keep finger down

[Christopher Ellis]

I am looking for the best way to notate a fingering
instruction that tells a violinist to keep a finger
down.  This involves a finger number followed by a
line that continues until the finger no longer needs
to be held down.  I know several ways to do this and I
have included them in an example below.  They can all
work, but each have their drawbacks.  Does anyone know
of something better.  I want a centered fingering
followed by a line.  Thanks.  Chris

\version "2.6.0"

test = \relative c'' {

  \override TextSpanner #'shorten-pair = #'(1 . 0)
  \override TextSpanner #'dash-fraction = #'()
  b-1\startTextSpan c c b\stopTextSpan | 

% this gives a good result,
% but the line is not locked
% with the fingering, so at times
% you would have to move the line,
% so this is not ideal
\revert TextSpanner #'shorten-pair
 
  b^\markup { \finger 1 "-----------------" } c c b |

% this way you have to guess
% the number of dashes.  it doesn't
% center the fingering in the sme way
% as a regular fingering instruction does. 
% also, I want a solid line.  i could use
% the underscore, but I would have to move
% that to get it positioned right with the number
                   
  \override TextSpanner #'font-encoding = #'fetaNumber
  \override TextSpanner #'font-size = #-5
  \override TextSpanner #'edge-text = #'("1 " . " ")
  \override TextSpanner #'dash-fraction = #'()
  %\override TextSpanner #'shorten-pair = #'(0 . 0)
  b\startTextSpan c c b\stopTextSpan | 

% this works as in should in the way that I want,
% however the fingering is not nicely centered like
% a regular fingering instruction. also the line is
too
% close too the fingering.  i am sure that I can get
% close to what I want with the 
% commented out "shorten-pair"
% line but it would be nice if I could 
% do this spanner with
% the left edge-text centered like a 
% fingering and not have
% the line so close to the fingering.
                       }

\score {
    \test
    }



                
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