Difference Between \lyricsto and associatedVoice With Melody Rhythm

[Bill Mooney]

Greetings Christian,
After reading your post and the replies from Matthew Collett, David 
Kastrup, and Peekay Ex, I thought I would try to simplify what I think 
you're trying to do.
The following gives two lines of music, one showing a trivial example, 
and the other showing my attempt to do the same thing using defined 
terms for words and music. In the second part, using bar checks shows 
strange values compared to those obtained in the first part. Whether 
this is a symptom of the underlying problem I don't know. I don't have 
any skills in programming to let me delve into that!
Note the empty bar after the lyrics in the second part.

I hope this is of some help.
Regards
Bill


+++++++++++

\version "2.14.2"
%%{
%words and music for First score

firstwords = \lyricmode
        { " " q w e r }
        
melodya = \relative c'' %All the barchesks give 1/1, as expected
        {
        a1 |
        b4 b4 a4 b4 |
        e,1 |
        f1 |
        g2 a |
        }
        
\score { %first score
\new Staff
{
<<
  \new Voice = singer { \melodya }
  \new Lyrics \lyricsto singer \firstwords
>>
}
        }
%}

%words and music for Second score

secondwords = \lyricmode
        { z x c v }
        
secondmelodya = \relative c'' %Bar checks in this section give strange, 
varying values
        { a1  }
        
secondmelody = \relative c''
        { a4 b c a  }
        
secondmelodyb = \relative c''
        {
        e,1
        f1 |
        g1 |
        }
        
\score { %second score
\new Staff
{
\new Voice = unsunga { \secondmelodya } 
<<
  \new Voice = singer { \secondmelody }
  \new Lyrics \lyricsto singer \secondwords
>>
\new Voice = unsungb { \secondmelodyb } 
}

        }
        
        \layout { }

+++++++++++++++++++