I called the copyright office today and got some really good, detailed, efficient help.
First, I clarified that neither chord symbols nor song form are copyrightable. As a composer that likes rich, interesting harmonies, I think that's kind of maddening and it makes me wonder how people copyright film music or atmospheric music that doesn't have melody or lyrics. I'm guessing that for film music, the full score is still copyrightable, whereas for atmospheric music you can only copyright the sound recording.
Second, regarding the question of whether my songs are previously published. That really is basically up to me, but I may want to consider registering each song separately based off the date that they first became available to the public, for added infringement protection.
There was the question of what to do regarding the Claimant. It looks like the best option there is to have the copyright be registered to me, because even though I have a publishing company and a record label, they're not the ones who wrote the songs or did the production. I did - I would then assign the copyrights to the appropriate companies. When that's accomplished, I then file new forms (if my companies want to), called Document Cover Sheets, and I include the written transfer statements indicating that those companies own the copyrights.
What's unclear to me now is if I'm required to do that from ASCAP's perspective. But that's for a future phone call!
