How to automatically create an accompaniment track from chord symbols in Dorico

Dorico Pro has a feature called “Generate Notes from Chord Symbols” that automatically creates an accompaniment track from chord symbols, which has been available since v4.3, released in November 2022.

Looking at other products, Finale 2014 and earlier had “Band-in-a-Box Auto-Harmonizing”, Sibelius has “Add Simple Harmony” and “Realize Chord Symbols”, and MuseScore 4 also had “Realize Chord Symbols”. Among them I feel Dorico Pro's “Generate Notes from Chord Symbols” has a particularly high degree of freedom in settings and a wide range of applications.

1. Basic usage

First, please watch this video showing the basic function of Dorico Pro's “Generate Notes from Chord Symbols”.

This is an introductory video released by Steinberg in November 2022 for “Generate Notes from Chord Symbols”, a new feature in Dorico Pro 4.3 at that time.

In particular, MuseScore's “Realize Chord Symbols” and the “Band-in-a-box auto-harmony” that was on Finale before 2014 are very similar features.

However, while MuseScore's “Realize Chord Symbols” is surprisingly advanced for a free product, it requires separate operation for chord distribution and octave adjustment, which requires a certain amount of effort and musical knowledge.

Finale's “Band-in-a-Box Auto-Harmonizing” was a simple yet highly practical feature, but when Finale became a 64-bit app in v25, released in November 2016, the plug-in was removed because it could not keep up with the 64-bit structure. In the end this plug-in was not revived in the final version Finale v27, on the top of that Finale itself ended up being discontinued at the end of August 2024.

In the case of Dorico Pro, regarding voicing when notes are generated from chord symbols, there are many detailed settings in "Note Input Options > Notes from Chord Symbols" that include voice-leading theory such as parallel fifths forbidden processing. Normally, the default settings should be fine, but if necessary, you can make special adjustments here.

2. Advanced use case - Automatically generate jazz accompaniment tracks

Dorico Pro's “Generate Notes from Chord Symbols” has a function that incorporates the rhythm played by a specific instrument already entered on the score when generating notes.

Using this, you can, for example, easily automatically generate realistic jazz guitar or piano accompaniments.

Here is an example of a practice material created using this function to teach you how to play a specific II-V-I lick in various keys.

If you're looking for even greater realism, we recommend purchasing iReal Pro separately and importing MIDI files from there, but with this method you can complete the work using only Dorico Pro. ※

(※Please refer to the separate article “Create your own practice materials using music notation software (1) with iReal Pro”.

The above examples are interplay-like accompaniments that follow specific rhythmic patterns created by the user for guitar and piano, but by applying the “Override rhythm for polyphonic fretted instruments” option, it is also easy to generate quarter-note-based accompaniments for guitar, which are common in traditional jazz guitar accompaniments.

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The function to automatically generate notes from chord symbols is one of the “music notation software-like functions” that cannot be achieved by handwriting.

Even Dorico Pro, which probably has the most advanced note generation function, does not always generate the notes you want, but it seems possible to generate them at a level close to that.

By utilizing this function, you can not only make your everyday arranging work more efficient, but you may also get hints for ideas that you would not have thought of on your own and new learning opportunities that will lead to improving your musical skills.