Re: songbooks with guitar tablature

[Valentin Villenave]

2007/8/23, Jack Cooper <address@hidden>:

> If you wish to take a look at my songbook, go to
> www.jack-cooper.com/songbook and enter "guest" and "guest"
> as the userid and password.  The songbook file is called
> lop_songbook.pdf.

Hi Jack,

I took the liberty to download and look at your songbook, and just
wanted to share a few questions that occured to me while reading it:

-first of all, many kudos for your work; you wanted something that
looked professionnal and it does indeed. I particularly like the font
you use (though maybe the capital "S" is a bit too condensed): what'
its name? is it free?

-you seem to mix up free and non-free software in your introduction,
which can be okay as long as you specify the difference: LilyPond is
indeed open-source, but Adobe isn't (however there are opensource
alternatives, maybe worth to mention), and OpenOffice is hardly "a
freeware version of Microsoft Office"... This is a detail, but this
kind of details makes such projects as LilyPond particularly valuable,
in my opinion.

-you're right to mention the "lilypond.org" website in your
introduction, but the footer (or copyright) field you use in the
scores mentions "lilypond.com", which belongs to Campbell Industrial
Supplies. I've nothing wrong with giving them some PR help, but maybe
this wasn't on purpose :)

-the engraving looks definitely great -- no wonder: simply genuine
LilyPond :) -- just one little detail though: when you have to enter
empty measures, maybe you'd better use R1 instead of r1, so you can
have nice centered rests (yours are always left-aligned). Similarly,
if you enter your chords diagrams as a separate voice, you don't have
to split rests, like in the first line of "Put It Right". I see that
you aim to make the rhythm of the chord changes as clear as possible,
but I've never seen it affect the rests in the vocal line.

-I think developing LilyPond-made songbooks is definitely a great
idea, and I hope many people will eventually be interested in
supporting your project. You do not mention, as far as I can see, the
source files of the scores you typeset: maybe it would be cool to
mention their existence, and possibly their licensing, if you plan to
let them available online, or send them upon request, etc.

Really a nice project. It's a pity you don't do contemporary
orchestral music, I definitely could use a copyist :)

Best Regards,
Valentin