Macros to enter repeated patterns

[joe ferguson]

I'm trying to come up with a way to enter repeated patterns of notes and 
chords into a score by defining a pattern in one place and then invoking 
it in multiple places by naminf the pattern.  After struggling with the 
problem for a while (it seems like a reasonable thing to want to do, 
particularly given my programming background), I decided to try a simple 
test case based on two measures of "Twinkle, Twinkle." 

This is the score for "Twinkle, Twinkle"    that works OK:

\header {
        title = " Twinkle "
        composer = " Trad. "
}


melody = \notes \relative c'  \context Voice = singer {
 c4 c g' g | a a g2


 }


firstVerse = \lyrics {
 \set stanza = "1."
    % TEXT
 Twi -- kle twin -- kle | lit -- tle star,
}

%  More Verses similar


pianoRH = \notes \relative c' {
 c4 c g' g  | a a g2 |
 }




pianoLH = \notes \relative c' {
 \clef bass g4 g c c | b b c2 |
 }


\score { <<
%  \key c \major
    \new Staff << 
        \melody >>
            \lyricsto "singer" \new Lyrics \firstVerse
            % MORE VERSES
    \new PianoStaff <<
        \set PianoStaff.instrument = \markup {
            \bold 
            \bigger\bigger\bigger\bigger \huge "Piano  " }
        \new Staff \pianoRH
        \new Staff \pianoLH
       >>
   >>

}

------------------------------------------------

This is the attempt using a pattern substitution of "PatAA" for a couple of a's:


\header {
        title = " Twinkle "
        composer = " Trad. "
}

PatAA = { a a }

melody = \notes \relative c'  \context Voice = singer {
 c4 c g' g | \PatAA g2


 }


firstVerse = \lyrics {
 \set stanza = "1."
    % TEXT
 Twi -- kle twin -- kle | lit -- tle star,
}

%  More Verses similar


pianoRH = \notes \relative c' {
 c4 c g' g  | \PatAA g2 |
 }




pianoLH = \notes \relative c' {
 \clef bass g4 g c c | b b c2 |
 }


\score { <<
%  \key c \major
    \new Staff << 
        \melody >>
            \lyricsto "singer" \new Lyrics \firstVerse
            % MORE VERSES
    \new PianoStaff <<
        \set PianoStaff.instrument = \markup {
            \bold 
            \bigger\bigger\bigger\bigger \huge "Piano  " }
        \new Staff \pianoRH
        \new Staff \pianoLH
       >>
   >>

}


--
Joe Ferguson