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I can't seem to find a way to make a ukulele chord chart (4 strings) appear over a piano part...the only option is guitar. Is there an obvious way to do this that I am missing? I usually create a ukulele part, but I don't want to do that...

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Music Education (usually Choir, licensed in Band/General Music/Orchestra), Technology in Music Education, Arranging, Tuba, Tenor, Ukulele
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by Surf.Whammy on Thu Oct 12, 2017 12:33 pm
christopherrussell wroteI can't seem to find a way to make a ukulele chord chart (4 strings) appear over a piano part...the only option is guitar. Is there an obvious way to do this that I am missing? I usually create a ukulele part, but I don't want to do that...


I did a bit of experimenting, and I think there's a way to do this; but it requires temporarily modifying the Mac OS X Resources in the NOTION 6 application package (a.k.a., "bundle"), which will make sense when you read this entire post . . .

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(1) I don't play ukulele, and I have no idea if these are ukulele chords, so that's a question; but I think these are correct ukulele chords . . .

QUESTION: Are these proper ukulele chords?

(2) If these are ukulele chords, then this is something that can be done . . .

(3) I did it on the Mac, so since you're on the Mac, you can do it . . .

(4) It requires temporarily modifying the ChordLib contents of the Resources folder in the NOTION 6 application package, but this can be undone if you do it correctly . . .

(5) After you modify the Chordlib contents, you can copy the now modified NOTION 6 application with a new name like "Notion 6 (Ukulele).app" and then undo the Chordlib modifications done to the original "Notion 6.app" application file, at which time you have the original and a separate copy that does the ukulele thing . . .

After this modification, when you want to do the ukulele thing, you will run "Notion 6 (Ukulele).app" rather than "Notion 6.app" . . .

Otherwise, you will run "Notion 6.app", which is the original application . . .

THOUGHTS

The PreSonus NOTION folks might not be so happy with me for telling you how to do this, but (a) it works; (b) your NOTION 6 license allows several instances of the application; and (c) it's fabulous . . .

Fabulous! :+1

The modifications to the Chordlib subfolder are simple . . .

You rename the "GuitarChords.tpk" file to something like "Surf-GuitarChords.tpk", and you rename the "UkuleleChords.tpk" file to something like "Surf-UkuleleChords.tpk" . . .

Then you make a copy of "Surf-UkuleleChords.tpk" and paste it into the 'Chordlib" subfolder and then rename the file to "GuitarChords.tpk" . . .

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Original NOTION 6 Chordlib Subfolder

[NOTE: The "GuitarChords.tpk" file actually is what was the "UkuleleChords.tpk" file . . . ]

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Surf.Whammy Modified NOTION 6 Chordlib Subfolder for Ukulele Chords on Piano Staff


At this point, the next time you run NOTION 6, it will think that it's working with guitar chord images, but it's actually working with ukulele chord images . . .

Then when you create the piano staff in NOTION 6 Score Setup, you click on the "Notation/Tab" pane and enter "G4 C4 E4 A4" in the "Tab tuning" field, which makes NOTION 6 think the piano is a ukulele but only for chord image purposes . . .

It's a piano, but instead of showing guitar chord images, it shows ukulele chord images; and you only need the piano staff, since the ukulele chords appear on the piano staff . . .

SUMMARY

If the ukulele chords are correct ukulele chords, then this part is working correctly . . .

Let me know, and I will post detailed instructions to this topic that will make this easy--and safe--to do . . .

Lots of FUN! :)

P. S. The smart way to do this modification is to begin by making a copy of the "Notion 6.app" file, which you will rename to "Notion 6 (Ukulele).app" . . .

Then you do the modifications to the Mac OS X package for the copy version, which avoids having to undo the modifications in the original application file . . .

This is a relatively simple modification, and it probably will take less time to do it than it does to read one of my posts . . .

:ugeek:

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Sinkhorn's Dilemma: Every paradox has at least one non-trivial solution!
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by christopherrussell on Tue Oct 24, 2017 8:45 pm
Thanks! I see what you are doing here. The challenge is that I need to be able to also use the file on the iOS
App, and changing the library name won’t likely stick. I think it is a feature request...being able to request the type of chord diagrams used over any kind of staff. I need to double check the chords, but a standard C chord on a GCEA ukulele is 0003 (just as one example).

Thank you again for the reply!

  • 2018 MacBook Pro i5, 2.3GHZ, 16GB RAM
  • 12.9" iPad Pro 2, 256GB, Apple Pencil
  • iPhone 8 Plus
Music Education (usually Choir, licensed in Band/General Music/Orchestra), Technology in Music Education, Arranging, Tuba, Tenor, Ukulele
User avatar
by Surf.Whammy on Wed Oct 25, 2017 3:17 am
christopherrussell wrote. . . a standard C chord on a GCEA ukulele is 0003 (just as one example).


This makes sense, and it has to be correct, regardless of whether it's a standard C chord, because in this tuning the notes will be {G4, C4, E4, C5} . . . :)

Something is not working correctly with the four-string chord symbols, so I will see if I can determine what's happening . . .

THOUGHTS

Even if I can get the chord diagrams working, it doesn't solve the problem of being portable to the iOS version of NOTION, but I agree that it's something the PreSonus folks should be able to do . . .

I play electric guitar, and I used to do chord sketches with dots in a drawing program (Graphic [AutoDesk[)--which I do sometimes--but it takes a while . . .

Instead, I use the fretboard in "chord mode" in NOTION 6, because I use a lot of what I call "middle chords", and the standard chord library doesn't have many middle chords; so it's easier to do it with music notation rather than with chord diagrams . . .

I can read the dot chord sketches, but not the music notation . . .

Image

I can write guitar parts using music notation, but I can't read it and then play it on guitar, which I suppose is odd . . .

Yet I can sight-sing individual notes on a soprano treble clef, except an octave lower, which is due to learning how to do this when I was in a liturgical boys choir . . .

And I don't know the names of the chords in the dot chord diagram, but I have names for them like "Stormy Monday", "Purple Haze", various "Middles", and other names that probably make sense only to me, but so what . . .

[NOTE: If I take a bit of time, I can find correct names for some of the chords. The first chord is what I call a "Low James Brown", but it's also a "Low Stormy Monday", except that it's different from a "James Brown" and a "Stormy Monday", but the pattern has the same intervals geometrically for the lowest three notes. I like four-note chords, and there are three regions {low, middle, and high} based on which adjacent four electric guitar strings are strummed; and there are low and middle Barre chords, which includes 6-string and 5-string chords (adjacent only). This is played on a real electric guitar, and I think it would be very difficult to do it in music notation, but it's easy for me to play it on a real electric guitar. This is a kick drum (synthesizer) and the real electric guitar. There's no bass, but I'm playing bass at the same time on the electric guitar, mostly droning the low-pitch "E" string. I taught myself how to play electric bass and electric guitar "by ear"; so for a guitar chord, I name it after the first song I learned that had the guitar chord, but if a guitar chord is used in a lot of songs by the same musical group or singer, then it gets the musical group's or singer's name . . . ]

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Lots of FUN! :)

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Sinkhorn's Dilemma: Every paradox has at least one non-trivial solution!

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