Re: Slurs do not work with Larsen articulations

[Carl Sorensen]

Evan,

Thanks for your feedback.  Feedback from new users is important for improving 
the Learning Manual.

From: Evan Driscoll <address@hidden>
Date: Tuesday, April 24, 2018 at 11:40 PM
To: Carl Sorensen <address@hidden>
Cc: Robert Hickman <address@hidden>, Kieren MacMillan <address@hidden>, David 
Kastrup <address@hidden>, Lilypond-User Mailing List <address@hidden>
Subject: Re: Slurs do not work with Larsen articulations

Sorry to jump in here as someone who just (re-)signed up for the list, but I 
actually find 

+Note that @code{[} and @code{]} do not enclose the notes to be
+slurred. 

potentially confusing. I would say something like either "Note that the first 
note of the slur appears before the opening @code{(}" or "Note that the 
@code{(} marking the beginning of a slur appears after the first note of the 
slur", and ditto for beams. (I might say "note pitch" instead of note too, but 
that's a more minor point.)

There is a point that I was trying to make with these changes, without jumping 
right out and saying it (because I couldn’t find a good place to jump out and 
say it).  In LilyPond, *ALL* extra things that apply to a note are added 
*after* a note, not before.  And they are *not* added after a "note pitch".  A 
note consists of a pitch plus a duration.  For a given note, either the pitch 
or the duration can be implicit, which means they are not included in the input 
but instead get their value from the previous note.  Following the note, we get 
all the modifiers.

This pattern needs to be understood to be successful in working with LilyPond.  
Once you understand this, it's clear that you can't use the ABC notation of 
enclosing a series of notes in parentheses.

In the context of the Learning Manual, pitches and durations are introduced in 
section 1.2.1.  It seems like it would be unfriendly to clutter that section 
with a discussion about modifications coming after the note.

Section 2.1 is where we start to introduce all the other things we can add to a 
sequence of notes.  Section 2.1.3 Ties and Slurs is the first place we add 
things to the end of a note.  That's why I put the general comment at section 
2.1.3 and then put the specific comment about slurs in the Slurs section under 
that heading.  Apparently this is confusing to the new reader.  

I thought that the combination of "Ties and slurs are indicated by adding 
special codes after the notes to which they apply" and "The starting note [of a 
slur] and ending note are marked with ( and ), respectively"  would be 
equivalent to the statement "Note that the ( marking the beginning of a slur 
appears after the first note of the slur".  And the "Note that ( and ) do not 
enclose the notes of the slur" was aimed at clarifying a somewhat common 
misconception.

Do you think it would be better to eliminate the "Ties and slurs are indicated 
by adding special codes after the notes to which they apply" and just say  
about slurs:
 "The starting note and ending note are marked with ( and ), respectively.  
Note that the ( marking the beginning of the slur appears after the first note 
of the slur."

Thanks,

Carl