Chord sheets?

One feature I’ve always missed in notation software, is a way to write chord sheets, without having to bend and tweak it from a traditional score sheet.

I’m not talking about fret diagrams and such, just the simple chord sheets with vertical bar lines containing chord names, slashes and percentage signs.

I tend to use iReal Pro for this, and do a screenshot when I need to share it with others, but I really would prefer to do it in my notation software as a separate staff, enabling me to make a real score sheets for the melodists, and use the simple chord sheets for the rhythm group.

Is this possible in Dorico, or is it the pipeline for a future release?

If you are after a straight chord chart with slashes and bar repeats included in your score then yes, it is ridiculously easy.

Dorico’s implementation of slash bars is as simple as selecting a range of bars and clicking a button.

Do you want chord names inside the bar? Dorico places them above the staff. I am away from my machine at the moment so can’t check if there is an option to draw them inside the staff…

Thank’s for helping out.

I would like them inside the bars, without the horizontal lines, which is how I believe most chord sheets in rhythmical music look.
As noted, I also need to be able to input percentage and slash signs.

Here is an example:

I had been playing around with this.
I came up with this, which isn’t exactly right, but I think adequate. Perhaps there is a better way, but I couldn’t be bothered thinking about it at the time.


I made a triangle (less staff lines to delete), lowered the number for vertical position in Engraving>Chord symbols>Position (it does not seem to go to the middle of the barlines unfortunately even though you can put large negative numbers), Setup - Triangle>chord symbols to all instruments, Change noteheads to slashes.
Then export as mono PDF, import into a vector program (I used Affinity Designer, but Adobe Illustrator etc. would do just as well I would think), then delete the stave line and rests (presumably you could make them white) which is very quickly done for a normal chart length.

You could extend the barlines upwards and whatever other refinements you wish to do, like selecting the chords and moving them downwards, but I didn’t.

[BTW, iReal Pro can export music XML files which exports the chord symbols, barlines, repeats as you see in the chart to maintain the form. And instead of doing screenshots, export PDF of the song - and if you have a playlist, you can export all of the songs at once which results in a multi-paged PDF in the song order of the playlist.]

Thank’s.

I’ve been using similar tweaks and hacks in other notation programs, and tend to end up with the conclusion that it’s too much of a hazzle. I was just hoping that chord sheets would be supported in Dorico, as it is quite commonly used.

I will just have to continue using iReal for this.
Nice tip about the pdf exports, I never noticed that option and it’s much better than doing screenshots. If only they would make a decent editor.