Tell me how you like to see your minor 7th chords formatted in sheet music

...And Make the Dang Things Big Enough!

I'm the guy that goes nuts over trying to decipher the 12-th generation copy of a lightly drawn penciled part, (cue shades of gray, and not very far apart at that) and puts it all into MuseScore so I can print something I can darn well read...

For standard letter sized sheets, I'm using 32 point bold serif for chord symbols unless that actually causes space issues. I'm so sick of sheet music with 10-12 point sans-serif plain text unreadable from 3 feet away chord symbols. I try to make it possible for folks with normal vision to play chords from behind melody players that are reading the notes, if need be, and I also try to make it possible for our guy with macular degeneration to stand a chance. I did have one I was working on recently where fitting things limited it to 25 point, or so, but in most cases, it fits, no problem, and makes life so much easier all around.

 

Order of my preference: C-7 followed closely by Cm7. Cmin7 is a distant third.

IMHO C-7 is easier to write and easier to read, but ultimately it makes little difference as long as it is legible. Triangles for Maj7 are quite nice as well.

 

Cm7 first, then Cmin7, then lastly C-7.

Photocopying often makes C-7 look like C7. The minus sign '-' is hard to read in poor lighting, glare, plastic display books, or at a distance IME.

I've heard band members moan about the minus sign notation that are older or with poor vision.

Cmaj7 or [C with triangle], I don't mind either. Plus sign for aug is fine.

G needs two tails to stop it looking like C.
E & F look alike in some fonts too.

 

All this is good. If you're going to use a triangle for maj7, make sure it doesn't look like a '0'.
And... dim7 is probably better written as mb57.

 

'splain please: where's the second tail go?

Uh...no. dim7 (or °7, whatever your shorthand for "diminished 7th chord" is) is not the same as "mb57". Nor even m7b5.
A minor 7th flat five chord -- sometimes referred to as a "half-diminished" chord -- consists of the root, flatted third, flatted fifth, and flatted seventh degrees of the scale. An actual -- fully [sic] -- diminished seventh chord consists of the root, flatted third, flatted fifth, and double-flatted seventh degrees of the scale. So Cm7b5 is C-Eb-Gb-Bb, whereas C°7 is C-Eb-Gb-Bbb (aka, a stack of minor thirds).

 

I guess I don't understand fonts/typography. Are the "tails" those two barbs at the top and bottom right?

 

Just make it obvious & un-ambiguous.

I googled 'letter G' for images. That one jumped out at me the most. No idea of the particulars, sorry.

 

I prefer "C-7", only because that's how it was first presented to me when I started in this theory nonsense () at the age of 14--I just got used to seeing it that way.

But any of the three forms are fine with me.