I was doing my first attempt at importing .XML chords info into BBox, and noticed that all the dom 7th chords were being called "(Blues)", like in the screenshot below.
Now, I realised of course that this had to be because the notes in these particular dom 7th chords didn't include that annoying flat 9, like BBox usually does with its own take on this same chord, I just never knew this alternative way of writing this chord existed in its 'vocabulary'.
My initial thought thus was 'Great, I finally know how to make dom 7th chords in BBox the proper way!', but things of course weren't going to be that straight forward - It turns out I can't write parentheses into the chord field at all, which makes me wonder how the program could do that on its own for this XML import.
Anyone noticed this "(Blues)" thing before in the chord sheet? And, more importantly, if so how can we manually enter such a chord?

That's strange, because I do remember seeing (blues) chords listed in the chord builder dialog window, can't remember ever using them though.
However, picking the "(Blues)" entry from the drop down menu in the chord builder window does something very strange.
It seems to ignore the parenthesis, and reads the first letter of "blues" as a flat, changing my D chord into this Db (luse) chord ...

You may have stumbled across a bug there, my friend.

- Jay

Well, plot thickens indeed - I'd say it's you who has discovered a bug there, for that's not what happened on my end.
Then again, I totally missed this Blues thing being in the Chords Builder list, will have to have another look at that to verify if that behaves differently from the XML import rendition.
Either way something is clearly amiss here, for you'd expect any and every thing from the Chord Builder to be accepted in manual typing (and in the same way at that), and that clearly is not the case.

Followup: I do find this 'blues' thing in that Chord Builder, as you noted, and oddly enough right beneath it there is a '7blues' option as well
I've no idea what the precise difference there is between those, though, and neither behaved in that "b flat" glitchy manner you described...weird stuff.

Sorry, I didn't have a lot of time to check it out when I made my last post.

On the bright side I think we may have discovered the " The Lost Chord "

Even though the (lues) chord notates as a Db in the chordsheet window, it actually still plays as a D, so it is just the chordsheet notation that is wrong.
I did see that "7(blues)" entry too, but didn't have time to try it, or even to actually listen to the song that had the Db (luses) chord in it .

That one does seem to show correctly in the chordsheet window though.
Probably because the root name and the flat symbol are separated by the 7 .
Strange.

EDIT : I will have to listen again, but I didn't hear a whole lot of difference between the maj, and the (blues) forms of the chords though. Maybe it's just the song I tried them in though.


- Jay

The (Blues) chord most definitely omits any instances of that additional flat 9 as ppresumed, that much I think I've established. As for the difference between the one with that 7 in the name versus the one without, there is none in terms of notes used/played. This, however, is not that unexpected, for there are a number of chords that have been named differently while including exactly the same notes (C aug and C+ for example).
And my guess about your odd "looks like another chord on sheet" thing, that has to do with your chosen font, which differs from mine (and it doesn't happen on my end). Or at least that's my current hypothesis, based on what variables are same and different between us.

Yup, had a little time to play around and found that the "BigBand Chords" (which I had been using as a default), and the "RealScore Chords" fonts both exhibit this behavior.
Good troubleshooting.

Damn... and here I thought we discovered some new jazz inversions.

But still... to get back to your original point, it would be nice to somehow be able to enter these chords without opening the chord builder.

- Jay

And likewise you did still find a glitch in the case of those different fonts there, if perhaps not quite an expected one.
So that plus my every chord should be 'typeable' and this has been worth the while in my book at least.

p.s. I made a post on this same topic over that the PC side, just in case I'd get more feedback (or maybe even different results since it's a different version now there), if you fancy a look or even bring up that odd font thing there too.

Excellent topic and hope you don't mind my comments.

I have always found that the Mac versions of Chord Builder always gave some rather strange chord sounds that more than often that chord did not sound the same when actually played on my keyboard.

I took a listen to the "blues" chord and is reall just a 7th chord.

This could be because you have the "Embellish chords" checked. If you want to be sure that you are always getting the written chord exactly as BBox interprets them, this option should be unchecked. Open or closed voicing may matter here too, though it really shouldn't, I don't know.

Yup, check this same topic in the "BBox for Windows" forum

Are the notes for a " blues " chord for the guitar

different from the " blues " chord for a piano ?

( i can't read/understand guitar charts because i do not play guitar )


And also help please,


for some reason I can't find PG's 12 bar blues demo ?

The core chord as defined shouldn't be, no, but it can it vary which of its noted you choose to use and what pitch you choose of each of them varies even more. There's a 'proper' english musical term used for what I've just tried to describe, but at the moment I just can't seem to remember it...

p.s. I don't think I've heard of a "PG's 12 bar blues demo" before, where did you see this?

Something is not correct when using XML files in Mac 2016.0.154.

I created/saved my own 12 bar blues as an XML file.

After importing that XML file that 12 bar blues song was horribly displayed in the chord sheet with the song now ending at bar 20.


Anyone care to try?

Sure it may sound like a 7th normal chord, but a trained ear like mine can hear the suspended silent flat, and the diminished (lues) notes slightly ringing in the background.

Thanks all for confirming that it is a normal 7th, because I could hear no difference at all.

The extent of my formal musical training is that in 30 years I have only made it to the second chapter of Ted Greene's "Chord Chemistry" book (not light reading, but still working on it).

I try to steer clear of the musical theory threads if I can.
Major, minor, 7, 9, 11, 13... all I know, but I've got those down cold.

- Jay

I think you should make your own thread about this, so that we won't have two separate topics in one thread.

you are right, that can be confusing and somewhat hard to follow


i will repost