Directives: define

Common usage

Defining chords for string instruments

This directive defines a chord in terms of fret/string positions and, optionally, finger settings.

{define: name base-fret offset frets pos pos … pos}
{define: name base-fret offset frets pos pos … pos fingers pos pos … pos}

A fret position is designated with a number, e.g. 5th position, 7th position, etc, and the number is based on what fret the first finger would naturally lie on depending on where you are on the neck. (see e.g.)
In practice, the term fret is often used to indicate position, which is unfortunate.

In the left diagram the first (topmost) finger is in position 1, it presses the string against fret number 1. The finger positions are, from low to high, x (muted), 3, 2, 3, 1, 0 (open). The corresponding define directive is

{define: C7 base-fret 1 frets x 3 2 3 1 0}

In the middle diagram, the first finger is in position 3, it presses the string against fret 3. The finger positions are, from low to high, x, 5, 4, 5, 3, x.

{define: D7 base-fret 1 frets x 5 4 5 3 x}

The right diagram shows the same chord as the middle diagram, but it has been shifted towards the top. The 3 left of the top row indicates that the top row of the diagram is really the row at position 3. This can be obtained by adjusting the value of base-fret in the define directive:

{define: D7 base-fret 3 frets x 3 2 3 1 x}

The define directive details:

{define: name base-fret offset frets pos pos … pos}
{define: name base-fret offset frets pos pos … pos fingers pos pos … pos}

name is the name to be used for this chord. If it is an already known chord the new definition will overwrite the previous one.
base-fret offset defines the offset for the chord, which is the position of the topmost finger. The offset must be 1 or higher.

When printing chord diagrams, the top row of the diagram corresponds to the actual row at the indicated position, see the discussion above.
frets pos pos … pos defines the string positions.
Strings are enumerated from left (lowest) to right (highest), as they appear in the chord diagrams.
Fret positions are relative to the offset minus one, so with base-fret 1 (the default), the topmost fret position is 1. With base-fret 3, fret position 1 indicates the 3rd position.
0 (zero) denotes an open string. Use -1, N or x to denote a non-sounding string.
fingers pos pos … pos defines finger settings. This part may be omitted.

For the frets and the fingers positions, there must be exactly as many positions as there are strings, which is 6 by default. For the fingers positions, values corresponding to open or damped strings are ignored.
Finger settings may be numeric (1 .. 9) or uppercase letters (A .. Z). All other values are ignored.

Example:

{define: Bes base-fret 1 frets 1 1 3 3 3 1 fingers 1 1 2 3 4 1}
{define: As  base-fret 4 frets 1 3 3 2 1 1 fingers 1 3 4 2 1 1}

The resultant chord diagrams are:

Defining chords for keyboard instruments

For keyboard chords, only the chord notes relative to the root note must be specified:

{define: name keys note … note}

name is the name to be used for this chord. If it is an already known chord the new definition will overwrite the previous one.
keys note … note defines the keys.
Key 0 denotes the root note, 7 is the fifth, 11 dominant seventh, and so on.

Chords in the root position always start with note 0. The first inversion starts with 4 (major) or 3 (minor) third. The second inversion starts with the fifth 7.

Example:

{define: D  keys 0 4 7}
{define: D² keys 7 12 16}

The resultant chord diagrams are:

Note that keys that would exceed the diagram are silently wrapped.

Advanced usage

Common use (revisited)

{define: A frets 0 0 2 2 2 0 base_fret 1}

This is the most common use of the define directive. It defines a chord with name A and its fret positions. If A is a known chord its chord properties (root, qual, ext and bass) are used, otherwise these properties are derived from the given name.

You can include the chord in a song by using its name:

I [A]woke up this morning

Using a boilerplate

{define: A copy B … }

This defines chord A and copies the diagram properties (base_fret, frets, fingers and keys) from chord B, which must be a chord from the config (or earlier definition).

You can (re)define these properties in the define directive.

Adjust the appearance of the chord diagram

{define: … diagram off … }

With diagram off ChordPro will not include a chord diagram for this chord.

Possible values for diagram are on and off, and the name of a colour. In the latter case the diagram will be shown in the specified colour.

Change the chord name

{define: A … display C … }

This sets the displayed chord name (in song body and diagram) to C. To show the chord the chord properties from C will be used. Note that to include the chord in your song you still have to use the given name A.

Adjust the appearance of the chord name

{define: … format fmt … }

Defines the format string (see below) for this chord.

Using a boilerplate (revisited)

{define: A copyall B … }

With copyall instead of copy the display and format properties of B, if present, are also copied.

Examples

{define: Am7}

Defines the Am7 chord. Chord properties are derived from the given name Am7:

name	root	qual	ext	bass
`Am7`	`A`	`m`	`7`

There are no diagram properties, so no chord diagram will be included in the output.

{define: Am7 frets 0 0 2 0 1 0}

Defines the Am7 chord. Chord properties are derived from the given name Am7. Diagram property frets is provided and therefore base_fret is implied.

name	root	qual	ext	bass	base	frets
`Am7`	`A`	`m`	`7`		1	0 0 2 0 1 0

There are usable diagram properties, so a chord diagram will be included in the output.

{define: Am7 copy Am7 frets x 0 2 0 1 3}

Defines a variant of the Am7 chord. Chord properties are derived from the given name Am7. Diagram properties are copied from the existing definition of chord Am7 and the frets property is modified.

name	root	qual	ext	bass	base	frets	fingers
`Am7`	`A`	`m`	`7`		1	x 0 2 0 1 3	x x 2 3 1 x

Note that the fingers property is copied from the existing definition of chord and therefore does not correspond to the modified fret positions.

Canonical representations

The chord properties have a companion set with _canon appended to the property names. These are the canonical representations of the properties. In general the canonical version is the same as the corresponding property. They will differ if alternative variants of the properties are used.

For example, for the chord root:

name	root	root_canon
`Bes`	`Bes`	`Bb`
`Bb`	`Bb`	`Bb`
`B♭`	`B♭`	`Bb`

For the chord quality:

name	qual	qual_canon
`A+`	`+`	`+`
`Aaug`	`aug`	`+`

Alternatives for root names are defined in the notes section of the config file.
Alternatives for chord qualities and extensions are currently built-in.

ChordPro will use the chord properties to show a chord name in the output. If config item settings.chords-canonical is set, the canonical set of chord properties will be used instead.

It is important to realise that when transposing or transcoding the resultant root and root_canon will both have the same, canonical value.

Formatting

When it comes to formatting the chord for output purposes, ChordPro uses a format string to control how the output must look like. The format string is subject to metadata substitution. This does, however, not use the usual set of metadata but uses the chord properties instead.

Since the chord properties are derived from the given name, %{root}%{qual}%{ext}%{bass|/%{}} will yield the given name again.

The default chord format string is the value of config item settings.chord-format, and its default value is:

%{root|%{}%{qual}%{ext}%{bass|/%{}}|%{name}}

If property root is not empty this indicates that the chord was successfully parsed. The format will then use the chord properties root, qual, ext and bass. Otherwise it uses the name property.

Important 1: Do not leave out the alternative to show the name property otherwise unparsable chords, including NC, will not show in the output.

Important 2: When using a format string in a define directive, you must put a backslash \ before each occurrence of %{ to prevent the substitution to happen ’too early’, i.e. when the directive itself is processed. The default format string, when used in a define directive, looks like:

{define ... format "\%{root|\%{}\%{qual}\%{ext}\%{bass|/\%{}}|\%{name}}"}