Re: Absolute Beginners

[Manuel]

Geoff, I took away plainchant. Should I mention other things, like  
proportional notation or whatever?

David, I did just that and changed the sentence.

Eyolf, I included a reference to "chiavettes" with "G_8".


> > You change the clef changing the term "treble" to
>
> Would "word" be better than "term"? Also, the most recent preceding
> example used an alto clef. If the examples are numbered, you could
> refer to the one you want.

I went back to "word".


> > You can amuse yourself writing all possible and also impossible
> > examples of simple melodies, and see what happens. Don't worry,
> > whatever you type, you can't break it...
>
> I would change that last sentence, because it is easy enough to type
> things that won't compile, and a new user might well regard that as
> "breaking it".

I changed the whole paragraph and put it in the end, where it is more  
appropriate, I think.


> > (Please note that this is not necessarily the way you are used to
> > naming the notes, just a quick, logical and easy way to work with
> > LilyPond.)
>
> Can you perhaps add something like: "If you would prefer to use more
> familiar names, see the section in the manual on "note names in other
> languages.""?


I did.

So here's again.

Manuel


LilyPond's

Beginners Guide

for the

Absolute Beginner



(Mac OS X version)



Chapter One.


Open a new LilyPond window.

Then type this inside:


{ c'  d'  e'  f'  g'  a'  b'  c' ' }


Save the file and then select "Typeset file" from the "Compile" menu.

A small window will open, where you can follow the proceedings, and  
then a ".pdf" document will appear, with this result:


(insert graphic here)


It is a little C-major scale. Let us consider it:

The so-called "curly braces"

{

and

}

are essential. You must always write your music inside such braces.

Also, LilyPond is "case sensitive", which means that in our little  
example, "c" (that's lower case) is right, but "C" (that's upper  
case) would be wrong.

LilyPond has certain pre-set values, called "defaults", which will  
apply whenever you do not ask for something different. In our present  
example, for instance: the treble clef, 4/4 time signature, quarter  
notes (or "crotchets", for non-American English speakers).

You can, of course, change these and all other defaults; indeed you  
can engrave contemporary notation, orchestral scores, do MIDI files,  
and more. But all that lies further down the road. For the moment, we  
will teach you how to engrave a simple melody.

First, we'll give you a very useful tool to input your notes, called  
the "relative mode".

In our example, we have written each note with an octave  
denomination: one apostrophe:

'

for the so-called "first octave", which is the octave immediately  
above and including the middle c - that's the central c in the piano  
keyboard -  and two apostrophes:

''

for the "second octave", the one immediately above the first octave.

But now, using the "relative mode", you will save yourself a lot of  
work. Erase what you wrote before in the LilyPond window and write  
this instead:


\relative

{ c d e f g a b c }


Note that the \relative command comes before and outside the { } .  
Also, be very precise in the way you write this and all other  
commands: don't allow a space between the backslash and the word,  
since for instance:

\ relative


will not work, and only

\relative


will be fine.


Save the file again, close the .pdf and select "Typeset file" from  
the "Compile" menu. The result will be the same C-major scale:

(insert graphic here)

But now, with the

\relative

command, the first note is automatically engraved as close as  
possible to the middle c and every further note will be engraved as  
close as possible to the previous note. "As close as possible" means  
calculating the smallest interval. Thus if you modify your input to  
this:


\relative

{ e g c b g f d c  }


(Don't forget to always save the file and close the previous .pdf  
before compiling)

You will get this result:


(insert graphic here)


You can analyze the exercise and see that the first note e appears a  
third above middle c rather than a sixth below; the same happens with  
the following g, a third above in relation to the preceding e; then  
comes the c that is a fourth above the g instead of a fifth below, an  
so forth.

Now in this mode, when you add an apostrophe, it makes the note  
appear one octave higher than it would have appeared without the  
apostrophe. Two apostrophes make for two octaves, and so forth.

