musescore-chordsToNotes [archived]

The harmony playback feature is now available in MuseScore 3, development of this plugin is thus stopped, thanks for you feedback and positive comments in the past.

A much better alternative for MuseScore 2 is available at https://github.com/per-d/notesFromChordTexts

Another approach, more in the idea of Band-In-A-Box, is being developed (for MuseScore 3) at https://github.com/berteh/BandInMuseScore

ARCHIVE

This plugin for MuseScore 2.0 expands chords annotations into a few notes in voice 4, directly playable by MuseScore.

No styles, variations, bells or whistles: it's really plain, but does work.

How-To

• Check out if you rather use improved version by @Bacchushlg, with

  • automatic creation of a new staff line (only one initial staff is accepted in the moment)
  • correct chord length according to the distance to the next chord symbol
  • some additional chords and synonyms (as found in several scores that I tested)

• Download and install the plugin to your MuseScore 2.0+ install. Only the qml file is needed, but the examples (in test/) are useful to try it out quickly.
• enable the chordsToNotes plugin in plugins > plugin manager dialog, restart MuseScore.
• open a score with chords, make sure MuseScore has parsed them all by hitting F2 (transpose to anything) and SHIFT-F2 (to transpose back)... or simply transpose to a prime (or just to the current key) - so nothing is really changed
• run the plugin via plugin > Create-Notes-From-Chords
• enjoy your new voice 4 with notes generated from the chords, and use [MuseScore shortcuts](see https://musescore.org/en/handbook/note-input) to quickly change the proposed chords to you liking (eg ctrl up/down to move a note up/down one octave)

Issues and limitations

• I would like to generate these new notes in a new staff instead of new voice in current staff. Any suggestion how to do so is welcome.
• I would like to display notes with the proper length (eg whole, half,...). Any suggestion to get note length info from cursor chord/rest is welcome.

Support

Kindly report issues or requests in the issue tracker.