Preferred chord symbol system

[klavieronin]

Do you have a preferred system for writing chord symbols? I'm not talking about Roman Numeral analysis but rather the chord symbols you see in lead sheets or popular music song books.

[pianocavs]

Hi klavieronin!

My preferred chord symbol system is the one on pages 364-372 of the following book.

https://piano-maps.com/libro-book-download

You can download it for free

I think it is the most used as an alternative to traditional notation.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Depends on the type of music.  And sometimes what composition software you use.  Musescore does a lot of slash chords by default so I’ve gotten kinda used to that.  And they can be useful for playing really out Wayne Shorter sh*t.  But for something more straight ahead idk I’d rather just have the extensions.

Ideally it’s best to be comfortable with all notations cause I’ve noticed people sometimes play the same chord differently if it’s spelled differently.

[klavieronin]

Depends on the type of music.  And sometimes what composition software you use.  Musescore does a lot of slash chords by default so I’ve gotten kinda used to that.  And they can be useful for playing really out Wayne Shorter sh*t.  But for something more straight ahead idk I’d rather just have the extensions.

Ideally it’s best to be comfortable with all notations cause I’ve noticed people sometimes play the same chord differently if it’s spelled differently.

Yeah, I used to really dislike slash notation but in certain contexts I think it can be a lot more straight forward to read.

[klavieronin]

Hi klavieronin!

My preferred chord symbol system is the one on pages 364-372 of the following book.

https://piano-maps.com/libro-book-download

You can download it for free

I think it is the most used as an alternative to traditional notation.

May I ask why you chose not to use the triangle to represent a Maj7 chord. I don't particularly like the triangle myself but I'm just wondering if there was a particular reason you decided not to use it since you use the ° for diminished and ø for half diminished.

[pianocavs]

Thanks klavieronin!

You are quite right.
There is no particular reason for not including the triangle.
It was because I have always used “maj”.
But, since the book aims to be as complete as possible (at an introductory level), I will include it in the next issue.

I really appreciate this observation.

The best for you.