Best Software To Make Chord Charts?

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 18 Dec 2004 9:45 am

I've made chord charts in word processing programs before, everything from Notepad to Microsoft Word. It always seems awkward.

What do you use?

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Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 18 Dec 2004 10:29 am

Music programs are better becasue you can transpose easily, or do other edits.

Band In A Box has super easy chord entry, and will give you a number chart insetad of chord names if you prefer. But my BIAB seems limited in formatting: I can't make the symbols bigger or smaller, and I can only do exactly 4 bars per line. Often it is better to start phrases on a new line, and they aren't always 4 bars.

A real Music notation program may be overkill for you, but they do it all well. Finale and Sibelius are the big ones; I still use Encore which is ancient but it works well.

Edward Efira · Post by **Edward Efira** » 18 Dec 2004 11:12 am

I use tabledit, works great both on Mac and Windose,
Ed

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Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 18 Dec 2004 11:14 am

Thanks, Earnest.

A lot of our music is a repeating phrase, with an x4 or x6 after the line.

Also, I'd like to be able to add some rhythmic notation now and then, where we have quick changes within a measure on odd beats.

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 18 Dec 2004 11:15 am

I'll take a look at tabledit.

winston · Post by **winston** » 18 Dec 2004 12:52 pm

I have a program called notation from MAGIX. I bought it thinking it was something else. I will gladly sell it for 20.00 plus a couple of dollars shipping. bOb, if you want it I will gladly send it to you as a donation to the forum. All I need is your address. Winston May

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 18 Dec 2004 4:36 pm

Thanks, Winston, but that's not what I'm looking for. I just need to make chord charts. Music notation with a staff is unnecessary for what I'm doing.

I really do appreciate the offer, though.

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 18 Dec 2004 9:07 pm

I use a page layout program. Quark, PageMaker or InDesign. It's very easy to do with any of these apps.

C#
[This message was edited by Cal Sharp on 18 December 2004 at 09:11 PM.]

Howard Tate · Post by **Howard Tate** » 19 Dec 2004 1:39 am

I would think a spread sheet such as Quattro Pro would work better. Earnest, what version of Band in a Box do you have? Unless it's pretty old if you open the notation window and click on options there is a place to set the number of lines/bars per page, in 2005 it goes up to 64. That might look a little strange. Also you can set the font size on that page. Excuse me if you already knew this stuff.

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Howard, 'Les Paul Recording, Zum S12U, Vegas 400, Boss ME-5, Boss DM-3
http://www.Charmedmusic.com

[This message was edited by Howard Tate on 19 December 2004 at 01:43 AM.]

John Lacey · Post by **John Lacey** » 19 Dec 2004 3:45 am

b0b, I've tried quite a few programs for scripting, but I always come back to Microsoft Word. The tab key gives me about a 3 letter spacing between chords and under insert->symbols, it gives me enough musical symbols to get by, fermatas, etc.

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 19 Dec 2004 9:28 am

Cal, those programs are way over budget for me. I have to get a LOT of use from a program to spend over $100 for it.

Howard, I once had a boss who used Excel for everything. It was the only program he knew. He could do anything with it. We having a saying: "When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."

Maybe I'll give it a try.

BIAB doesn't offer enough control over printouts for what I want to do. It's good for printing songs that you've written in BIAB, but these songs are sort of odd and I don't want the charts to be over one page long.

John, I never thought of Insert|Symbols in Word. Maybe that's the missing piece of the puzzle. Thanks!

