Re: Chords and what they mean

[David Kastrup]

Marc Hohl <address@hidden> writes:

> Am 20.09.2015 um 09:58 schrieb BB:
> [...]
>>> The question is more like:  if you saw Csus, would you know how to
>>> interpret it musically?
>>> Or would you be stuck in your tracks wondering, "is this a sus2, sus4,
>>> both?  something else?"
>>
>> c:sus is working correctly getting root and 5, but indeed is an
>> "unconventional" expression to get a C5 ...
>
> In my experience, some musicians are not aware that there is something
> like sus2. Moreover (at least in the sheets I work with) the sus4 is
> much more common, so writing sus instead of sus4 is more often than
> not a mixture of lazyness ("I omit the 4 as anyone knows that I mean
> sus4")
> and a lack of knowledge.
>
> Interpreting c:sus as root and 5 feels strange IMHO.

The rule I am using in my current patch (just writing up the
documentation) is that c:sus will add a 4 if no step 2 or step 4 is
added afterwards (step 2 can be 2+ or 2- as well as just 2).

An unrelated issue is c:5 behavior.  The changes in that will mean that
c:5.30 now has to be written as c:3.5.30.  I lean towards admitting the
A.A.A. (American Accordionists' Association)'s convention of using M as
a shorthand for plain "major" so that c:M.30 would be the same as
c:3.5.30 (cf
<URL:http://www.planet-accordion.com/en/the-standard-basses-structure-and-notation/>,
scroll down to scanned page from the A.A.A.).

Naturally, introducing the chord modifiers Б, М and У would also be a
possibility not likely to cause confusion (well, М almost looks like M
which makes it a bit difficult to interpret in juxtaposition with the
A.A.A. major indication, but then the rest of the chord symbols is also
going to be in Cyrillic letters in any music employing М).

But most of that is not currently an issue.

-- 
David Kastrup