Re: Tips on quick entry

[Richard Shann]

On Fri, 2017-01-06 at 14:36 -0800, Glen Larsen wrote:
> Try the hints on this page, especially frescobaldi, if you haven't
> checked it out already.
> 
> 
> Since I think you will get many suggestions, 

I suspect you won't get many suggestions from people who use the Denemo
front end though, as the majority of them never look at the LilyPond or
tweak it directly, and so never come to this list. I would like that to
change, because at least for some sorts of transcribing Denemo offers
efficiencies that exceed those available in any other program.

> here is a short description of my working process for transcribing
> sheet music for the Mutopia Project. You may not find it applicable to
> your process and working layout but it is quite efficient for me.
> 
> 
> - Ubuntu linux with 3 windows, an emacs editor and 2 pdf viewers, one
> for source, one for LilyPond output. I overlay the LilyPond output
> over the source so that only the source system of interest is showing.
> (Working from paper is actually quicker but I am a paperless kind of
> guy.)

Denemo adds to this the possibility of putting links in the music you
entered back to the source, and the ability to mask off those systems
which you are not transcribing from, so that you don't find yourself
going on to the wrong system at line end. (There is also a third pdf you
can open - an annotated version of LilyPond's output which your client
has sent back holding corrections, with this you can point-and-click to
enter the corrections directly in your source).



> - Typically treble in one voice, bass in another (I transcribe mostly
> classical guitar music), one measure per line with bar checks ('|').
> (In emacs, when '|' is typed, the time for the measure is calculated
> and displayed.)
> - Transcribe only notes, no dynamics, markups, etc.

Denemo's main trick for improving the efficiency of entering notes is to
allow you to set more than just the duration of the current note - you
can enter the durations for an entire bar, line or (as I do, being now
practised with this system, an entire movement). Then you can play in
the pitches using a MIDI keyboard without pausing.
Refinements of this method of entering rhythms now include entering
dotted rhythms in two keystrokes and triplets in three key strokes. so
you can enter the rhythms rhythmically. Slurs are entered with the
rhythm by holding down the control key while entering the duration (it
slurs on from previous note).
I do however break rhythm while entering durations to enter dynamics and
ornaments, but this is because these are so simple in the music I
transcribe that I can do those with one or two keystrokes, without
looking away from the source. And I do use some abbreviations (such as a
keystroke to complete the bar with the rhythmic pattern already entered,
or with the last duration or to duplicate the rhythm of the previous
bar, when there is a lot of pattern repetition in the rhythms.


> - Transcribe treble first, reviewing each system as you finish.
> - While transcribing bass, review treble.
> - Add dynamics and markups using point-and-click, reviewing once more.
> - Walk through with midi.
> - I let LilyPond position/auto-beam/etc. then do a tweaking pass if
> necessary.

This is the other place where Denemo can offer a significant advantage -
you can drag slur and tie shapes around on the final LilyPond typeset.
This is not as easy, I suspect, as in drawing-based programs such as
Musesore, Sibelius and Finale, but it's not needed so very often in the
music I typeset.
> 
> 
> I use the compile command in emacs as I work so that clicking on an
> error message will take me to the problem line. This method allows me
> to work entirely from emacs, only moving to the pdf viewers when need
> to I scroll to the next system in the source.

In Denemo you have to open a separate window to see the LilyPond
generated with the error highlighted. Moving the cursor around here
moves the cursor in your source.
> 
> 
> - I prefer 'fixed' entry over absolute and relative.
> - make generous use of 'repeat unfold' for short repeated patterns.
> - use 'q' note entry for repeated chords.

While a GUI allows you to generate repeated stuff with ease of course
(the Enter key repeats a bar for example) you don't get the same control
over the LilyPond output. You would have to work harder to generate
specific sorts of LilyPond output and there you might find a different
trade-off between effort and result.

> 
> On Fri, Jan 6, 2017 at 1:39 PM, Samuel Speer <address@hidden>
> wrote:
>         Hello list,
>         
>         
>         It takes me ages to enter the note data into LilyPond. Last
>         night I spent almost an hour a page

I have settled in to a speed of an hour for a sonata with three or four
movements, a dozen or so pages.

Richard