Table of Contents
Notation reference
Chord symbols
Chord symbols describe the vertical harmony of the music at a specific moment. They are frequently used in jazz and pop music, where players often improvise around chord progressions.
Parenthesized chord symbols
Parentheses around chord symbols are often used to indicate an alternative set of chord changes or that chords are optional. In Dorico Pro, you can show parentheses around any chord symbol that uses appearance presets.
Parenthesizing chord symbols
You can show individual chord symbols in parentheses; for example, to indicate optional chords. You can do this for the current layout and frame chain only, or for all layouts and frame chains.

Parenthesizing chord symbols

You can show individual chord symbols in parentheses; for example, to indicate optional chords. You can do this for the current layout and frame chain only, or for all layouts and frame chains.

Note

You cannot show parentheses on custom chord symbols; that is, chord symbols whose appearance you have overridden.

Prerequisite

The lower zone is shown.
Properties is selected in the lower zone toolbar.
If you are in Engrave mode, Graphic Editing is selected in the Engrave toolbox.
You have chosen the appropriate property scope for local properties.

Procedure

Select the chord symbols you want to parenthesize. You can do this in Write mode and Engrave mode.
In the Properties panel, activate Parenthesized in the Chord Symbols group.

Result

Parentheses are shown around each selected chord symbol. If the property scope was set to Locally, this change only takes effect in the current layout and frame chain.

Deactivating Parenthesized removes parentheses from the selected chord symbols.

Example


Figure 1. Chord symbols without parentheses	Figure 2. Chord symbols with parentheses