Placement of tuplet brackets

[Farhad Arbab]

I am trying to build a package for Persian percussion (for tombak and 
daf instruments) while learning Lilypond.  My  basic layout uses single 
staff drum mode, note stems up.  Traditionally, virtually every note is 
adorned with special symbols and finger numbers written above note stems.

I now have a set of music-functions that use \markup commands to place 
these symbols over the bd notes  in drummode of Lilypond. So, for notes 
commonly referred to as tom, bak, ka, tomka, baka, snap2 snap3, etc., I 
now enter "\drummode { \tom bd4 \bak bd8 \ka bd8 \tomka bd4 \baka bd4 
\snap2 bd16 \snap3 bd }", etc.

As an aside, I do not like my current set up and would like to have 
custom-made modes tombakmode and dafmode where I can simply enter 
"\tombakmode { tom4, bak8, ka8, tomka4, baka4, snap2 16 snap3 }", etc.  
As a novice, I do not know how I can define my own mode, so I leave this 
as a future project for now.  Nevertheless, I appreciate any help, 
comments, pointer on this future project of mine.

Back to my current struggle with tuplets: I cannot find a way to tweak 
Lilypond through its tuplet-bracket interface (or any other) to place 
tuplet brackets where I want them.

Where Lilypond places tuplet brackets now is above note stems, below all 
special symbols that I add to the notes (with markup). The problem with 
this is that those special symbols are really an integral part of each 
note and must not be separated from the note stems by tuplet brackets or 
anything else.  I can think of two alternatives for placement of tuplet 
brackets, but I am unable to tweak Lilypond to do either one.

The first (less desirable) alternative is to get Lilypond place tuplet 
brackets above all special markup on top of note stems. Even if I can do 
this, it is not ideal, because with so many symbols stacked on top of 
one another over note stems, it gets too crowded up there.

The second alternative is to get Lilypond to place tuplet brackets below 
the note heads (i.e., between the note heads and ties or hairpins).  
This area is far less crowded (sometimes we get hairpins or ties there, 
but not often). Not surprisingly, this is where traditionally people 
write tuplet brackets for such scores, anyway.

Cheers,

Farhad