User manual

Table Of Contents
Chord symbols
Chord symbols describe the vertical harmony of the music at a specic moment. They are
frequently used in jazz and pop music, where players often improvise around chord
progressions.
Chord symbols shown above slashes on the Clarinet and Piano staves to help the players improvise around
the notated Cornet melody.
In Dorico SE, chord symbols exist globally at their rhythmic position by default. This means that
you must only input chord symbols once, but they can appear above multiple or no staves as
required. However, in some circumstances it is necessary to show different chord symbols for
different players at the same rhythmic position. In such cases, you can input local chord symbols.
You can hide/show chord symbols project-wide above specic instrument staves, including if
multiple instruments belong to the same player, and in different layouts. You can also show
chord symbols only within chord symbol/slash regions and hide/show individual chord symbols.
If you have input chord symbols but no players in the current layout are set to show them, they
are indicated by signposts.
Depending on the style of music, there are different conventions regarding how to present chord
names.
Dorico SE provides a single default chord symbol appearance preset that applies to all chord
symbols.
RELATED LINKS
Input methods for chord symbols on page 235
Hiding/Showing chord symbols on page 535
Hiding/Showing signposts on page 316
Chord components
Chord symbols consist of a root and a quality, with intervals, alterations, and an altered bass note
included if required.
Root
The root note of the chord, expressed either as a note name or as a specic degree of a
scale.
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Dorico SE 3.1.10