Re: LilyPond suggestions

[Michael Welsh Duggan]

Jesse Engle <address@hidden> writes:

> I am a drummer, and while I love that I can finally use free notation
> software instead of Finale for many melodic instruments, I've realized
> that the percussion features of LilyPond are lacking.
>
> 1) There is no way that I have yet discovered to notate rhythms for
> all four limbs, but this doesn't seem to be possible due to the fact
> that many drum set rhythms use overlapping stems. I have provided an
> example of this here:
>
> http://jengle.waferbaby.com/tmp/lp/drnot.png
>
> For reference, the bottom lines used are the bass drum and the hi-hat
> and the top two lines are the cymbal and snare drum. This example was
> notated by my uncle in MS Paint, in '96!

You may want to consider looking at the example at:

http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.11/input/regression/collated-files#drums.ly

If you click on the example, you will get the source code used to
produce it.

It looks to me like drummode is undocumented.  You can use the listed
example and the contents of .../ly/drumpitch-init.ly in order to
figure out what is happening.  In particular, use the value of
drumPitchNames in order to figure out the naming aliases, and the
various "styles" (such as drums-style) at the bottom of the file in
order to see how they are matched to head style, marking, and position.

Examples (based on a 5-line staff):

  (bassdrum () #f -3)          -> Normal notehead, no marking, -3
                                  offset from center

  (halfopenhihat xcircle #f 3) -> Circled-cross notehead, no marking,
                                  3 offset from center

  (openhihat cross "open" 3)   -> Cross notehead, "open" marking, 
                                  3 offset from center


The position is mapped from the center of the staff.  On a 5-line
staff, the positions are notated like this:

       5
-----  4
       3
-----  2
       1
-----  0
      -1
----- -2
      -3
----- -4
      -5


On a 2-line staff, they are notated like this:

       2
-----  1
       0
----- -1
      -2

-- 
Michael Welsh Duggan
(address@hidden)