To make a note one octave lower than it would otherwise appear, add a  
comma:

c,

or two or more for more octaves:

c,,,

See it here:


\relative

{ c' g e' d c c, d c  }

(insert graphic here)



Good. Now let's see how to select the following:


Clefs

Time signatures

Keys major and minor

Rhythmic values

Sharps and flats

Double bars and repeat bars.



These are simple things to do. Write this example:


\relative

{

\clef treble
\key c \major
\time 4/4

 c d e f g a b c }

The result is our first example of a C-major scale:

(insert graphic here)

but this time you see the way some defaults are set. Change them  
easily, like this:


\relative

{

\clef alto
\key cis \minor
\time 2/2

 c d e f g a b c }


This should look thus:

(insert graphic here)


Don't worry just yet about the naturals. We'll explain them when we  
come to talk about keys.

You set the clef naming the one you want: in the preceeding example,  
we wrote "alto" instead of "treble". Other clefs are called:



tenor (C clef on the fourth line)

bass (F clef on the fourth line)


as well as


french (G clef on the first line)

soprano (C clef on the first line)

mezzosoprano (C clef on the second line)

baritone (C clef on the fifth line)

varbaritone (F clef on the third line)

subbass (F clef on the fifth line)

percussion (percussion clef)

tab (tablature clef)


and also "chiavette"-type clefs like


"G_8"


which is the one used for guitar music and modern tenor parts. And  
there are more!



To set the key, proceed in this way:


\key (name of the tonic) \(major or minor)

For example:


\key g \minor


And similarly for the time signature, like this:


\time x/y

for example:

\time 6/8


Now for the rhythmic values.

You specify these values with a number after the name of the note:  
"c1" will make a whole note (also called a semi-breve); "d8" an  
eighth note (or quaver), etc.

Add full stops (called "periods" in American English) for dotted or  
double dotted notes:

g4.

for a dotted quarter note,

a8..

for a double dotted eighth note, and so on.

Insert rests with the letter "r" and specify their duration with  
numbers:

r4.

will be a dotted quarter rest.

Once a rhythmic value is entered it remains the same for all the  
following notes or rests until you change it. Lets see this with an  
example:


\relative

{c4 r8 e g4 c r8 g c r c,4 r}

(insert graphic here)

Analyze this and see how the rhythmic values are automatically repeated.

Working fine? Then let's go for sharps and flats

Just add

is

to the name of a note to make it a sharp, like this:


cis

dis

eis

fis

gis

ais

bis


and add


es


to the name of a note to make it a flat, like this:


ces

des

ees

fes

ges

aes

bes



Please note that this is not necessarily the way you are used to  
naming the notes, just a quick, logical and easy way to input them,  
similar to the German namig system (if you would prefer to use more  
familiar names, see the section in the manual on "note names in other  
languages").


"cisis" and "ceses" will give you double alterations. Get it?


Whatever key you have chosen, you must always input the exact name of  
the note you wish to have printed. For example in the key of D-Major  
you must type in "fis" and "cis" to get f-sharp and c-sharp,  
otherwise a natural sign will be printed before the note. This is not  
a disadvantage, as you will surely notice after a time.

Insert double bars and repeats like this:


\relative

{

\clef treble
\key c \major
\time 2/4

c d

\bar "|:"

e f

\bar ":|:"


g a

\bar ":|"

b c

\bar "||"

}

(insert graphic here)



You can amuse yourself writing away melodies, trying things and see  
how they look. Don't worry, if what you write is impossible and does  
not compile, you will get an instructive error message in the little  
"process log window" we mentioned at the beginning and no printout,  
but you won't crash the program.

The exercises you have done so far should enable you to write any  
simple melody. As you are surely aware, we have not said anything yet  
about tuplets, lyrics, polyphony and many other things, which are  
certainly no problem to do with this program. Indeed, if you wonder  
whether you can do any imaginable thing with LilyPond, the answer is  
very probably "YES!"

Look for ways to do more things in the other tutorials or in the next  
chapters, if and when they are written. Any unsolved questions can be  
directed to the mailing list, including an example of your problem.  
Take great care where you put your { and } around your music, and

have fun!