Manual Chord Types And Notation
Augmented Chords
To add an augmented chord you write "+".
E.g. C+
See the Examples Chord Types (PDF).
Altered Chords
To add an altered chord you write "alt".
E.g. A7alt
See the Examples Chord Types (PDF).
Diminished Chords
To add an diminished chord you write "dim" or "dim7".
E.g. Adim7 Bbdim
See the Examples Chord Types (PDF).
You can choose your preferred rendering style „dim“ or „circle symbol“ in the user settings.
Halfdiminished Chords
To add an halfdiminished chord you write "m7b5".
E.g. Am7b5
See the Examples Chord Types (PDF).
Major Chords
To add a major chord you use capital letters.
E.g. C G
See the Examples Chord Types (PDF).
Major Flat Five Chords
To note a major flat five chord you just add b5 if you got a seventh chord.
Otherwise you have to enclose the b5 with parentheses.
That is required to differentiate e.g. a B-Flat Powerchord Bb5 from a B-Major flat five chord B(b5).
E.g. B(b5) Ab7b5 Bbj7b5
See the Examples Chord Types (PDF).
Lydian Chords (sharp eleven)
To note a major seven #11 chord you just add #11 if you got a seventh chord (G7#11).
Otherwise you have to enclose the #11 with parentheses.
That is required to differentiate e.g. a G-Sharp eleven chord G# 11 from a G-Major sharp eleven chord G (#11).
E.g. G(#11) G7#11 Gadd#11
See the Examples Chord Types (PDF).
Minor Chords
To add a minor chord you write "Am","Ami", "A-" or just "a".
E.g. Am A- Ami a
See the Examples Chord Types (PDF).
Minor Flat Six Chords
To note a minor flat six chord you just add b6.
If you use a lowercase letter for the minor chord you have to enclose the b(b6) with parentheses.
That is required to differentiate e.g. a B flat minor six chord Bbm6 from a B minor flat six chord Bm(b6).
E.g. b(b6) Bmb6 B-b6
See the Examples Chord Types (PDF).
Power Chords
To note a power chord you add a "5".
E.g. A5 E5
See the Examples Chord Types (PDF).
Suspended Chords
To add a sus-chord you write "sus2","sus4" or just "sus".
E.g. Asus4 Dsus2 G7sus4 Bsus
Other shorthand options are A4 D2.
See the Examples Chord Types (PDF).
Slash Chords
To add a slash chord you just write a regular chord followed be a slash and the base note as uppercase letter.
E.G. C/G or D/F#
If you want to use the same chord with a moving bassline the blank chord (e.g. */G) comes in handy.
See the slash chords in Instant Karma! (John Lennon).
Blank Chords
Blank chords are not printed at all.
But there are some use cases.
If you want to use the same chord with a moving bassline the blank chord (e.g. */G) comes in handy.
See the slash chords in Instant Karma! (John Lennon).
Or to place a chord in the second half of a split bar.
You can also use this to add an empty bar, like in this example.
N.C. - No Chord
No chord marker to indicate that no accompanying chords should be played at all.
To use it, just write NC or N.C. instead of a regular chord.
E.g. see extra bar at the end of the bridge in Streets Of Philadelphia (Bruce Springsteen) .
Diamond ⬦
To use a diamond symbol, simply write diamond or <> right after the chord.
See the Example Diamond (PDF).
Fermata 𝄐
To use a fermata symbol, simply write fermata after the chord.
See the Example Fermata (PDF).
Rests
To use rests, just write r1 to add a full bar rest or r2 to add a half bar rest instead of a regular chord.
To add a quarter note rest write r4.
See the Example Rests (PDF).
Stroke Symbols
To add stroke symbols just write one or more commas , right after the chord symbol.
See the Example Stroke Symbols (PDF).
Annotations
You can add short annotations to a chord.
Just add any text in quotes after the chord.
E7 "some annotation"
Attention, this is NOT meant to add lyrics.
See the Example Annotations (PDF).