Questions From a New User

[Jenny Suchan]

Hello everyone,


My name is Jenny Suchan, and I just joined this list yesterday. I am a 
totally blind musician seriously pursuing a career in music composition. 
After looking into several different score-writing software, I am now 
studying LilyPond to see how I could use it to produce music scores. My 
friend Damien, another totally blind musician who I have been working 
with and who made me aware of this software, is copied on this message.

We have been making our way through the Learning Manual and are 
struggling with the concepts underlying the construction of chords, 
multiple parts, and multiple voices. For example, it isn't clear to us 
how information within less-than and greater-than signs and that within 
brackets relate to each other. Also, the manual states that tied notes 
share the same pitch, so how can two chords be tied together if only one 
note is sustained between them? Any additional tutorials or one-on-one 
help that anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated.

Also, is there a way-or a potential way-that LilyPond code can be 
converted to MusicXML? It would be very helpful for me to be able to 
translate my scores into Braille music, and we both could benefit from 
audio feedback regarding our scores.


Thank you in advance for taking the time to answer our questions. This 
whole process of learning new software and determining how all the 
component parts fit together is quite daunting.


          All the best,

          Jenny