Re: Question re lilypond

[Mats Bengtsson]

Gordon Gilbert wrote:
> Hi, folks!
>
> I've known about lilypond for quite some time, but have only recently
> started using it, mostly because I'm *not* a computer geek -- my son is.
> But of course getting him to do any coding for his old man -- well, that
> never happens.  (Actually, he's a good kid, and has kept my computer
> system running well for many years.)
>
> Anyway, I have a question re lilypond coding.  If you like, I will send
> you my input files for you to look at, and perhaps suggest code I can use.
> Every time I try some of the suggestions from the web-site, they screw up
> my piece.  I have two questions:

You don't say what version of LilyPond you use. Please always do that
when sending question to the mailing list, otherwise you may get an
answer that's not relevant for your version.
Also, when you read the documentation on the web site, make sure to
read the documentation corresponding to your version of the program,
otherwise it will probably not work.

> 1.  How can one put tempo markings at the beginning of a piece?  And how
> do I do it in the middle, as well.  For example, how would I put
> "Moderato" at the top of the piece, "Slower" a bit later, and "A Tempo" a
> bit later still?

To typeset some text on top of a note, read about Text Scripts in the
manual. Examples: c4^"Moderato"  c4^\markup{ \large Moderato }

To typeset some text over a bar line or at the very beginning of a
piece, read the section on


> 2.  I've tried all the code on your web-site to put chord symbols above my
> staffs.  With no success.  They seem to want to be below the staff but
> above the words on a song-sheet.  Or it wants to print a separate staff
> with the actual chord triads as well as the chord symbols.  I would just
> like the chords above the staff!  How do I do this?

The basic idea is very simple, the output is ordered in the same order
as it first appears in the \score{...} section of your file. So, if you
want the chords above the music, make sure that you have the
\context ChordNames{...}
before the
\context Voice or \context Staff

I recommend to use the Templates from the web page as a starting point
(integrated into a chapter called "Example templates" in the manual
from version 2.4). Especially, you could start from the template called
melody-lyrics-chords.ly


   /Mats