Re: Is Lilypond right for this need?

[Cliff Pruitt]

> I understand the "not take the time to be accurate" but my guess is  
> at some point you might want to be more accurate.  My general LP  
> template uses voices for chord names, a rhythm context, and some  
> other instrumental line - could be a vocal melody, but I'm  
> primarily a bass player so more often than not it's a bass line.  I  
> often don't take the time to write out my bass lines exactly (like  
> I ever play them the same way twice!), and the few vocal charts  
> I've put together I've found that being exact in terms of a melody  
> can be frustrating.
>
> So perhaps you could just write an approximate melody?  Between  
> that and a rhythm context the chord placement should take care of  
> itself.

You're right, It is definitely my goal to progressively move more and  
more towards accuracy.

Your answer is kind of way I've been leaning the more i think about  
it but the thought of sitting down & coming up with approximate  
melodies for 45-60 songs is somewhat daunting.  Maybe I'll try it on  
a few & see what I can come up with & how hard it really is for me.   
I've spent a lot of today just tinkering with one sing but I've been  
trying to find workarounds so maybe doing it semi-correctly will be  
faster.  If nothing else it may help fill in some gaps in my theory. :-)

> > just trying to  write an app to  convert some simple text file  
> > into an .ly file.
>
> As for "converting" a text file to .ly - it's just a matter of  
> having the correct extension from what I've found, and making sure  
> you have no extraneous formatting characters creep in.  I've  
> written my own editor using a rich text edit box so I can have drag  
> and drop, and *sometimes* some weird things happen in the  
> transition between reading the text file in and writing it out.   
> Probalby just my own programming mistakes!  But you could just save  
> the file as a txt created in say Notepad (assuming Windows) and  
> copy/rename it if you want to keep the text file around.

What I was thinking was trying to write something to convert your  
standard monospaced chord notation (e.g. monospaced font with chord  
names over the right syllable) into a .ly file.  Of course that would  
involve finding the right number of syllables per measure and  
creating melody & chord lines & a bunch of other hoopla...

For the time being I think I'll just try & get a chord line and a  
vocal line, but I don't really need the actual notes for the melody.   
I suppose I could just output the lyrics without the actual notation  
for the lyric line but I'd like to avoid manually indicating duration  
after every word (e.g. over4 all4 the4 earth4) so I can just specify  
the lyrics later & have the multiple verses line up under each other.

Is there any chance anyone might have some relatively simple .ly  
files I could see as an example?  I looked at the examples on the  
site, but the closest I could find was the jazz example and thats  
still a bit more complex than I need.  I'd like to see an example of  
how to just mix chordsa  simple melody & lyrics & get a feel for how  
others handle that situation.





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