Chords and arranging

Maestro is built with arrangers in mind: it writes and reads chord symbols, can work them out from the notes, harmonizes a melody for a horn section, adds cue notes to the parts and warns you when an instrument can’t play what you wrote.

Chord symbols

The quickest way is the Chord symbols tool in the palette on the left (the “C7” icon, below Expressions): click above a note or a beat, type the chord and press Space to go to the next beat, Tab to the next measure (⇧ to go back), Return to finish. Click above an existing chord symbol to change it. There’s no need to select anything first.

Or:

1. Select the note the chord symbol belongs to (or put the Speedy Entry cursor on it).
2. Choose Notation → Chord Symbols and Lyrics → Chord Symbol… (⌃K on the Mac, Ctrl+Shift+K on Windows), or the Chord Symbol button in the palette on the left.
3. Type the chord and confirm.

Use the letters A to G: b and # for accidentals, a slash for the bass note. Some examples: “Bbm7/F”, “F#ø”, “C6/9”, “Cmaj7”, “G7(b9)”. Maestro draws root and suffix with proper music accidentals (♭ and ♯), the suffix smaller and raised, the bass note after the slash, and lines up all the chord symbols of a system on the same row above the staff.

With a measure selected instead of a note, the chord symbol goes at the start of the measure on the first selected staff.

• To change a chord symbol: select the same note and choose Chord Symbol… again: the dialog shows the current one.
• To remove it: leave the field empty and confirm, or click it with the Selection tool and press ⌫.
• To move it: drag it with the Selection tool (see Moving items by hand).

Chord symbols and transposing instruments

Chord symbols are stored at concert pitch. On the staff of a transposing instrument (trumpet, sax…) they are shown transposed, like the notes, and when you enter one on that staff you type it as you read it: Maestro converts it to concert pitch for you. View → Concert Pitch (⇧⌘K on the Mac) shows everything in C.

When you transpose a passage (Edit → Transpose…) the chord symbols are transposed with the notes. Chord symbols also drive the automatic bass, piano and drums accompaniment (see Playback and audio).

Analyze Chords

If the music is written but the chord symbols are missing, Maestro can work them out from the notes.

1. Select the measures to analyze: click the first measure, ⇧-click the last. ⌥-click (Alt-click on Windows) takes every staff.
2. Choose Notation → Chord Symbols and Lyrics → Analyze Chords….
3. Choose how many chord symbols you want: One per measure, Every half measure or On every beat.
4. Click Analyze.

The chord symbols go above the first selected staff. Maestro recognizes triads, sevenths, sixths, sus chords, diminished, half-diminished and augmented chords, with the tensions that are actually played (G13, Cmaj9, Dm9, C7(♭9), B♭13sus4). It writes an inversion (C/E) when the bass note is held, and spells the root to fit the key (B♭ in F major). A chord symbol identical to the previous one is not repeated.

Chord symbols already in the analyzed measures are replaced; ⌘Z brings them back.

Treat the result as a starting point, not the final word: on piano, guitar and choir it is fairly accurate, while on a big band chart with lots of tensions in the melody it finds the right root about 7 times out of 10. Always check the chord symbols.

Guitar fretboards

You can show guitar chord diagrams above the chord symbols of a staff:

• with the Staff tool, click the staff → Guitar Fretboards above Chord Symbols;
• or, in the Inspector, Staff section → Fretboards above chord symbols.

The fingering comes from the chord symbol: open chords for the common cases, otherwise movable shapes with the root on the sixth or fifth string, in the lowest position. The diagram shows the nut or the fret number, the dots, open strings and muted strings.

Harmonize Section

Write the melody once and let Maestro spread it across a section, the way an arranger writes a sax or brass soli.

1. Select the measures of the melody and of the instruments that will harmonize it, 2 to 5 adjacent staves: click a measure of the melody, ⇧-click a measure of the last instrument. The melody must be on the first staff.
2. Choose Document → Staves and Instruments → Harmonize Section….
3. Pick the technique: Block (close position), Drop 2 or Drop 2 & 4.
4. Click Harmonize.

Each staff below the melody gets one voice, with the melody’s rhythm, ties, articulations, dynamics and hairpins. Layer 1 of those measures is replaced.

• The notes come from the chord symbols in force (written on any staff). Triads get the sixth (major) or the seventh (minor); a melody note that isn’t in the chord replaces the chord tone just below it (the ninth instead of the root, the thirteenth instead of the fifth).
• Without chord symbols the voices move in thirds below, within the key.
• With five voices the last one doubles the melody an octave below; with two, the second voice sits a third or a sixth below.
• Notes held by a tie stay put even if the chord changes, and note names follow the chord (E♭ in C minor, B𝄫 in C diminished).
• A voice that goes out of the instrument’s range is moved by an octave if that brings it back in; otherwise it stays colored magenta for you to fix by hand.

It undoes with ⌘Z, and next time Maestro suggests the technique you used last.

Cue notes

Cue notes help players come back in after a long rest, like Finale’s Smart Cue Notes. Document → Parts → Cue Notes… asks for:

• After at least: how many measures of rest an entrance needs before it gets cue notes (4 by default; 2 to 16);
• Cue notes: how many measures to show before the entrance (2 by default; 1 to 4);
• For: All parts or Only the selected staves.

Click Create Cue Notes. Before each entrance the part shows, in small notes, the last measures of the instrument playing just before, with its name above. Maestro prefers a melody instrument (winds, strings, voices) over keyboards and guitars, and those over basses. The notes are transposed for the part’s instrument and shifted by octaves as needed to sit close to the staff.

Cue notes appear only in the parts (not in the score), don’t play back and break multimeasure rests. Piano and percussion don’t get them. Creating them again replaces the old ones; Document → Parts → Remove Cue Notes removes them all. To view the parts, see Layout and printing.

Instrument ranges

While you write, Maestro checks that every instrument can play its notes, like Finale’s range checking:

• notes the instrument cannot play are colored magenta;
• notes that are possible but difficult (outside the comfortable range) are orange;
• in Speedy Entry the status bar warns you when the note under the cursor is out of range.

The colors are only shown on screen; View → Color Notes Out of Range turns them off.

Document → Staves and Instruments → Check Range… selects the notes that are out of range (or, if there are none, the difficult ones), takes you to the first one and tells you, for each instrument, how many there are and in which measures.

The range is worked out from the staff name, in English or Italian (“English Horn” is not a horn), and if the name says nothing useful, from the instrument’s sound. Guitars and basses follow their tuning. Percussion and cue notes are not checked.