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In popular music, it is common to denote accompaniment with chord names. Such chords can be entered like notes,
\chordmode { c2 f4. g8 }
Now each pitch is read as the root of a chord instead of a note.
This mode is switched on with \chordmode
Other chords can be created by adding modifiers after a colon. The following example shows a few common modifiers
\chordmode { c2 f4:m g4:maj7 gis1:dim7 }
For lead sheets, chords are not printed on staves, but as names on a
line for themselves. This is achieved by using \chords
instead
of \chordmode
. This uses the same syntax as \chordmode
,
but renders the notes in a ChordNames
context, with the
following result.
\chords { c2 f4.:m g4.:maj7 gis8:dim7 }
When put together, chord names, lyrics and a melody form a lead sheet, for example,
<< \chords { chords } the melody \addlyrics { the text } >> }
A complete list of modifiers and other options for layout can be found in Chords.
This page is for LilyPond-2.6.3 (stable-branch).