Re: Percussion Setups for Contemporary Music Practice

[Mark Polesky]

Bernardo Barros wrote:
> 1. Yes, pictogram symbols for percussion would be *very*
> useful!!  That's something I would help if I had the
> knowledge.  Are you doing with Postscript?

I'll reply to this separately when I have some time.

> 2. I was trying to make everything in the same Staff
> because I though that would be much more trouble to make
> things work with 5 or 6 different staffs.  Hum... do you
> think I should go for different Staffs and try to make the
> crossing of staffs automatic?  Now I don't know which
> strategy to choose.

The biggest advantage to using a separate staff for each
instrument is that you can change the score order of the
final product.  So if your percussionist says it would be a
lot easier to read if the woodblock and bass-drum lines were
next to each other, it shouldn't be too much trouble for you
to reorganize the final Score block at the end of your file.

If you use a single staff, and you decide halfway through
that you want to switch lines 3 and 4 out of 6, how will you
do that?

>From your posts so far, you seem willing to experiment with
advanced constructs, and LilyPond's capacity for automating
things is rather robust.  If you're not under time pressure
to produce your score, it might be fun to get your hands
dirty, so to speak.

On the other hand, if your score order is inflexible and you
know you'll never change it, and you need to print this
piece sooner than later, you could design an instrumentName
markup that "lines up" perfectly with the staff lines you've
laid out.

- Mark