When I step-enter my melody in a tune in C Major, the accidentals automatically default to flats. However, a number of my melody notes are #9-->Maj3rd. For example, over an F7 chord, I want G#-->A. When I use Force Accidental, the G# reverts back to Ab when I hit play.

What to do?

Hello?

Yep, I think you found another bug. I could not get a satisfactory result either.

This is my test before pressing play. My test song is in C Major. I ensure that I forced the accidental to display G#





And immediately I press Play:


Enharmonic notation is not sticking.

I have the same problem and since I use a lot of tritone substitutions, reading the melody notes become somewhat difficult.

I'm going to report this to the developers as a bug.

OK, I'm basically a musician - very little knowledge of these finer issues of music production/creation. Would someone be kind enough to tell me what a forced accidental is? The two words of the term seem mutually contradictory to me. I'm just an old guy who made a good living by playing guitar, but now trying to learn about music creation/production, etc. Thanks in advance.

Alan

Alan, I’ll give it a basic go.

There are many rules in music notation, and if you break them it should be for a good reason. One of those is not to mix sharps and flats in the same chord because it’s confusing and harder to read. Let’s say I have this chord: C root, Eb, F#
It is better written as C, Eb, Gb

There are two rules at work in this simple diminished chord. 1) don’t mix sharps and flats, and 2) skip a letter when going up the scale.

Those two rules sometimes come into conflict. Another general practice is to use sharps in ascending melodic lines, flats when descending.

In BIAB it is critical for both sound and notation to set the key signature, but if you have a short section of music playing in another key for a few bars, BIAB can get confused. There are also some cases where I admit I don’t know why BIAB makes the choices it does, and I’ve written for symphony orchestras. But remember, composers break the rules and they don’t always agree.

For all those reasons BIAB makes it possible to select a note and Force Accidental. You can change an F# to its enharmonic equivalent Gb for example. Same pitch, but different note names where the context determines which is the better choice.

With that as background, this thread is about the Forced Accidental not quite working correctly.

Hope that helped.

Hi Matt ...

Thank you very much. I have a much better understanding of the issue. I appreciate your time for the explanation.

You, and John Ford when he was more active here, do as much as anybody - more than many - to help us less knowledgeable users of the great PG Music software. I appreciate that.

Alan

PS: I'd like to also include Audio Track as being very helpful in assisting others with questions.

Me too... Thanks Matt.

You are most welcome. Glad to help. And +1 for AudioTrack and for John Ford.

In the case cited, I actually think BIAB is correct, using the 'skip a letter' rule. I would always write an Ab in an F7 chord, never a G#. I'm not terribly surprised BIAB is balking at the request for G#, but as long as the capability is there, I suppose you ought to be able to 'force' it even when it's not wise.

Matt, I totally agree with both points you have mentioned.

Matt,

Back in 1959 and 1960 - when I was in Junior High School - I played trumpet (your primary instrument?), coronet, French horn - anything with three valves and in the treble clef. I've not played anything but guitar, bass, and some keys since. I no longer can appreciably read notation. But, I do have a very good knowledge of chord structure and how to properly use them. At nearly 77 years old, I'm trying to learn the technical issues of recording music. Again, thanks for being on the teaching part of that learning curve. I'll leave you alone now!

Alan

Ha. Alan, everywhere I play, people tell me they USED to play trumpet. I wonder what they know that I don't. On Saturday I played the Hallelujah Chorus on piccolo trumpet. Now that's a killer and I'm only a few years behind you (been playing professionally since 1962).

Actually, my main instrument is the flugelhorn.

"I wonder what they know that I don't."
Perhaps it's more of an issue they weren't able to realize their talent, or simply didn't have the talent, as you do.


"On Saturday I played the Hallelujah Chorus on piccolo trumpet."
I assume a four-valve rather than a three-valve.


I made my first dollar (actually, eight dollars) playing at a small lounge in St. Charles, Missouri in August of 1963.

Almost got it. Yes, my piccolo has 4 valves. No, I only played the first 3!

You wouldn't want to have Ab-->A in the melody, would you? I'm thinking #9, which should be G#. It's hard to sightread Ab-->A.

Yes, G# is a #9 in an F7 chord.

No, I have no problem with seeing Ab then A natural in a melody. If it's in the same measure, you must use a natural sign on the A natural. If the A natural is the start of the next measure, I might use a courtesy accidental natural sign.

Can you give us enough of the chord progression, along with the melody notes?

Although as I mentioned I like sharps in ascending lines (G# to A) I can't give an opinion without the full picture.