Hi team,
I have a question about chord notation.

For years I’ve used slash chords as a way to briefly describe chords, such as D/F# and so on.

This is efficient to write and means I don’t have to resort to score.

My question: is there a short-hand way to notate chords which actually describes the voicing? I’d like something that gives more information, such as m7 on top or open/closed chord detail. A bit more of the chord spelling. Important for the Stick!

I was thinking that surely the jazz crowd has something to offer, but I’ve not found anything - most lead sheets just use slash chords and a melody line.

(I’d prefer not to go down the tab route because that’s not very flexible IMO.)

Any ideas? Or has someone invented something for this?

Cheers

I don't know much about reading music, but this website comes in handy.
https://lilypond.org/doc/v2.23/Document ... l-notation

Figured Bass notation from Baroque days
CEG stacked low to high is just CMaj
EGC is labeled C6/3(smaller numbers)
Indicating the intervals from the lowest note the others E-C = 6TH, E-G= 3RD
GCE= C6/4
I prefer the popular slash chord notation
C/E, C/G, C/B etc

Steve Adelson

I developed my own system that probably could only be read by me ... something like a chord (like C7) and "3" scribbled underneath or whatever note I wanted on top ... then note names for runs. In teh end it was not faster than just jotting down the music in notation but until sure of the middle voices it could provide a sketch

When you write for a section (sax, tpt or trb) you know exactly what kind of voicing you write but when it's time to give the same structure to the piano or guitar player it's more sensitive. A trick I use is to change a chord name. I give you the example of Dm7b5. Sometimes I prefer to call this one Bb9/D...same notes. Or Fm6/D...again same notes but in different order. In these 3 examples your can be sure that you want D in the bass.

I don't know if it helps...good luck.