Re: stem directions in music for voice and guitar

[ivan . k . kuznetsov]

Thanks to everyone who responded.



"Mark Stephen Mrotek" <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> When I write polyphony for the piano I use
> <<
>  { %here pitches for top voice 
>  }
>  \\
>  { %here pitches for bottom voice
>  }
> >>

Yes, your solution works and I have used it in the past.
I was trying to figure out how to use the "named voices" technique
as I was told it might be better for the polyphonic guitar
music that I write.  And Mr. Nick Payne showed me how to do
just that.

Then, David Kastrup <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> address@hidden writes:
> 
> > (1) In the guitar part, even though I have \voiceOne marked with \stemUp
> > and \voiceTwo marked with \stemDown, why do the stems go down
> > in both voices?
> 
> Because there is only ever one voice.  To create new voices, you need to
> write << ... \\ ... >> or explicitly \new Voice.  If you write << ... >>
> that is just a way of rearranging the writing order in a single voice.
> In this particular case, all of \voiceOne \stemUp \voiceTwo \stemDown
> happen at the same musical time in the same voice.  \voiceTwo takes
> effect, and \stemDown does nothing more since it is already implied in
> \voiceTwo.

Thank you for your explanation.  So I was missing the 
the "\new Voice" tags and brackets.   To create this guitar
and voice example, I began working working from a piano choral
example that I had posted on this list and received some feedback on.
I got the example to work in that it did what I wanted, but
perhaps it was still not an example of lilypond best
practices.  Although it is a four voice choral for piano, at
no time does this example use the "\new Voice" tag.

Appended is my working example for this choral.   Should I be using
the "\new Voice" tag in this appended example?  Might I be headed for problems
working this way without the "\new Voice" tag?


Thank you all again for your help and feedback.



\version "2.16.0"
\include "english.ly"

\score {

  \new PianoStaff
  <<
     \new Staff = "up"
     {
       \clef "treble"
       \time 4/4
       \key cs \minor
       <<
       \voiceOne
       {
          \stemUp
          e'2  e'2   e'2   fs'2    fs'2  e'2   ds'!2   ds'2    cs'1
       }
       \voiceTwo
       {
          \stemUp
          cs'2  cs'2  cs'2 d'2      bs2  cs'2  cs'2   bs2      gs1
       }
       >>
     }
     \new Staff = "down"
     {
       \clef "bass"
       \time 4/4
       \key cs \minor

       <<
       \voiceThree
       {
          gs2 gs2 a2 a2   gs2 gs2 gs2 fs2   e1
       }
       \voiceFour
       {
          cs2 b,2 a,2 fs,2     gs,2  gs,2  gs,2  gs,2   cs1
       }
       >>
     }
  >>

  \layout {

    \context {
       \Score
       \override SpacingSpanner
       #'base-shortest-duration = #(ly:make-moment 1 8)
    }
  }
  \midi {
     \context {
       \Staff
       \remove "Staff_performer"
     }
     \context {
       \Voice
       \consists "Staff_performer"
     }

     \context {
       \Score
       tempoWholesPerMinute = #(ly:make-moment 96 4)
     }
  } % \midi


} % score