Re: n00b warning: questions

[Mats Bengtsson]

Mario Colbert wrote:
> Dearest Lilypond mailing list:
>
> Hello. Although I've had lilypond installed since June of 2006, I have 
> not tried to put anything substantial in there. However, after having 
> to put together a nice set of good-looking scores of my own 
> composition for percussion, I've concluded the following: FINALE is 
> awful, and SIBELIUS is awful, but not as awful as Finale.
>
> Although I was quite reluctant about using lilypond at first, I have 
> noticed that it's actually much MUCH clearer in regards to input than 
> either of the programs mentioned above. At the same time, I've found 
> it to be quite unwieldy when it comes to a few other things, and I 
> sure could use some help. We'll begin with the very first measure of 
> my piece for solo glockenspiel:
>
> \time 3/4
> r8\mp cis8-> gis''8. cis,,16 b''4->
>
> If you were to input the following into Lilypond, you would find that 
> it automatically beams the C#3 along with the dotted G#. The idea is 
> to use a single eighth-note notation for the very first note (cis8->) 
> and beamed [gis''8. cis,,16] with a lone quarter-note B at the end. I 
> tried [cis8->] only to find out that it doesn't like this at all.
Just specify the beam that you want:
r8\mp cis8-> gis''8.[ cis,,16] b''4->
or insert a \noBeam (as described in the section on "Automatic beams" in 
the manual)
or tell LilyPond that you want to beam 8th notes in 3/4 time on every beat:
#(override-auto-beam-setting '(end 1 8 3 4) 1 4)
#(override-auto-beam-setting '(end 1 8 3 4) 2 4)

> The second measure features a similar problem, though I'm including 
> this only due to /relative call in the code. I'd like to ask you an 
> odd question about measure 4:
>
> \relative{
>  \time 3/4
>   r8\mp cis8-> gis''8. cis,,16 b''4->
>   r8 cis,,8 cis8 gis''8-> ~ gis16 cis,,16 b''8->
>   gis4 r8. cis,,16-- c''16 b16-> cis,8-> ~
>   cis8 cis,8-- <cis' gis'>8.-> <c gis'>16-> ~ <c gis'>8 cis,16-- cis16--
> }
>
> Interestingly enough, Finale, Sibelius, -and- Lilypond have issues 
> with the fourth measure, and none want to display the accidental on 
> the note prior-to-last (C#). Prior to C#, we have a clearly marked 
> C(natural) as can be seen here: {<cis' gis'>8.-> <c gis'>16-> ~ <c 
> gis'>8} , yet despite having {cis,16} Lilypond/Finale/Sibeluis draw 
> C-natural, despite needing C#.
There are many different typesetting practices available for these 
situations. I recommend
you to read the section on "Automatic accidentals" in the manual. What 
you probably
want is
#(set-accidental-style 'modern)

> The last comment I wish to make is that the automatic beaming of the 
> last line is not as pretty on the eyes as it could be: the stems of 
> the two bottom C#s need to be longer, and I'd appreciate any comments 
> regarding this from anyone...
LilyPond determines the slant of each beam based on a number of 
different criteria,
in an attempt to produce as pleasing output as possible in as many 
situations as
possible. For example, the stem lengths may be adjusted depending also 
on the
horizontal note spacing. In this particular example, LilyPond happens to 
only typeset
two measures per score line, which gives a fairly wide spacing. If you 
add some more
measures of music or if you change some notes, it may happen that 
LilyPond changes
the line breaking which could in turn affect the stem lengths of the 
beamed notes.
If you do not like the default given by LilyPond, it's always possible 
to manually
change the stem lengths, but this should be done in the final polishing 
step when
everything else is finished, for the reasons I just told you.


  /Mats