Producing Strumming Pattern Examples

[Kevin Tough]

Hi everyone,

I have been working on creating strumming pattern examples with
Lilypond. I have been through all of the snippet examples and not found
what I am looking for. I have made some attempts with some snippets but
also not produced what I have hoped for.
In my StrummingTemplate.ly file I have pieces and bits from some of the
snippets.
With the variable arrDown I could not shift the symbol above the treble
staff and I do not know how to type in the utf-8 symbols. I do not know
if there are symbols that would meet my needs.
I was very hopeful with the variable created with some sort of drawing
feature in postscript. That looks very flexible if it would work. With
this I could easily change the line width to indicate how hard the strum
should be made. I just need to offset the symbol above the treble staff
if possible. My code is missing something however and so far no arrows
to see.
I tried following the note names and duration with a minus symbol and
then another. Many cause the code to crash and burn but the ">" and "+"
did at least show up in the right spot. What others are available?

I hope there is a way to do this with Lilypond and help would be greatly
appreciated.

Namaste,
Kevin Tough

\version "2.18.0"

%StrummingTemplate.ly

arrUp = _\markup \translate #'(-.2 . 0) \rotate #90 "?"
arrDown = _\markup \translate #'(.8 . 8) \rotate #90 "?"

%{strokeDown = \markup { \postscript #"
  0.9     setlinewidth
  0.5 2   moveto
  0.5 0   lineto
  0.2 0.6 lineto
  0.5 0   moveto
  0.8 0.6 lineto
  stroke
"}
%}


  \new Voice \with {
    \consists "Pitch_squash_engraver"
  } {
    \relative c'' {
      \numericTimeSignature \time 3/4
      \improvisationOn
%      c4\strokeDown c8 c c c 
%      c4\arrDown c8 c c c
       c4-> c8-+ c c c
      c4 c8 c c c 
      c2 c4
      c1
      \bar "|."
    }
  }

StrummingTemplate.ly
Description: Text Data