Music Making

[judifilksign]

 I've been wrestling with Finale software yesterday and today in order to get my music in a readable, playable format.  With my father's phone tech support help, (Now isn't that a first, with the elder supporting the younger in computer tech applications?) I was able to widen the spaces between staffs so that all the lyrics could fit.

Of course, keeping track of which lyric one is one is still an issue, but at least I don't have to go cross-eyed across pages to read lyrics on one page while reading notes on another as I sing and play counter-melody on guitar!

solomons_pond  and pondside helped me with re-chording a song, and finding chords for an ear worm ("Tapioca", by Allegra.)  To my surprise, Finale automatically changes the typed in chords above the song as well as the notes when it transposes, as long as the chords are "attached" to a note in the staff.  Kewl.

I made a separate support call to dad, in which he helped me figure out what notes ought to go in a C4 chord.  I saw it in one of catsittingstill  's compositions that I'm trying to learn how to play, and went "What is THAT?!?"  My theory books were not helpful.  My guitar chord books did not show any chords with a 4 by it.  My music lesson:  father was able to tell me that a C chord has three notes: C-E-G, the first, third and fifth notes of a chord.  C4, also known as Csus, omits the third (the E) and changes it to the fourth, an F.  This results in a chord composed of the notes C-F-G.    I was able to look up a Csus chord in the big guitar chord book I have.

With this information, I was able to figure out how to make a C4 chord on my banjo all by myself, by working out the notes on the fretboard!  I shall have to compare notes with Cat to determine whether my fingering matches what she uses on the mandolin, just out of curiosity.

Comments

bwa ha ha!!!!!!!!!!!

[u-must-b-joking.livejournal.com]

my Evil Plan for global domination continues aPACE!!!!

Twirls cape, exits stage right.

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

Whee! I just learned about Csus4 and Csus2 chords in my "Keyboard Skills for Recording Engineers" class last term. Csus2 would be C-D-G, Csus4 would be C-F-G, as you had already figured out. Sus is short for "suspended."

And that's everything I know about the topic.

Well except that if a tune ends on a C, you can draw it out by playing the two Csus chords before it, in one order or the other, and you feel "suspended" until you hit the C.

[robin-june.livejournal.com]

Which Flavor and Year version of Finale are you using?

I'm still trying to decide which one to buy.

I miss Deluxe Music Construction Set.

[gundo.livejournal.com]

I know how you feel...my song book has been a collection of various printouts in way too many formats. So my project of the last 18 months or so has been to take all of these different formats, and in some cases un-chorded songs, put them in a consistent format *with* chords (using ChordPro and various pieces of software).

Finally started printing out today...190+ songs.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

sorry--this is one of the downsides of naming things logically instead of going for the correct technical name.

FWIW, when I make a weird chord (this C would be better with an F in it--oh, cool) I use the base chord name (C in this case) with the interval number for the extra note. C-d-e-f 4 letters, so it's called a fourth, so C4.

I do this consistently--when you see a D9 it means a D chord with d-e-f-g-a-b-c-d-e --on a guitar this would be a D chord but with the F# on the highest pitched string replaced with E. (Which on a guitar is simplicity itself since the open string gives an E. If I remember correctly that tenor banjo works like mandolin, this should be true of the banjo too.) Some people would write this D2 (for d-e; 2 letters so it's a "second"); I use D9 to emphasize that I want the E on the highest pitch available.

I should probably use the generally understood terminology; the problem is I don't have enough music theory to know what it is.

Cool that your Dad could help you with both things, though.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

And I'll be happy to go over it with you in person to see whether we use the same fingerings. But if we use different ones, yours is just as valid as mine.