Re: Macro or variable for sequence of notes that repeat often?

[James Bailey]

On 12.06.2010, at 16:08, Disc Magnet wrote:

> On Sat, Jun 12, 2010 at 7:33 PM, D'Arcy J.M. Cain
> <address@hidden> wrote:
> > On Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:55:01 +0530
> > Disc Magnet <address@hidden> wrote:
> > > In my Lilypond input file, I have a group of notes that are repeated
> > > at many places in the music. Here is a hypothetical example.
> > >
> > > c d e f g a b c
> > > c c c d d d e e
> > > a b a b c c d d
> > > c d e f g a b c
> > > f e fe f e g g g
> > > c d e f g a b c
> > >
> > > So, you can see that 'c d e f g a b c' is repeated again and  
> > > again. Is
> > > there a way to make a macro or a variable and store 'c d e f g a  
> > > b c'
> > > in it and reuse it whenever required?
> >
> > Riff1 = {c d e f g a b c}
> > ...
> > \Riff1
>
> Thanks. I have many arpeggios in my piece as well. So, I'm planning to
> to use it in ths manner:
>
> dMinor = {d f a f d f a f} and use \dMinor whereever required.  But, I
> am also wondering that since there are many standard chords and
> arpeggios such a C-major, D-minor, E-minor, etc. is there a way to
> tell Lilypond that I need the arpeggio D-minor from C-major scale and
> it would just print the arpeggio?

I understand what you're getting at, but there are a lot of variables  
to something like this. If you use the same patterns frequently, then  
you can create a custom file which defines the patterns you use, and  
include it in any files you create. The problem is, what happens when  
you want to repeat the top or bottom note, or not, change the timing  
on any note, add an octave, etc.