Chording Styles
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There are three chording styles available for songs: English, Spanish (Latin), and Nashville (Jazz, or Roman numeral).

·English: Chords begin with A B C D E F G  
·Spanish: Chords begin with Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si  
·Jazz: Chords begin with I II III IV V VI VII  
·Nashville Number System: Chords begin with 1 2 3 4 5 6 7  

English chords are most commonly used in non-Spanish-speaking countries.

Spanish chords can be shown in either uppercase or mixed-case formats; some countries prefer all uppercase chords (DO RE MI) and others prefer mixed case (Do Re Mi).

Jazz and Nashville Number System (NNS) chords are not transposable, and the root of the song is always "I" or 1. For a song in the root key of C, the Nashville equivalent for a chord progression of C-F-G would be I-IV-V or 1-4-5. This chord format is often preferred by professional musicians, because it requires no transposition to change keys; you simply have to remember the root key and understand a little music theory.

Lower-case minors are also supported; some musicians prefer to annotate minor keys with the letter "m" and others simply write the chords in lowercase. For example,

C Em F G Am (or) Do Mim Fa Sol Lam (or) I IIIm IV V Vim
and
C e F G a (or) Do mi Fa Sol la (or) I iii IV V vi
are all equivalent.

The Nashville Number System also supports the use of these special marks:
·the carat (^) for a major 7th chord  
·a degree symbol (°) for diminished chords  
·a dash (-) for minor chords (e.g., D-)  

You can change the default chord format on the Chord Format preferences. This determines how a new song will be created. However, you may have mixed formats in a database, and each song will be saved, printed, and transposed in its own chording format, regardless of the default.

You can also convert a song from one chording format to another, by selecting the Convert Chording Style option on the Format menu of a song. When a song is in the Jazz or NNS format, the song properties still allow you to select a root chord. This is useful so that when you print a song, the appropriate guitar chords can be printed, and when you convert it to English or Spanish format, the proper chords will be shown.

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