picking up/down symbols in flatpicking guitar

[Federico Bruni]

Hi LilyPonders

I'm trying to figure out how to notate the arrows up/down used in particular in flatpicking guitar to indicate the direction of the picking.

In the attached example I'd like to fix three problems:

1) the arrows should be vertically aligned to the same level

2) the horizontal align is not perfect: the arrows are not centered on the note heads, they are slightly on the right

3) I don't like too much the UTF-8 arrows. How can I get a better look?

Thanks

Federico

\version "2.17.19"

up = _\markup "↑"

down = _\markup "↓"

music =  \relative c {

  d8\down g\down b\up d,\down g\down b\up g\down b\up |

  b8\down b\up g\down g\up g\down a\up b4\down |

}

\score {

  \new StaffGroup <<

    \new Staff <<

      \context Voice { \clef "G_8" \music }

    >>

    \new TabStaff  <<

      \context TabVoice { \clef "moderntab" \music }

    >>

  >>

}

flatpicking-notation.png
Description: PNG image