The Chords track not only contains the sequence of chords in the song, but also defines the inversion of each chord.

An inversion is the precise set of pitches which are used to play the chord, and they form the tones that are available for events in rhythm segments.

Inversions are automatically generated for you based on the settings in the Chords track setup.  However if you wish, you can individually override these inversions for each chord, to get exactly the sound you want.

Chords Setup

The Chords setup consist of four settings which control the automatic generation of inversions in the Chords track.

Chord Tones - the number of tones (pitches) to be generated for each chord inversion.  This directly controls the number of lines in rhythm segments.

Target Bass Pitch - the target pitch for the lowest tone of automatic inversions.  This controls how low or high the overall inversion sounds.

Target Intervals - the target interval between each tone in automatic inversions.  This controls how open or close the overall inversion sounds.

Continuity - how the strongly the target settings are returned to, after a chord inversion has been overridden.

Automatic Inversions

Based on the settings in the Chords setup, inversions are generated automatically, unless you override them.  There are three levels of overriding, and each is represented with a different notation.

Let's look at an example.  For a Chords setup of 4 chord tones, a target bass pitch of C4, and target intervals of b3, an inversion of the Cmaj7 chord is generated as shown below.

Automatic inversions are notated with the name of the chord, in bold text.

Cmaj7

Set Bass Pitch

The first step to override an automatic inversion is to choose a different bass pitch.  For our example, we will raise the bass pitch of the inversion by two degrees to pitch G4.

Once you have set a bass pitch for an inversion, slash chord notation indicates the bass pitch, in normal text, after the chord name.

Cmaj7/G4

Set Inversion

The next step in overriding an inversion is to select the pitches of the remaining tones.  These must be pitches which belong to the chord (of course) and must be in ascending order.

For our example, we will select a wider range of pitches, to create a more open sound for the inversion.

When you have selected specific pitches for the inversion, they are notated in extended slash chord notation after the chord name.

Octave numbers are dropped in the series notation except where a pitch is an octave or more above the previous pitch.

Cmaj7/G4,C,B,E

Custom Inversion

The final step in overriding an inversion is to create a custom inversion.  These offer complete flexibility in the choice of pitches, including null pitches, repeated pitches and pitches not in ascending order.  Custom inversions can even be formed from an arbitrary collection of pitches which are not based on a specified chord.

One application of this flexibility is to precisely represent the chordshapes of the guitar (or other stringed instruments), where each tone is a string.

For our example, we will override the second tone, to make it an octave lower (it is now lower than the "bass" pitch).

Custom inversions are notated beginning with an equals symbol (=), and all tones are listed in full detail with octave numbers.

=Cmaj7/G4,C4,B5,E6