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When iReal Book returns, as I have no doubt it will, it would be nice to have a feature where you can flip a page so, instead of seeing chords notated in the standard Arabic alphabet, e.g., Cm7, Eb, Gm, etc. it would be displayed in Roman numerals, e.g., II-V-I, or I-VI-II-V, etc. Of course it has to be linked to the correct key for the chord sequence. In fact, this feature may already be built in, but I just haven't found it. Suggestions anyone?
This has been suggested/discussed before.
Search the forum posts for "nashville"
http://irealb.com/forums/showpost.ph...6&postcount=42
Perhaps after irb is available again and other upgrades have been addressed that can be consiered. In jazz it's way more complicated than just I-VI-ii-V.
:))BOB
Quote:
Originally Posted by Filibogado
Hello Filibogado,Quote:
Originally Posted by pdxdjazz
As Bob has noted, it can get complicated with jazz because any chord can be in any key (not simply diatonic-based chords) so you can end up with b3-7 or #5-9 etc.
However we are currently testing a basic solution using Nashville Numbering as it is commonly used by many musicians and is reasonably comprehensive in the way it can convey what is required.
The current iReal implementation of Nashville numbering is good but it has a very MAJOR flaw: it assumes the entire piece is in a single key, without any key changes.
Take "Tune Up" for example, the standard Miles Davis piece. The first three chords E-7 A7 Dmaj7 are a ii-V-I in the key of D major, the next three chords D-7 G7 Cmaj7 are a ii-V-I in the key of C major, and the next three chords C-7 F7 Bbmaj7 a ii-V-I in the key of Bb major.
But there is no way to tell iReal book about these key changes, and therefore the Nashville numbers for such a song are completely wrong and all over the place and therefore useless. Given that jazz is full of key changes, the iReal book Nashville notation is not useful for jazz as it is, but the solution is VERY simple.
In the editor, allow us to indicate, in any measure, whether there is a key change, and have the Nashville numbers from there on based on that new key, until another key change comes up. iReal book already bases it's Nashville numbers based on a key (the key of the song) so the programming logic for figuring out the Nashville numbers based on a given key is already there. You just need to allow the editor to indicate a key change in any measure in the song, and adjust the Nashville numbers according to that, and we would be good to go.
Thank you!
BB from San Francisco USA
So much music (except for a lot of jazz) is in one key so I guess simple Nashville notation works OK.
I solved a similar problem when writing melodies in numbered musical notation (nmn) by using \1\ when a piece modulates down a step and /3/ to show it goes up a major third. My version of "Tune Up" looks like this:
Tune Up nmn by Miles Davis
Someday iReal b (and Player) will probably do something similar for Nashville and Roman numeral chords.
After posting my Nashville request above yesterday, I discovered that over the past two years many comments have already been posted about how difficult it would be for irb to algorithmically determine the correct Nashville number for a given chord. That is true, and as someone else mentioned sometimes there isn't even an agreed upon correct Nashville (or Roman numeral) number for a chord, because different people might differ about the harmonic function of that chord, so I might say it is a Nashville 2- (or Roman ii) in Key 1 and you might say it is a Nashville 4- (or Roman iv) in Key 2, etc.
But this dispute goes away if irb allows a user to explicitly say, anywhere in the piece, what new key the piece is modulating to. While on most pieces folks will agree, on some pieces some may disagree, but then they can simply "edit song" and change the new key designation, and voila they will get the Nashville numbers that they want to see.
If development of this functionality was stopped by the roadblock of how difficult it is for the computer to determine the "right" harmonic function of a chord (which is a difficult problem indeed), then the good news is that we can side step that whole issue by allowing the user to say what the new key is. I think this is a simple and elegant solution that works for 98% of the pieces, and for the other 2% folks can click a few buttons and change the key to what they think it should be and everyone will be happy.
Norman, thanks for posting your nmn version of Tune Up. For some reason the link doesn't load correctly in the web editor (other songs load fine) so I will have to try it from home on the ipad.
Here's hoping for a next version of the Nashville functionality!!!
BB in San Fran USA