Re: \shiftOn doesen't behave as expected

[Carl Sorensen]

notesetter <dstocker <at> thenotesetter.com> writes:

> 
> 
> I'm typing some guitar music with version 2.10.33 to teach myself how to use
> LilyPond. I'm using the command \shiftOn to move inner voices so that they
> are clear and not colliding with other voices. I'm also typing the upper
> voice and lower voice separately, in hopes to avoid extra typing and overly
> complex use of syntax.

Dave,

What you may not realize is that your syntax is mixing user-controlled
shifting with LilyPond controlled shifting.

Whenever you type << { ... } \\ { ...} >> you are automatically creating new
temporary voices with shift characteristics determined by LilyPond.

I suspect that you would get what you want if you changed your strategy
a bit.  Instead of defining a soprano part with << \\ >> in it, I'd 
recommend you define 

sopOne

sopTwo

bassOne

bassTwo

Each of which has only one "row" of notes.

You can then put your piece together with 

<< SopOne \\ SopTwo \\ bassOne \\ bassTwo >> 

and LilyPond will set the voices so they should work for you.


Another option is to read the new discussion on polypohony from the 
GDP docs:

http://kainhofer.com/~lilypond/Documentation/index.html

Go to the Notation Reference, and look up section 1.5.2.

Hope this helps,

Carl