Re: Sibelius user looking for the easiest way to learn LilyPond

[Shane Brandes]

To give you a reverse opinion. Lilypond at a basic level is fairly
easy to understand especially if you use a program like Frescobaldi to
help you construct the scores with their various parts. That initially
was to me the greatest challenge. With Frescobaldi you can build
scores and then from there learn how the syntax works. Additionally
with such an external editor it will point out syntax errors which is
really handy even if you have a great understanding of Lilypond it can
be a chore to find a simple small syntax error in a plain text file.
Doable certainly fun no. So as far as simply getting up and running it
should not take to terribly long. Of course it is when you want
Lilypond to do things that are either nonstandard practice or not yet
resolved in terms of what the program is capable of automagically that
is when it can be a bit of a bear and you must begin to really think
about how to get around odd things. For example I would like to make a
trill line go for a measure or so without the obligatory Tr. showing
up at the beginning. You think oh that should be easy. Let's turn off
the Trill part. After searching the user manual and wading through the
lilypond snippet repository (if you have not seen this yet it is an
selection of useful code that does not need to clutter up the user
manual) you discover there is no easy way. So you think to yourself
well the trill line is made by a widget called a spanner maybe I can
redefine a spanner to do what you want so you go looking at the bits
of the manual that talk about lines and you then find a way to
redefine a dynamic spanner as a line and voila you realize you can
tell it what sort of line to be and after a bit you have a trill
marking senza the Tr. and the best part is in that process you learn
all manner of other odd things that are possible that you might not
need at the moment. Of course there maybe even other ways of cracking
such a problem. And on top of that the people that hang about this
list are generally very good about giving suggestions and pointing
people in the right direction.

regards,
Shane

On Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 3:54 PM, james <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> On Jan 3, 2013, at 2:46 AM, Antonio Gervasoni wrote:
>
>> John Link <johnlink <at> nyc.rr.com> writes:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> A few years ago I was encouraged to try LilyPond
>> as an alternative to Sibelius because LilyPond
>> produced more beautiful scores. I was also told that it
>> would allow me to do things like specify that bars
>> 25 through 32 are to be identical to bars 9 through 16
>> and avoid cutting and pasting from bars 9-16
>> into 25-32. I liked what I heard, but I was quite shocked
>> by LilyPond's interface. I would be interested in
>> hearing from any Sibelius users who have successfully
>> learned LilyPond. How can I get going in LilyPond
>> as quickly as possible?
>>> In case it's relevant, I should add that I used to program
>> in FORTRAN and a little bit of UNIX but never
>> in any other languages.
>>>
>>> Thanks in advance,
>>> John Link
>>>
>>> P.S. I sent the message above but I didn't receive it so
>> I'm sending it again. I have seen messages from
>> other users. http://www.cdbaby.com/all/johnlink
>>> http://www.myspace.com/johnlinkproject
>
> Honestly, I would say there isn't really an *easy* way to learn lilypond. 
> It's something lilypond people don't really like to
> hear, but it isn't really easy. Especially if you have no programming 
> background. That doesn't mean it isn't possible, but it takes time, patience, 
> a bit more time and a bit more patience. The learning manual is absolutely 
> required reading if you want to actually use lilypond. There are programs 
> that make inputting information easier, especially if you are just starting 
> out, want to see what the result is, and are typesetting something very 
> simple. But the fact of the matter is that a text editor, preferably one with 
> syntax hilighting rules for lilypond is really all you need, and at a certain 
> point becomes probably the easiest way to code what will eventually become 
> music.
> What it really needs is a course in how to think in terms of how the program 
> works, understanding how to interpret the results that you get from the 
> program (both the actual typeset musical material and any errors that may 
> occur along the way, and instruction in "best practices" for making easily 
> readable input files, both so that you can debug what you've done, and so 
> that you can make changes when you need to. (The biggest problems with "best 
> practices" is that they are individual, and what works for one person may not 
> work for another.)
> My advice, read the learning manual and then task yourself with trying to 
> copy things of increasing difficulty. And then, don't get discouraged when 
> you don't yet have the skills to typeset what you want to, just put it on the 
> back-burner, do something you can (and probably at this point need to get 
> done) and come back to it once you have a little more experience.
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