What changes do you want to see in future versions (part 2)?

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Permalink Reply by Power Music Guru on December 12, 2009 at 10:04pm

At the moment you can't print the music for whole playlist (other than the songsheet). Songs are usually printed one at a time as required. The reason for the font size prompt is that some songs with longer lines would line wrap and this would throw the chord lines out of alignment. In the Power Music display the lines don't wrap for this reason, but printing is different.
This means you would be prompted for each song, or alternatively there could be no prompt and a default size used, which may give the line wrapping.
I will add the 'Print song' function to the playlist toolbar drop-down print menu, and we will have a think about printing every song on the playlist.

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Permalink Reply by Matt Summers on December 14, 2009 at 7:35pm

Hi, me again. I was just entering a song in the edit window. There are options for- chord sheet, sheet music, lyrics and tags (so you know where I am) I was wondering if you could add extra chord sheets and sheet music tabs so different arrangement could be saved under the same song name? This would be even more useful when you add the ability to input text, chords, notes and edits to the sheet music screen! I can not wait for this one!!!

Matt

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Permalink Reply by Brenda Cameron on December 15, 2009 at 8:49am

This is the idea behind the Pro version - the different tabs would be used for different arrangements and would be output to different monitors.
In the current version, why not create another song with the description of the arrangement in the title? One of the suggested changes is to save a song as ... When this comes out you could duplicate the song and just change the arrangement.

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Permalink Reply by Matt Summers on December 14, 2009 at 8:07pm

If you copy and paste a song with space between the chords power music doesn't pick up the chords and leves the text black. Could you highlight the text you want to change to chords and have a button that 'turns text to chords?

I think I have read another reader of this blog surgesting the next update idear, but here it is embellished... When you import a old hymn oftern you only get chords for the first verse. How might you be able to cut and pasted just the chords between the words? I guess you will have to move some chords over the right words after. However, this would be quicker than; adding a space after the line; copying the chords from the other verse; pasting them onto the created space; power music jumping so you then lose track of where you are up to...... You need to try it to understand how fustrating and time consuming this is.

Before you try the task below, it is worth thinking about those with visual impairments that might need extra space between chords and text and also find the colour red hard to see. My printer is having problems with red at the moment!
so Changing chord colour and adjust line indentation might be worth a consideration.

here one to try:
Come, Ye Thankful People Come

D G D
Come, ye thankful people, come,

G D
Raise the song of harvest home!

G A7 D
All is safely gathered in,

E7 A7
Ere the winter storms begin.

D
God our Maker doth provide

D7 G
For our wants to be supplied;

B7 Em A D
Come to God's own temple, come,

G D A7 D
Raise the song of harvest home.


All the world is God's own field,
Fruit as praise to God we yield;
Wheat and tares together sown
Are to joy or sorrow grown;
First the blade and then the ear,
Then the full corn shall appear;
Lord of harvest, grant that we
Wholesome grain and pure may be.

For the Lord our God shall come,
And shall take the harvest home;
From the field shall in that day
All offenses purge away,
Giving angels charge at last
In the fire the tares to cast;
But the fruitful ears to store
In the garner evermore.

Even so, Lord, quickly come,
Bring Thy final harvest home;
Gather Thou Thy people in,
Free from sorrow, free from sin,
There, forever purified,
In Thy presence to abide;
Come, with all Thine angels, come,
Raise the glorious harvest home.

I know I have said this before. But, Power music is a God Send!!!

Matt

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Permalink Reply by Brenda Cameron on December 15, 2009 at 9:00am

Not sure what you mean, Matt, when you say Power Music leaves the text black? When you paste, the text is all parsed and chord lines are recognised and changed to the chord colour (default red). If this doesn't happen then there must be some characters which are preventing Power Music from recognising the line as a chord line. The button that 'turns text to chord' is the 'Parse' button, which you can use if you have typed chords in and want to check that they meet the requirements of a chord structure. Try typing some chords (they will type as black) and then press Parse to see them change colour.

