Re: Bass and chords

[David Kastrup]

Frédéric Fanchamps <address@hidden> writes:

> Hi,
> I'm using Lilypond to write traditional folk music for diatonic
> accordion.
> On that kind of instrument you have the melody (done with the right
> hand) and the bass and chords done by the left hand.
> Typically the melody is written as a normal score and the left hand
> (bass and chord) is written like this: uppercase letter for chords and
> lower case for chords.
> Let's say you want a C bass, then a C major chord, then a G bass and
> then a G major chord, under the score you find:
> C c G g
> More "complex" things such as mixed bass and chords have also their
> convention: chord of F bass of D is written like: f/D

Sounds more like chromatic/unisonoric accordion to me.  For diatonic,
I have rarely seem anything but "Griffschrift".

> I wonder what is the best way to write it with Lilypond?

There is no really convincing builtin support right now.  For neither of
the two, actually.

> Adding the chords with \chords is no problem but then I can't indicate
> when is it bass only and when is it chord.

c:1 is a single note in Midi, but the chord transcription will not
distinguish it from the chord and it will not sound in a lower octave.

There have been discussions on the developer group about mixed
chord/note modes: those would be nice here.  There is also likely a lot
one could do with music functions.

There is an issue
<URL:http://code.google.com/p/lilypond/issues/detail?id=559> which would
correspond with your request (as your request is really coinciding with
chromatic accordion notation rather than the diatonic transcriptions I
know).  But nobody has worked on it so far.

> Adding this notation as pure text is possible but I would find very
> pity to not get the midi file and to make transpose impossible.

Indeed.

> Finally, if it would be possible to note "no chord" as a normal rest
> of the correct duration instead of N.C. it would be great.

Maybe someone else can make a suggestion for this item?

-- 
David Kastrup