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<img align=right src="http://b0b.com/Hotb0b.gif" width="96 height="96">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
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Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 19 Dec 2004 11:43 am

Earnest, what version of Band in a Box do you have? Unless it's pretty old if you open the notation window and click on options there is a place to set the number of lines/bars per page,

My BIAB is version 10.0.
The only related item I see is in the Notation Windows Options dialog. There is a parameter called "Bars/Screen" but nothing to set the number of bars in each individual line. The screen only shows one line, so I don't know how the "Bars/Screen" parameter relates to each line in the printed page.
The solution seems to be: Not'n menu > Options > New Line Each > Part Marker. Then wherever you want a new line to start, you create a Part Marker by putting the mouse cursor in that bar, and pressing P.
Then you can go Not'n Menu > Lead Sheet Window where you can see the chords.
The Lead Sheet window cannot be scrolled (so you can't see it all), and has no Print option.
If you click on Opt you can make the staff lines disappear, to create a chord chart. You can also make the font smaller, so that the chords don't overlap each other, but that applies only to the Lead Sheet Window, and not to the Print Preview (I didn't waste ink to see what actually gets printed). A Print Preview is available, not in the normal Windows File Menu, but from a click on a printer icon. In the print preview the new lines start where I put Part Markers, but the font size does not be change, and the giant chord symbols overlap each other.

So apparently, BIAB can create usable chord charts in some simple cases.

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 19 Dec 2004 2:08 pm

b0b,

Since falling into desuetude PageMaker has become quite cheap. I've seen version 6.5 on Ebay for $89.

Cal

Dave Van Allen · Post by **Dave Van Allen** » 23 Dec 2004 6:59 pm

b0b;
even if it's a "hammer," excel works fine for me for chord charts...

but then so does a pad of paper and a Sharpie

use the appropriate technology!

Roy Ayres · Post by **Roy Ayres** » 24 Dec 2004 8:42 am

Bob,

I have about 60 number charts in my "books" that I hand out to the backup bands at steel guitar shows. I have used Microsoft Word for all of them and have never thought of it as being clumsy for that use. There may be better programs for this purpose, but I wouldn't spend even $10 for one -- because Word is easy to use and I have full control of font size and style, number of chords on a line, etc.

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Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 24 Dec 2004 12:34 pm

b0b, I agree with Cal regarding the desktop publishing programs. I learned Pagemaker at the Austin Chronicle, and that's what I use for my tab and my courses, but I also get a lot of use from Microsoft Publisher. It's a lower frills desktop pub. program that is quite versatile, and will fit into your budget.

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Howard Tate · Post by **Howard Tate** » 25 Dec 2004 1:06 am

There have been some improvements in the Biab notation. I don't know if it would work better for Bob or not but it is improved. In Biab 2005 on the notation options page right next to the bars/screen is a radio box to change lines per page, next to that are plus and minus signs for changing the bars per line.

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Howard, 'Les Paul Recording, Zum S12U, Vegas 400, Boss ME-5, Boss DM-3
http://www.Charmedmusic.com

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 25 Dec 2004 10:06 am

Right. But I have some lines with 4 bars and some with more or less. An example of an Open Hearts chart might look something like this:
<pre>Intro
[: A G D D :] x3
| A G D E E |

verse
[: A G D D :] x4
...</pre>The odd repeats and the 5-bar line make it really hard to do with BIAB. Chart writing is an afterthought in BIAB, not the primary use of the program.[This message was edited by Bobby Lee on 25 December 2004 at 10:07 AM.]

Gary Shepherd · Post by **Gary Shepherd** » 27 Dec 2004 3:40 pm

www.openoffice.org has a free suite of programs like Microsoft Office. You could use the spreadsheet to enter chord progressions. But I still say Band In A Box would probably be easiest and would allow for quick transpositions.

Even if you do have/get Band In A Box, you should still download OpenOffice. It's a great free suite.

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Gary Shepherd

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Mark Krutke · Post by **Mark Krutke** » 29 Dec 2004 7:08 pm

I would agree with Herb in that Microsoft Publisher is very effective and user-friendly in making charts, with one option being the ease of making multiple text boxes anywhere on the page and then placing them wherever you want.

Lefty Schrage makes some excellent looking charts, also.

mark

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Johan Jansen · Post by **Johan Jansen** » 8 Jan 2005 2:38 am

Bob, the new Biab (version 2005 )will forfill your needs with this, a lot of possibillities for chord-making and printing on one page. besides that it takes audio in recording too!
regards, Johan