Yes, it is a nuisance having to copy and paste chords from the first verse to all verses, and to be able to do this automatically would be good. There are no tags in the text to identify separate verses as such, because we wanted the chord sheet editor to be an easy text editor without having to specify what is a verse, chorus etc. However, it should still be possible to select the chord lines in one section and apply them to another selection, so this will be one of the updates in future.

As for colour - you can choose what colour you want for the chord lines and text lines in Tools > Settings > Colours. You can select different colours for printing, so you can change your chord line colour to black or grey for printing.

Hope this helps.

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Permalink Reply by Matt Summers on December 15, 2009 at 10:18am

Morning,
Just typed in these jazz chords 'c dm7 g a bsus, C Dm G ASUS' both lower and upper case pressed the Parse button nothing! I have found that you have to have all the chords written correctly Just one in the line such as the ASUS will stop all chords in that line changing red.

Very good, so if I did'nt want some chords to turn red and be transposable I could just use all upper case, Useful for introductions and links that go through many keys?

Or...Here's another idea.... you could add a Link window to the top of the music (in chord or sheet music), In this you could have links and bridges that link songs and music for key changes etc.... Maybe, one of these link boxes could be inserted just before the last Verse of an old Hymn with the chords written out for the key change or even a simple dominant preparation 'very useful especially when playing with newer musicians'. Obviously you would not always use that link or change the key so adding these as optional boxes when needed would be best.

You could Also add the box if you had an announcement to make, I always forget the offering when leading worship! You would not want to make this a 'note pad' item for the song in the songs notes because every time you lead the song you don't want to make that announcement or change key or link from the same song. Spring Harvest song books have musical ideas for linking keys together and to use them you had to photo copy them and stick them between the songs you were linking.

This could be stored in the main bank of songs and when added to the play list power music would know it was a 'link' and attach it to the top of the next song. You could also attached Audio files to the links, they could play Automatically as the screen turns. (that's very existing and means I don't have to take my hands of instrument, good for backing tracks as well)

I still think being able to add tabs to the database under the play list box would be really useful for storing files like Text (for Readings and speeches), links (explanation above), At the end of this year there will be over 52 readings and text flies cluttering up the song list, with the added Potential of links for introductions, instrumentals that link into next song, endings, fanfares the list could go on........

Just another idea, to discuss.

Matt

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Permalink Reply by Brenda Cameron on December 15, 2009 at 11:27am

Wow! It's great to see you are using Power Music so extensively and have all these ideas, Matt.
Ok, first - if even one chord in a line is wrong then it is not a 'chord line', so it will not change colour or be transposable. The example you gave had wrong casing and a comma. The case is important to make them recognizable as chords and commas are not allowed. There is a detailed description of the acceptable chord structure in the help files. Other characters are allowed such as bar lines and these are shown in the buttons beside Parse.

Link window - interesting idea ... Something to think about.

Keep the ideas coming, Matt - though some of them may have to wait until the Pro version comes out.

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Permalink Reply by Neil Marriott on January 22, 2010 at 7:53pm

All this sound good to me especially an Undo button

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Permalink Reply by Angela Josephine on January 23, 2010 at 7:33pm

Don't know if it's been suggested yet, but would like to see the Title of the song and Page Number appear at the bottom of the printed chord sheets. Right now, mine is just showing author and copyright info.

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Permalink Reply by Brenda Cameron on January 23, 2010 at 11:02pm

The title appears in bold and underlined at the top of the page. Do you mean you want it repeated at the bottom, too?

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Permalink Reply by Angela Josephine on January 24, 2010 at 2:34am

Oh duh... no, no need to do that twice if it's on all pages. But page numbers would be nice. (Unless I missed those too! :) )

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Permalink Reply by Brenda Cameron on January 24, 2010 at 7:27am

Yes, there are no page numbers. These can easily be added. Thanks, Angela

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