Absolute vs. relative pitches

[Eluze Weehaeli]

May I report a personal impression I had reading the "Learning Manual":

In the chapeter "2.5.4 Absolute note names" people are scared off using  
absolute pitches. What for? The given example of Mozart can easily be  
written with few octave characters - 2 commas - in absolute mode:

{ \key a \major  \time 6/8
  \transpose c c'' { cis 8. d 16 cis 8 e 4 e 8 | b,8. cis 16 b,8 d 4 d 8 |}
  }

On the other hand - did you try to write the second example of "Absolute  
octave entry" in the user's guide in relative mode? Tell us - how many  
corrections?

\relative c' { \clef treble  c 4 c' e, g, d'' d, d, c \clef bass  c, c, e'  
g'  d,, d' d' c }

Choosing different intervals - critical for the octave changing signs to  
apply - you could make a practical exercise for interval recognition!

Eluze