Good set of chord suffixes in jazz fonts for sale?

[vivalajazz]

I’ve spent 100 - 200 hours over the past 18 months with v25 and 26 working on a good set of chord suffixes in jazz fonts, as they appear in the newer real books from Sher Music, Hal Leonard, Warner Bros. Finale does not provide a comparable set of chord suffixes and the chord suffix editor is impossible to manage reliably. I spoke with Finale’s technical support and although knowledgeable and professional, they admitted the chord suffix editor is a clumsy tool. I give up.

If anyone has a good set of chord suffixes in jazz fonts for sale please contact me.

[N Grossingink]

One of the features of the new Finale 26 is the greatly expanded selection of chord suffixes, with multiple formats and spellings of each suffix. Are there none of these that reflect your preferences? There is a video here that explains the new chord libraries:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drNdFVw ... e=youtu.be

The trouble with getting someone else's chord library is that you're locked into their particular formats, spellings, sizes, and fonts. I'd suggest you take a look at Finale's own libraries and choose among their pre-designed suffixes as a basis for your own.

N.

[vivalajazz]

Thank you for your reply.

I watched that video sometime ago before upgrading to v26. I wish it were that easy.

Those chord suffixes do not reflect my preferences. Sher Music’s New Real Book Volume One was published in 1988. Since then, this and several other jazz real books set the standards for chord suffixes in jazz scores with jazz fonts. Those are the suffixes that jazz musicians have become accustomed to reading. That is what I need.

I have spent a great deal of time studying Finale’s chord suffix libraries, jazz fonts in particular, and trying to use him as a basis for my own. The problem is the chord suffix editor. There are several things that make it very clumsy, but two that are impossible to overcome. One, it is nearly impossible to achieve the desired position when moving suffix characters with the mouse. It’s a random matter of luck. Controlled movement could easily be accomplished with arrow keys, but not an option. Two, having no representation of the chord symbol’s relative position in the suffix editor makes it impossible to know what the desired position is. It’s a matter of endless trial and error. Given the various character offsets and desired positions the H and V coordinates serve no useful purpose in establishing position that I can see.

I’m sure I’ve spent at least 100 - 200 hours over the last 18 months working on chord suffixes. I’ve spent a great deal of time learning Finale in general, and other than the chord suffixes, I am very satisfied with my scores. But if the chord suffixes are no good, the score / lead sheet is no good. I have not been able to produce a single lead sheet that has good chord suffixes.

My objective is to be locked into the formats, spellings, sizes and jazz fonts as they appear in the popular jazz real books published over the last 30 years. Maybe one of those copyists is willing to sell that set of chord suffixes, maybe someone else has a good set. I don’t see any way of accomplishing it in Finale.

[N Grossingink]

There are tips and shortcuts for constructing chord suffixes in Finale that take much of the pain out of designing them. It would help to see what you have come up with so far. Just one page of music in a Finale file with your present suffix library–attach a copy here. Some of us will have suggestions but it's essential to see the syntax you're using for the suffixes.

N.

[vivalajazz]

Please review the chord suffixes in Sher Music’s New Real Books Vol 1 - 4, The Standards Real Book, and The World’s Greatest Fake Book. It is essential to understand why the commonly used suffixes in these books are formatted, spelled, spaced and aligned as they are, and why the suffixes in Finale’s v26 jazz font libraries are incomparable and insufficient.

I attached a file with Finale’s 315 v26 jazz font suffixes, as well as some that I tried to edit by starting with a provided suffix, and some I tried to design from scratch. Many others that I tried to edit or design were so bad I deleted them from the file. I spent a lot of time on these and they are no good due to the obstacles I described.

Does anyone have any tips or shortcuts to overcome the obstacles with the chord suffix editor that don’t involve trying to move characters with the mouse or guessing where the characters should go in relationship to the chord symbol? Does anyone have any tips on how to obtain a good set of chord suffixes as published in the popular jazz real books that don’t require editing?

[N Grossingink]

I found a chord chart published by Sher Music, using their typical chord symbols, so I have something to go on.

I did the example below with Finale using the "Finale Copyist" font and chord suffix libraries. It doesn't look like Sher's, but all the elements have the same positioning and syntax. What do you think?

N.

Screen Shot 2019-04-08 at 6.04.42 PM.png

[vivalajazz]

Thank you for your reply.

The A7 chord is right. Because it has altered extensions the "7" is needed in the spelling. In Finale's jazz font library several dominant chord suffixes with altered extensions are not preceded with "7" and I believe they should be. The spacing and alignment look good, better than the spacing and alignment of many of the dominant chord jazz font suffixes in Finale's library.

The spacing and alignment of all the suffixes look pretty good.

I just took another look at the Finale copyist library and experimented with it. I didn't study it in detail, but it looks well organized and possibly rather complete. The options of Ma, Maj, MA, MAJ, MIN, min, in general are good.

I don't like the font appearance / style for jazz scores. It causes me to think I am reading something other than a jazz tune.

[vivalajazz]

Those options are not available in the jazz font libraries. What are the tips and suggestions for taking the pain out of using the jazz font?

[elbsound]

Here are a few examples including many handwritten samples of Finale chord libraries created with a JW Lua plug-in.
All visible images were created from the same source library and then converted to a new font style.
https://elbsound.studio/chord-style-plugin.php

Unfortunately the new Pori chord font is not included yet in my conversion database, but I will add soon.
(Info about Pori: https://www.scoringnotes.com/news/major ... folk-fonts )

[vivalajazz]

That is impressive and encouraging.

In several cases the alignment still needs to adjusted. Moving the 4 characters in (#5) individually with the mouse is still going to be extremely difficult in the chord suffix editor. Adding these features to the editor would probably make it very easy to use:

A representation of the chord symbol in the selected font / size
Clear indication of which character(s) are selected
Select multiple characters and move all uniformly in one motion
Controlled movement with arrow keys rather than mouse
Interactive alignment grid as with page layout and other tools
Zoom or full screen viewing

[michelp]

Good suggestions. Send them as "Feature requests".
The Chord Suffix Editor really needs a radical overhaul.

[N Grossingink]

Just to play devil's advocate, here's a video of Dorico's chord symbol editor. Dorico has a hand copied font which is based on the styles and symbols used in Sher Music publications.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6_B7smS6VY

N.

[michelp]

Ouch, the flexibility and power of Dorico for chords puts Finale to shame...

[miker]

Incredible.