Detailed feature reference

Chord symbols guide

CADENCE — CHORD SYMBOLS AND LEAD SHEETS

In Compose, choose Chord symbols above the score. Enter a symbol, its bar and
beat, then Add symbol. Choose an existing symbol in the list to edit or remove
it. New symbol starts another entry; Done returns to the score. The small
buttons beside Chord symbols reopen entries in the currently selected bar.
The same controls are available beside the original in Source & draft view.
New → Lead sheet with chord symbols provides an original four-bar example.

Examples: C, Dm7, G7(b9), Bb13, F#dim7, Bm7b5, Cmaj7/E, G7sus4, C6/9 and N.C.
ASCII #/b or musical accidentals work. Common minor, major, diminished,
augmented, suspended and extended spellings are accepted. Alterations and
added/omitted degrees are structured data. An unrecognised suffix gets a
visible error; Cadence does not guess what it means.

Beat numbers follow the displayed meter: in 6/8, beat 2 is the second eighth;
in 4/4, beat 2 is the second quarter. Fractions such as 1.5 are allowed. A
symbol may occur between written note attacks. Several changes can share a
bar, with one symbol at each position on each notation staff. Piano may place
symbols above either staff. Guitar symbols appear above notation, once,
rather than duplicating above TAB. Guitar chord roots are concert pitch.

The symbols are independent of written voicings. Editing a label does not
change the written notes or their playback/MIDI export. Follow changes opens
separate guitar/piano voicing suggestions and untimed MIDI drills from the
selected symbols. It does not insert accompaniment into the score. See Follow
the changes guide.txt. Roman-numeral analysis for arbitrary pieces and timed
accompaniment remain follow-ups.

Undo/redo, bar insertion/deletion, duplication, passage copy/paste, clearing
and transposition include the chord symbols. Transpose changes both root and
slash bass; octave-only shifts preserve spelling. Transposition uses the
score's sharp/flat preference and preserves flat roots where practical.
Changing the key signature alone still changes the signature, not the music.
A shorter meter is rejected if it would remove a late chord symbol.

MusicXML exchange preserves the supported root/kind/bass/degree structure,
beat positions, staff and kind-text suffix. Styles and engraving are regenerated.
Stacked polychords, Nashville/Roman-numeral functions, inversion-only markings,
chord frames, microtonal roots and unsupported harmony structures are rejected
for editable import; retain the original and read it in Studies. Cadence does
not claim lossless exchange with every notation editor.

PDF import now requests printed chord labels with bar, beat and staff. It does
not infer unwritten harmony or invent accompaniment. Unsupported labels remain
in the page review notes with their position for manual entry; the original
page remains beside the draft. A retry can replace that page's symbols after
review. Symbols and corrections on other pages retain their identities.
Editing a symbol clears its page's review mark and invalidates musical analyses
made for the previous score. Old analyses and practice history are retained.
Explicit piece analysis and passage coaching receive the selected chord changes
labelled as supplied symbols, with a reminder to distinguish inferred harmony.
Previously imported PDFs are not sent again automatically.

Version 0.17 uses editable score format 4. Older scores migrate when opened;
the next save retains the previous file generation. Older versions reject
format 4, preventing them from silently discarding the chord symbols. Quit the
older app before opening this release and continue with the new version.

Validation covers chord syntax, unsafe/malformed input, MusicXML cursor offsets,
non-480 divisions, guitar/piano round trips, undo, revision identity, bar edits,
transposition, PDF page replacement and legacy score migration. Native desktop
checks verify rendered labels and note selection on guitar and piano. The
renderer uses an engraving-only adapter for chord offsets and printed suffixes;
saved/exported MusicXML keeps the structured harmony entries.

No paid model request is required for these checks. New PDF chord-recognition
accuracy still needs review against real imported pages; local schema and
conversion tests do not establish vision-model accuracy.

MusicXML references:
https://www.w3.org/2021/06/musicxml40/musicxml-reference/elements/harmony/
https://www.w3.org/2021/06/musicxml40/musicxml-reference/elements/degree/