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The LAML Chords Reference Manual

Kurt Nørmark normark@cs.auc.dk Department of Computer Science Aalborg University Denmark

This is the manual of the LAML chords song format, which is based on simple XML DTD. In this format it is possible to carry out simple chords markup of a song text. The song document is an XML-in-LAML document. In other words, the song source complies with an XML DTD, but it is written as a Scheme/Lisp expression, which uses mirror functions that correspond to the XML elements of the chords.dtd.

The song format is supported by a few Emacs commands, which makes it very easy and flexible to author an LAML song text. One of these, M-x make-chords, creates the initial chords file, with the overall markup. Two specialized embedding commands, M-x embed-in-chord (bound to C-x C-e ) and M-x x-embed-in-chord (bound to C-x C-x ) makes it handy to embed a word or phrase in a chord (with or without the x attribute).

As a slightly advanced feature, the LAML chords processor is able to transpose a song, via use of the transpose attribute of the song-front-matters element.

It is also possible to use the font-size attribute to adjust the font size. I use this attribute to ensure that a song text fits a single page. You can also adjust the indentation to fit your preferences via use of the indentation attribute. Finally, you can color the chords by using the chord-color attribute.

It may be useful to consult the LAML chords examples.

Seen from the context of LAML, the LAML Chords facility serves as a simple example of my personal use of LAML within the area music notation (keyboard/MIDI).

Table of Contents:
1. Song and song-front-matters 2. Verse and line 3. Chords

Alphabetic index:
a A particular chord.
c A particular chord.
cs A particular chord.
d A particular chord.
e A particular chord.
eb A particular chord.
f A particular chord.
fs A particular chord.
g A particular chord.
gs A particular chord.
h A particular chord.
hb A particular chord.
line A line of song verse.
song The top level element.
song-author The author/composer of the song
song-front-matters This element defines a number of parmeters and processing options of this song.
song-title The song title
song-verses A contained around individual song verses
verse A container around the lines of the song


1 Song and song-front-matters
In this section we document the song and the song-front-matters elements.

song
Description The top level element. Notice that it is possible to inore this element, and hereby to leave song-front-matters and song-verses as top-level elements.
XML content model ( song-front-matters , song-verses * )

song-front-matters
Description This element defines a number of parmeters and processing options of this song.
XML content model ( song-title ? , song-author ? )
XML attributes
Required: *
Default values: red
transposition CDATA The number of half tone steps for transposition. An integer number between -11 and 11
indentation CDATA The indentation of the song. An integer, denoting pixels
font-size CDATA The font size used for the song text. A percentage. 100 means normal size.
compact-lines ( true | false ) A boolean value that controls the line compactness. The value true does not give nice results in MS Internet Explorer. (I do not why).
chord-color CDATA           ( black ) The Color used for th chords. Must be a color value acceptable by CSS
See also enclosing element song

song-verses
Description A contained around individual song verses
XML content model ( verse * )
See also enclosing element song

song-title
Description The song title
XML content model (#PCDATA)
See also enclosing element song-front-matters

song-author
Description The author/composer of the song
XML content model (#PCDATA)
See also enclosing element song-front-matters


2 Verse and line
Below we describe the verse and line elements

verse
Description A container around the lines of the song
XML content model ( line ) *
XML attributes
Required: *
Default values: red
n CDATA The verse number - an integer. It not supplied, no verse numering appears
chords ( true | false ) A boolean attribute that controls if chords are shown for this verse. Chords can - of course - only be shown if they appear in the markuped song text.
See also enclosing element song-verses

line
Description A line of song verse. Individual words can be embedded in one of the chords elements.
XML content model (#PCDATA | a | c | cs | d | e | eb | f | fs | g | gs | h | hb )*
See also enclosing element verse


3 Chords

In this section we document the 12 main chords. The suffix s, such as in cs, means 'sharp'. Similarly, the suffix b, such as in eb, means 'minor'. We use the name 'h' for the chord sometimes (and perhaps more often) called b.

