Hello! Complicated newbie questions!

[Markian Hlynka]

Hi everyone!

I just discovered lilypond the other day, and I can't stop playing  
with it. I have all sorts of questions, and I'm hoping maybe some  
people here might be able to point me in the right direction.

First, here are the simple questions:

1. how can I make a small note? like, sometimes in a bass part  
(vocal) there's an additional note an octave down, sometimes small,  
sometimes in brackets, indicating that you can sing it if you're  
able. I see in the manual an incredibly complex way to change the  
notehead size in a chord. That's too much effort. I managed to do it  
like this:

    \relative c
    \new Staff {
        \clef bass
        {c4 c c c f f e2
       d4 d c c b g <<c2 \\ \tiny c,>>}
    }

That's not too bad, trouble is the note has a seperate stem, which  
might not be what you want. Is there any other way to do this?

2. Similarly, can I print a notehead with NO stem?

3. What about putting parentheses around a note in the score ie (o)

4. One other simple one. I'm sure I saw somewhere in the  
documentation a way to extend lines, something like
\header{
    composer = "Mozart " \\
                \line "the child prodigy"
}

or something like that. But, now I can't find it any more!


OK, now, here are the tough questions.

5. I'm inputting cyrillic text. I've noticed that if cyrillic and  
latin text coincide, they collide in a mess. Is this a known problem?  
I'll send an example, but I don't know if this list will take  
attachments. Basically if I write <cyrillic> <latin> <cyrillic> in, say,
\header{
 title = "<cyrillic> <latin> <cyrillic>"
}

the result on the score will be <cyri########ic> where ## indicates  
overlapped text.

6. I'm trying to understand how to format a choral score. Of  
particular interest is how the words get attached etc.I looked at the  
examples in section 3 of the manual, but that's not quite what I  
want. So far, I've settled on this:

\score
{
    \context ChoirStaff
    <<
        \context Staff = bari
        <<
            \clef bass
            \mainvoice
        >>

        \context Lyrics = bari \mainwords

        \context Staff = bass
        <<
            \clef bass
            \secondvoice
        >>

    >>
}

Am I doing this right? Among the things I don't understand are how/ 
when the names apply (bari), and where the lyrics get stuck. In my  
example, if I move my \context Lyrics line below the second staff,  
the words print there as well. Yet, in the manual clearly the words  
are tied to the staff explicitly?

7. Finally (for now), I'm having trouble aligning lyrics to music. I  
have this:
mainvoice = \relative c
{
    \key a \minor

    \repeat volta 2
    {
        \partial 8*3
        e8 a8.  [ b16] c2~c8 b16 a gis8. a16 b2 r8
    }
}

mainwords = \lyricmode{ one -- two -- three -- four five six }

So, the end of sylable four should align with c2~c8.. It does, but  
"five" is also under the c2, not under the subsequent b16 where it  
belongs. I've tried adding _ and __ and even _ __, but there doesn't  
seem to be any effect. Am I doing something wrong? Same problem in  
English and Cyrillic.

Greatly appreciate any help people can give me. This is a very cool  
program, and I'd very much like to use it more!

Thanks,

Markian

PS: System: Mac OS X 10.4.2, Lilypond version 2.6.4-1, also using  
lilypad preview 2-1

----
When arguing with an idiot, be sure they aren't doing the same.