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Chords

The duration elements in MusicXML move a musical counter. To play chords, we need to indicate that a note should start at the same time as the previous note, rather than following the previous note. To do this in MusicXML, add a chord element to the note.

In our example, the piano part does not have rhythms more complex than eighth notes, so our converter sets the divisions value to 2. With 2 divisions per quarter note, the sound portion of the first chord in the piano part is represented as:

  <note>
    <pitch>
      <step>C</step>
      <octave>4</octave>
    </pitch>
    <duration>1</duration>
  </note>
  <note>
    <chord/>
    <pitch>
      <step>E</step>
      <alter>-1</alter>
      <octave>4</octave>
    </pitch>
    <duration>1</duration>
  </note>
  <note>
    <chord/>
    <pitch>
      <step>G</step>
      <octave>4</octave>
    </pitch>
    <duration>1</duration>
  </note>

clear

Each note in the chord following the first one includes a chord element before the pitch element.

If you find that you have notes in a chord with different durations, you are probably better representing this as multi-part music rather than a chord. If you must have notes with different durations in the chord, the longest note must be the first note in the chord.

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