I found something a bit misleading in the settings for chords.
Based on this screenshot, I would expect that the bass note gets aligned based on the root note. Instead it looks like it’s displayed after the entire symbol.
Additionally, for just slash notation:
The slash is a bit too far from the actual bass note. When you combine these issues, it’s almost unclear where the /G in my screenshot should happen (it almost looks like it’s attached to the Fmaj7#11).
Here’s the same example from finale:
Another Finale example:
What I have done in Finale to make this work is enter the chord symbol without the /Eb then manually align the Eb with the Emin9(maj7).
Changing bass notes shouldn’t be stacked because there’s nothing to stack them with. So I’d expect them to look like:
Namely, the instructions “Arrangement of altered bass note relative to chord symbol” feels inappropriate since the chord symbol isn’t present.
Therefore, this combination of settings feels a bit misleading.
If I could, I’d like to request 2 features from this:
- Altered bass notes alignment setting to be able to configure it to align with the root of the symbol.
- Set the appearance of the altered bass notes without chord symbols (including alignment - for example, if I have alignment of multi-line chord symbols relative to single-line chord symbols, slash chords without a top are incorrectly considered multi-line when they visually only have 1 line).
Thanks!
Zach
EDIT: It looks like I can get some of the inline behavior by unchecking “align chord symbols across width of the system”
Why would you expect that? As a jazz pianist, I expect exactly what Dorico displays. (I’ve read jazz chord symbols for 45 years, and I don’t believe I’ve ever once seen the / bass note written prior to the chord extensions.
I’m really curious: where have you seen this notation?
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It’s a more modern thing that I’ve seen quite a bit in big band writing to handle small space, ensuring clear positioning.
I’d expect that configuration to account for horizontal scale of chord symbols. For example, If I did 4 quarter notes:
C mixolydian/F C lydian/F# C locrian / F# C aeolean / G, that becomes extremely long and hard to sight read. There’s no world where someone will read the /F /F# /F# /G progression correctly at once.
Here’s an example from Darcy James Argue:
That example is similar to the example I posted in my original post.
I’m not looking for the bass note to come before the symbol, but rather be aligned like a multi-line symbol with the same alignment point as the top line.
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Got it! I didn’t read carefully enough and thought you wanted, for example:
G/Ebmin11(b13)
For the modal symbols, I’ve always thought abbreviated (3 or 4-character) symbols looked better, which not only frees up space but also helps with alignment issues:
CMIX/F CLYD/F# etc.
Ah! Yeah, that would be odd!
You’re right about the simplified naming. In that example, it’s just longer chord symbols like the Emi6/9 / C# - and i could, of course just write it like C#min11, but there are other some other unpictured reasons why i have it written like that.
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@dspreadbury quick question. With things like this, is there a way to submit a feature request directly to the dev team? This type of chord configuration is critical for many jazz composers and I want to make sure at least my comments here don’t go into the ether. Is there a report feedback directly to the team function somewhere?
Just to save Daniel some time : he and other people from the dev team read every post of this forum
We users answer the questions we can answer to help (if we can) and save the devs some time (that we prefer better used as developing or resting). So be sure your detailed explanations are taken into account.
You can also write e-mails if you feel it’s necessary and don’t want us to comment, the address is d dot spreadbury at steinberg dot de (I make sure it’s not too easy for a bot to take it and spam it, hopefully you’ll know how to write it correctly)
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Perfect! Great to know. Thank you!! 
Zach
