AAA-intro.ly

Introduction

This document shows examples from the LilyPond Snippet Repository.

In the web version of this document, you can click on the file name or figure for each example to see the corresponding input file.

[image of music]

clusters.ly

Clusters are a device to denote that a complete range of notes is to be played.

[image of music]

coloring-objects.ly

LilyPond gives you the ability to assign different colors to any grob in your score, such as NoteHeads, Alterations, Beams and so on, by simply overriding the #'color property and choosing your color (over 200 colors are available, see the "List of Colors" Appendix in the Manual).

[image of music]

compound-time-signatures.ly

Odd 20th century time signatures (such as "5/8") can often be played as compound time signatures (e.g. "3/8 + 2/8"), which combine two or more inequal metrics. LilyPond can make such musics quite easy to read and play, by explicitly printing the compound time signatures and adapting the automatic beaming behaviour. (You can even add graphic measure groping indications, the appropriate snippet in this database.)

[image of music]

feathered-beams.ly

Feathered beams can be obtained by setting the #'grow-direction property; you may also want to use \featherDurations to adjust note durations. (See also in tha manual : "Feathered beams")

[image of music]

glissando-written-out-in-small-notes.ly

Sometimes a glissando is written out in smaller notes. This example shows how to do this.

[image of music]

graphic-measure-grouping-indications-for-conductors.ly

In 20th century music, time signatures tend to change frequently and to be more complex. Therefore, printing graphic indications (such as brackets and triangles) above the top staff has become quite useful, if not essential, to conductors or even players. LilyPond is able to do that easily with its integrated Measure_grouping_engraver.

Beware: you can no longer use the ime command; use instead the #(set-time-signature x x '(x x)) function, which is quite more powerful, especially for compound time signatures such as 5/8.

[image of music]

non-traditional-key-signatures-scordatura.ly

You can get any key signature you want by manually setting the Staff.keySignature property.

[image of music]

time-signatures-on-top-of-the-score-using-a-separate-staff.ly

in XXth century music, where time signatures tend to change a lot, it is sometimes recommended to put the time signatures on top of the score (or above each StaffGroup in case of an orchestral score). This can be achieved by creating a dummy staff which only contains the Time-signature-engraver). In this specific example, I've used a separate identifier to define every time signature change, which allows me to not bother entering them again when typing the actual music (careful though: it makes getting lost easier!).

[image of music]

This page is for LilyPond-2.11.28 (development-branch).

Report errors to http://post.gmane.org/post.php?group=gmane.comp.gnu.lilypond.bugs.

Your suggestions for the documentation are welcome.