We support a number of auxiliary functions, which act as conveninent shortcuts for some often used chord abstractions. These are cm, c7, c6, and cm7, and similar functions for the other main chords.


c
Description A particular chord. Can surround one of more words in the song. Can also appear 'alone', without contents, in which case the chord is shown in between the words of the line
XML content model (#PCDATA)
XML attributes
Required: *
Default values: red
x CDATA Some extra 'abstraction' of this chord. Such as 7,6,dim,...
See also enclosing element line

cs
Description A particular chord. Can surround one of more words in the song. Can also appear 'alone', without contents, in which case the chord is shown in between the words of the line
XML content model (#PCDATA)
XML attributes
Required: *
Default values: red
x CDATA Some extra 'abstraction' of this chord. Such as 7,6,dim,...
See also enclosing element line

d
Description A particular chord. Can surround one of more words in the song. Can also appear 'alone', without contents, in which case the chord is shown in between the words of the line
XML content model (#PCDATA)
XML attributes
Required: *
Default values: red
x CDATA Some extra 'abstraction' of this chord. Such as 7,6,dim,...
See also enclosing element line

eb
Description A particular chord. Can surround one of more words in the song. Can also appear 'alone', without contents, in which case the chord is shown in between the words of the line
XML content model (#PCDATA)
XML attributes
Required: *
Default values: red
x CDATA Some extra 'abstraction' of this chord. Such as 7,6,dim,...
See also enclosing element line

e
Description A particular chord. Can surround one of more words in the song. Can also appear 'alone', without contents, in which case the chord is shown in between the words of the line
XML content model (#PCDATA)
XML attributes
Required: *
Default values: red
x CDATA Some extra 'abstraction' of this chord. Such as 7,6,dim,...
See also enclosing element line

f
Description A particular chord. Can surround one of more words in the song. Can also appear 'alone', without contents, in which case the chord is shown in between the words of the line
XML content model (#PCDATA)
XML attributes
Required: *
Default values: red
x CDATA Some extra 'abstraction' of this chord. Such as 7,6,dim,...
See also enclosing element line

fs
Description A particular chord. Can surround one of more words in the song. Can also appear 'alone', without contents, in which case the chord is shown in between the words of the line
XML content model (#PCDATA)
XML attributes
Required: *
Default values: red
x CDATA Some extra 'abstraction' of this chord. Such as 7,6,dim,...
See also enclosing element line

g
Description A particular chord. Can surround one of more words in the song. Can also appear 'alone', without contents, in which case the chord is shown in between the words of the line
XML content model (#PCDATA)
XML attributes
Required: *
Default values: red
x CDATA Some extra 'abstraction' of this chord. Such as 7,6,dim,...
See also enclosing element line

gs
Description A particular chord. Can surround one of more words in the song. Can also appear 'alone', without contents, in which case the chord is shown in between the words of the line
XML content model (#PCDATA)
XML attributes
Required: *
Default values: red
x CDATA Some extra 'abstraction' of this chord. Such as 7,6,dim,...
See also enclosing element line

a
Description A particular chord. Can surround one of more words in the song. Can also appear 'alone', without contents, in which case the chord is shown in between the words of the line
XML content model (#PCDATA)
XML attributes
Required: *
Default values: red
x CDATA Some extra 'abstraction' of this chord. Such as 7,6,dim,...
See also enclosing element line

hb
Description A particular chord. Can surround one of more words in the song. Can also appear 'alone', without contents, in which case the chord is shown in between the words of the line
XML content model (#PCDATA)
XML attributes
Required: *
Default values: red
x CDATA Some extra 'abstraction' of this chord. Such as 7,6,dim,...
See also enclosing element line

h
Description A particular chord. Can surround one of more words in the song. Can also appear 'alone', without contents, in which case the chord is shown in between the words of the line
XML content model (#PCDATA)
XML attributes
Required: *
Default values: red
x CDATA Some extra 'abstraction' of this chord. Such as 7,6,dim,...
See also enclosing element line


Generated: June 17, 2005, 17:50:46
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