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The easiest way to create a new palette of chords is to use the Chord Palette command on the Chordmap menu, a special menu that appears on the main menu when Chordmap Designer is open. This command gives you preset chord choices for replacing all chords in the chord palette with a single type of chord, such as all minor triads, all dominant seventh chords, and so on, or generating a palette of diatonic chords from the pitches in the underlying scale that you set in the Chordmap Properties window.
The Chord Palette submenu contains the preset chord choices shown in the following figure.
The effect of each option is as follows:
Diatonic triads on each root in the underlying scale. Chords with roots not in the underlying scale are major triads.
Diatonic 7th chords on each root in the underlying scale. Chords with roots not in the underlying scale are major triads.
All major triads on each root.
All minor triads on each root.
All major 7th chords on each root.
All minor 7th chords on each root.
All dominant 7th chords on each root.
Choosing Triads from Underlying Scale or 7ths from Underlying Scale generates a chord palette of seven chords, duplicated in the upper octave, consisting only of notes from the underlying scale, and interspersed with major triads built on roots not in the underlying scale. Each pitch in the underlying scale is used as the root for a new chord in the palette and, wherever possible, for the other tones of the new chords.
DirectMusic Producer generates new chords for the palette by selecting the odd- or even-numbered pitches of the underlying scale and assigning them to the chords with those pitches as roots. For example, the Dom 7ths option yields a palette with the following chords.
All chords with roots not in the underlying scale remain as major triads.
Because the default underlying scale is a major scale, choosing Triads from Underlying Scale without altering the default underlying scale generates a chord palette containing a sequence of Maj, min, min, Maj, Maj, min, and dim diatonic triads. If you change the underlying scale, you can use the Chord Palette command again to update the chord palette using the new pitches in the underlying scale.
If you use the Chord Palette command after you edit chords in the palette, all previous editing done to the palette is lost and new chords are generated.
You can make changes to the underlying scale in the Chordmap Properties without affecting the chord palette. However, if you subsequently click the Chord Palette command, the new underlying scale is used to generate all new chords.