Re: Shifting notes horizontally

[Jim Long]

On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 05:24:01PM +1100, Nick Payne wrote:
> On 19/12/12 15:52, Jim Long wrote:
> > Is there a way to insert empty horizontal staff space at an
> > arbitrary point in a particular voice?  Yes, much like \hspace in
> > markup.
> 
> Use Staff.Rest #'extra-spacing-width:
> 
> \version "2.16.1"
> 
> melody = \relative c'' {
>    <<
>      \new CueVoice { c4. }
>      {
> %    \once \override NoteColumn #'force-hshift = #20
>      \once \override Staff.Rest #'extra-spacing-width = #'(-2.5 . 25)
> %    c,4.\rest
>      r4.
>      }
>    >>
>    \relative c' { c8 d e  c d e   c d e }
> } % melody
> 
> 
> \score {
>    \new Staff {
>      \time 12/8
>      \melody
>    } % Staff > } % score

Thank you, Nick.  That solution works if the arbitrary point in
the voice happens to be a rest.  I presume the method of
inserting a horizontal shift is different when the shift is
desired before a note or chord, and that is when \override
NoteColumn #'force-hshift would be useful?  IOW, there is no
single method to insert such a shift, one has to adjust different
properties depending on which grob (?) is just before or just
after the point where the shift is desired?  And of course, the
particular property name might vary, depending on which grob is
being adjusted.

Your suggestion shifts both the cue note and the dotted quarter
rest, keeping them vertically aligned.  Is there a way to (as I
imagine it) add left padding (or extent) only to the rest stencil
so that the cue note stays put, but the rest moves to the right
as more and more left-padding is added to the rest?  How might
the dotted quarter rest be positioned, for example, 1.85
staff-space units farther to the right, while leaving the cue
note as-is?  Is there a mechanism that can give that level of
control over the X-extent of the dotted quarter rest?

In a crude text-diagram format, where n is the cue note, 8 is a
normal voice eighth note, and R is the dotted quarter rest,
I'm envisioning something like:

"n"  
"   R"  "8 8 8"  "8 8 8"  "8 8 8"

where "   R" indicates that the rest has increased padding on the
left side of its X-extent.  The "n" and the "   R" are indeed left-
aligned, but the left padding causes the R to appear farther to the 
right of the cue note n.

Thanks again for your quick reply.