Lyrics and s1

[Peter B. Steiger]

In my ongoing quest to make barbershop-style notation as quick and
painless as possible, I downloaded 2.3.11 this week and got it running
to see how I can adapt satb.ly to my needs.  I think I can make this
work!  Those of you who have been around a few years and remember
everything that was ever posted here may recall that my difficulty came
from the fact that in barbershop notation, the second voice, not the
top, carries the melody, and the three harmony parts often have
syncopated or echoed lyrics that the lead does not have.

Now I can have a main lyric section:
MainWords = \lyrics {All parts sing these words __ }

... and use _ for spaces everywhere the harmony parts sing the same
words:
TenorWords = \lyrics { _ _ _ _ Echo these words }
BariWords = \lyrics { _ _ _ _ Echo these words }
etc.

My question is about the satb.ly example and accompanying documentation
about lyrics.  I can use that as a template to follow for my own bizarre
needs, but it's hard and not clearly documented which elements should be
written exactly as they appear in the example, which elements are
arbitrary names that can be the same as the example or something else,
and which elements must be changed from one song to the next (well,
obviously notes and words are in the last group!)

I have figured out most of it, but the one thing I'm still confused
about is the { s1 } notation when setting up the positions of each
part's lyric line.  Is there a special meaning for {s1}, or is that an
arbitrary name that could just as easily be anything else?

In my search through the list archives I encountered another
barbershopper in Montana who is working on a simpler barbershop notation
scheme... are there any other barbershoppers - or any choral group users
- on this list?  I'd love to hear how you approach the sometimes
shared/sometimes different lyric problem.

-------
Peter B. Steiger
Cheyenne, WY