User Guide

Chapter 12: Wizards, Tutors, and Utilities
242
Chord Resolution: (Range from 1 beat to 4 bars, default = 2 beats). This is the
minimum number of beats for a chord. For example, if you set it to 2 beats, then the
Chord Wizard will never attempt to come up with different chords that are only a beat
apart.
Tip: If you have a song that has a short section that does include chords every beat,
you can redo that section of the song with a 1-beat resolution.
Include Slash Chords: If set, the Chord Wizard will include “slash chords” like F7/A.
Bass Part Type: You can set this to “Root only,” “Root third and 5
th
,” or “Walking
bass.” If you choose “Root Only” the Chord Wizard will assume that any bass note is the
root of the chord. Choosing “Root-3-5” will cause the Chord Wizard to assume that the
bass pattern is mainly on the root-3-5 of the chord. If you choose “Walking bass” it will
assume that the bass notes can be changing and can include many notes beside the root.
Setting the “Walking bass” line will likely result in fewer chords overall than setting the
“Root only” option.
Chords Allowed: The setting for “Allow Sus” chords determines if chords like Csus or
Bbsus7 will be included. The “Allow 7
th
chords” specifies if 7
th
chords like C7 or Bbm7
would be allowed. Simple Rock songs might not have 7
th
chords or SUS chords.
Allowing chords with no thirds should be set in a hard rock song, or similar song with
“power chords” that might not contain the 3
rd
of the chords.
Bass Delay: Usually a bass player plays the root of the chord at or near the time when
the chord changes. But in solo piano playing or some bass styles, the bass doesn't state
the root until later on, and this setting should be set to “delayed” in a solo piano style of
this type.
Method: You can also set the primary style of the song to Jazz or Pop using the Lead
sheet Method combo box.
Using the Chord Options Presets to make settings for Violet Song.MID.
For the song “Violet Song.MID,” we know it’s a Jazz Swing
type of song, so we press the preset called “Jazz Standard.”
By doing this, we see that the chord options have then been set to Chord Resolution of 2
beats, no slash chords, walking bass, sus chords, 7
th
chords, and Jazz lead sheet.
These settings look OK for our Jazz song; if we wanted to customize it (for example to
allow slash chords) we could do it at this point.