To define and enter a chord symbol manually

1. Click the Chord tool  .
2. Choose Chord > Manual Input.
3. Double-click the beat on which the chord symbol is to be attached. The Chord Definition dialog box appears.
4. Click on the Show Advanced button. The dialog box expands to show the Number Definition.
5. Enter the root scale tone number. If there’s a different bass note, click Alternate Bass and enter its scale tone in the Alternate Bass text box. For an F/G chord in the key of C, for example, the Root Scale Tone (F) is 4, the Alternate Bass is 5.
6. If you need to alter the scale degree chromatically, type a number into the Alteration boxes. This number, positive or negative, alters the scale tone by half steps. To create an A chord in the key of F, for example, the Root Scale Tone is 3 (the third note of the scale) and the Alteration is –1.

Note the Alteration box is especially important if you want a chord symbol that’s out of the key and Simplify Spelling is turned on in the Chord menu. Suppose, for example, that you’re in the key of A, but you want an A flat chord symbol. You might assume that entering a scale degree of 1 (A) and an Alteration of –1 would do the trick—but in fact, you’d get a G chord symbol. To solve the problem, enter 2 in the Root box, and –3 in the Alteration box. In effect, you get an A flat chord symbol by specifying a B triple-flat.

7. Click Select button next to Suffix. The Chord Suffix Selection box appears. If you have loaded or created a Chord Suffix Library, the suffixes appear here.
8. Double-click the desired suffix. If there are no suffixes in the palette, either click Create to create a new suffix, or load a chord-suffix library, as described inTo create or load a Chord Suffix Library.

If you don’t want the chord symbol to play back, uncheck the appropriate Play box.

9. Click OK (or press RETURN).

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