Re: Chords and what they mean

[David Kastrup]

David Kastrup <address@hidden> writes:

> 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.).

Except that c:m.30 is not valid and c:m30 apparently is the same as
< c' ees' g' bes' d'' f'' a'' >

c:m5 now is indistinguishable from c:5, so even c:M5.30 (once available)
would not work because of the missing e'.  But that's consistent with
c:dim5 being <c' ges'> while c:dim7 is <c' es' ges' beses'>.

In other words: this is a can of worms that will likely affect a few
chords already existing in scores.  I'm not sure whether a convert-ly
rule amounting to s/:\(5[.^]\)/:3.\1/g will not trigger on unrelated
stuff as well.

-- 
David Kastrup