note collisions .... and \layout question

[Steven Butner]

I must admit to being quite confused about the proper setup of \score 
and \layout for vocal music.   I am trying to typeset a 3-part men's 
vocal piece and the composer has drawn it out on a single bass clef 
staff ... i.e. 3 parts sharing the same staff.

My method for using Lilypond to typeset this is to type in the notes 
(music expressions) of the three voices separately, naming each of them 
One, Two, and Three respectively (per the composer's naming 
conventions).  Then I use the \staff and \layout code below to put the 
three voices together (with lyrics) on a single staff.

\score {
\new StaffGroup <<
   \new Staff = men { <<
      \clef bass
      \new Voice = ten { \global \Three }
      \new Voice = bar { \global \Two }
      \new Voice = bas { \global \One }
     >>
   }
   \new Lyrics = "l3" \lyricsto "bas" \words
>>

\layout {
  \context { \Score \override SeparationItem #'padding = #0.3 }
  \context { \Staff \override VerticalAxisGroup #'minimum-Y-extent = 
#'(-3 . 3) }
  \context { \Staff \accepts "Lyrics" }
  \context { \Lyrics \override LyricSpace #'minimum-distance = #1.6 }
}

The resulting compilation results in many, many occurrences of the message
warning: ignoring too many clashing note columns

Indeed, I am getting a lot of flags and bars on top of others and, in 
general, quite a mess.   There are some cases where two notes a small 
interval apart have their note heads essentially on top of each other as 
well.   I've tried going into the source and marking it \noFlag for 
various notes ... and this helps, but there are so many of these 
collision errors that I feel I must be doing something that is rather 
basic wrong.

I've used Lilypond to typeset several pieces in the past without running 
into this problem .... but each seems structurally a bit different and, 
though I've read a lot of documentation, I've never had a good 
understanding of how to properly use the Staffs and Layout and Contexts.

Any suggestions of guidance on this would be greatly appreciated.   I'm 
using lilypond version 2.8.0 running on Linux Fedora Core 6.

  Steve Butner,
  novice typesetter ....