> | |
381 | <P> | |
382 | You can use more than one set of backets on a single chord. | |
383 | For example "[len 5][down]" and "[len 5;down]" are equivalent. | |
384 | However, [-] can only be used by itself, and if you want to use [] along | |
385 | with another backeted set of items (to duplicate the items on the previous | |
386 | chord plus add some more), the empty [] needs to be first, before the | |
387 | other set of items. | |
388 | </P> | |
389 | <HR><P> | |
390 | <A HREF="noteattr.html"><-- previous page</A> <A HREF="index.html">Table of Contents</A> <A HREF="midmeas.html">next page --></A> | |
391 | </P> | |
392 | </BODY></HTML> |