Chord Spacing

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aemusic
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Post by aemusic » Wed Jan 30, 2019 9:15 am

Is there a function for chord spacing (like music spacing) so that bars space out automatically in order to avoid chords clashing (pic attached). Thanks in advance.
AE MUSIC

Finale 2014
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Peter Thomsen
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Post by Peter Thomsen » Wed Jan 30, 2019 11:28 am

The problem here seems to be the measures with Slash Notation, right?
My guess is that those measures do not contain any entries, right?

To get a better spacing you can add rests in the empty measures.

First, add Half rests, then Apply Music Spacing, and Update Layout.

Where more spacing is needed, change a Half rest to two Quarter rests, then Apply Music Spacing, and Update Layout.

Where more spacing is needed, change a Quarter rest to two Eighth rests, then Apply Music Spacing, and Update Layout.

Where more spacing is needed, change an Eighth rest to two Sixteenth rests, then Apply Music Spacing, and Update Layout.
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michelp
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Post by michelp » Wed Jan 30, 2019 11:34 am

You can also try Document Options -> Music Spacing -> Avoid collision and check the box "Chords". But it won't do miracles.
Other suggestions :
• Resize the chords in the measures where there are 4 chords. Utilities -> Change -> Chords -> Scale Chords to : X
But this works with moderate reductions, otherwise the spacing of the elements of the suffix will look bad.
• Use another staff (no line, nothing) and use the resize tool to reduce it. Chords will space correctly. Group the staves.
• To save a little space, use the "subtext" alternate bass in case of a simple inversion (This is quite common practice).

P.S.: in your example, if you reduce the width of the fourth bar (use the Measure tool handles), you could allocate more width to the first three measures.
Last edited by michelp on Wed Jan 30, 2019 5:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Michel
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Nick Mazuk
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Post by Nick Mazuk » Wed Jan 30, 2019 5:15 pm

There's also a good tutorial on this on OFNOTE.

http://www.rpmseattle.com/of_note/final ... l-spacing/
Nick

at8ax
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Post by at8ax » Mon Feb 04, 2019 7:39 pm

Something I've been wondering about: Is there a difference between, say, C7/E and
C7
E
? When I have this situation, I'll do C7_E to create the stacked chord (is that what you meant by "subtext"?), but do some players read that differently? If so, what's the other interpretation?

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zuill
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Post by zuill » Mon Feb 04, 2019 7:46 pm

That is traditionally used for polychords. So, not C7 with an E bass, but C7 superimposed over an E triad.

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michelp
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Post by michelp » Mon Feb 04, 2019 10:08 pm

Like Zuill said.
A chord over a bass NOTE will use "Subtext" as its alternate bass in the chord definition window (see image, where the 3 possibilities are visible).
 
subtext.jpg
 
In the case of subtext, the line will be oblique. For that reason, the whole chord symbol takes less space on the score. That's also a reason why the "After Root" option, C7/E (on the same baseline) is not used so much.

The option "Under Root" uses the horizontal line for polychords, in other words for 2 superimposed chords. Note that Finale cannot define a bottom suffix, so one has to use a workaround (define 2 chords and place a horizontal line in between them).
Michel
MacOsX 12.7.4, Finale 27.4.1 & 26.3.1, Mac Mini Intel Dual Core i7 3Ghz, 16 Go Ram. Azerty kb. MOTU Midi Express XT USB, Roland Sound Canvas SC-88vl, MOTU Audio Express. 2 monitors (27"' pivot, 24'"), JW Lua, RGP Lua

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