The <kind> element

Parent element: <harmony>

The <kind> element indicates the type of chord. The <degree> elements can then add, subtract, or alter from these starting points

The attributes are used to indicate the formatting of the symbol. Since the <kind> element is the constant in all the harmony-chord element groups that can make up a polychord, many formatting attributes are here. The alignment attributes are for the entire harmony-chord group of which this kind element is a part.

For the major-minor <kind>, only the minor symbol is used when use-symbols is yes. The major symbol is set using the symbol attribute in the <degree-value> element. The corresponding <degree-alter> value will usually be 0 in this case.

The text attribute may use strings such as "13sus" that refer to both the kind and one or more <degree> elements. In this case, the corresponding <degree> elements should have the print-object attribute set to no to keep redundant alterations from being displayed.

Content

kind-value

Attributes

Name Type Required? Description
bracket-degrees yes-no No The bracket-degrees attribute is yes if all the degrees should be in a bracket. The default is implementation-dependent.
color color No Indicates the color of an element.
default-x tenths No Changes the computation of the default horizontal position. The origin is changed relative to the left-hand side of the note or the musical position within the bar. Positive x is right and negative x is left.

This attribute provides higher-resolution positioning data than the <offset> element. Applications reading a MusicXML file that can understand both features should generally rely on this attribute for its greater accuracy.
default-y tenths No Changes the computation of the default vertical position. The origin is changed relative to the top line of the staff. Positive y is up and negative y is down.

This attribute provides higher-resolution positioning data than the placement attribute. Applications reading a MusicXML file that can understand both attributes should generally rely on this attribute for its greater accuracy.
font-family font-family No A comma-separated list of font names.
font-size font-size No One of the CSS sizes or a numeric point size.
font-style font-style No Normal or italic style.
font-weight font-weight No Normal or bold weight.
halign left-center-right No In cases where text extends over more than one line, horizontal alignment and justify values can be different. The most typical case is for credits, such as:

Words and music by
Pat Songwriter

Typically this type of credit is aligned to the right, so that the position information refers to the right-most part of the text. But in this example, the text is center-justified, not right-justified.

The halign attribute is used in these situations. If it is not present, its value is the same as for the justify attribute. For elements where a justify attribute is not allowed, the default is implementation-dependent.
parentheses-degrees yes-no No The parentheses-degrees attribute is yes if all the degrees should be in parentheses. The default is implementation-dependent.
relative-x tenths No Changes the horizontal position relative to the default position, either as computed by the individual program, or as overridden by the default-x attribute. Positive x is right and negative x is left. It should be interpreted in the context of the <offset> element or directive attribute if those are present.
relative-y tenths No Changes the vertical position relative to the default position, either as computed by the individual program, or as overridden by the default-y attribute. Positive y is up and negative y is down. It should be interpreted in the context of the placement attribute if that is present.
stack-degrees yes-no No If yes, the <degree> elements should be stacked above each other. The default is implementation-dependent.
text token No Describes how the <kind> should be spelled in a score. If the use-symbols attribute is yes, this value follows the symbol. The default is implementation-dependent.
use-symbols yes-no No The use-symbols attribute is yes if the <kind> should be represented when possible with harmony symbols rather than letters and numbers. These symbols include:

  • major: a triangle, like Unicode 25B3
  • minor: -, like Unicode 002D
  • augmented: +, like Unicode 002B
  • diminished: °, like Unicode 00B0
  • half-diminished: ø, like Unicode 00F8
The default is implementation-dependent.
valign valign No Indicates vertical alignment to the top, middle, bottom, or baseline of the text. The default is implementation-dependent.

Examples

This element is used in the following examples:

<bass-alter>, <bass-separator>, <bass-step>, <degree-type>, <degree-value>, <fingering> (Frame), <fret> (Frame), <kind>, <numeral-alter>, <numeral-key>, <numeral-root>, <root-alter>, <root-step>, Tutorial: Chord Symbols