Add figured bass notation

Summary

Feature	Toolbar	Icon	Default Keyboard shortcut
Figured Bass	Text		Ctrl + B or ⌘ + B

What is Figured Bass Notation

Figured Bass notation is a way to represent chords, based on a note in the staff that serves as a bass note. From this note, we add numbers which represent the degrees added to the bass note to form the chord.

In this example, we add a 3rd and a 5th to have a major chord. As this chord is very common, the 3 and the 5 are usually omitted.

Here is how to represent the first and the second inversion of a C major chord.

Alterations

It is possible to lower/raise degrees, by using and accidental, +, / and \. When an accidental appears alone, it means it is applied to the 3rd degree. You can see this with the minor C chord in the example below.

There are different conventions on how to apply accidentals before degrees. One some conventions, the alteration for the degree is applied on top of the alteration of the key signature. On some other, the key signature alteration is ignored. If there is a flat at the key, a sharp before a figure digit could either result in the note sounding sharped or natural, depending on the convention in use.

Here are the list of notations you can write before a degree:

And here are the ones you can write after a degree:

Figured Bass input on Flat

You need to be on the Text toolbar, and click on the Figured Bass icon. Then place the cursor where you want to input it, and write the degrees/alterations you need. You can stack degrees using Enter, and go to the next note with the left/right arrow keys.

Figured Bass Keyboard Shortcuts