Harmonics and regular notes same measure different voices

[David Bellows]

Hey everyone. I'm creating a score for classical guitar and I've run into a problem combining harmonics and regular notes in the same measure in different voices.  If I do something like this:

\version "2.16.1"

<< { \harmonicsOn e'4 f' g' \harmonicsOff} \\ {a4 b c} >>

then the harmonic noteheads are clear or open, i.e., they are not filled in like you'd expect with a quarter notes (eighth, sixteenth, etc.). I do not think this is standard for guitar notation and in any case given some intricate rhythm stuff going on it's going to make it difficult for the performer to figure out what to play.

Instead if I do:

\version "2.16.1"

<< { \override Staff.NoteHead #'style = #'harmonic-mixed e'4 f' g' \revert Staff.NoteHead #'style } \\ {a4 b c} >>

Then the harmonic noteheads are filled in properly but the notes in the second voice are also displayed as harmonics instead of regular notes.

I actually asked about this several years ago but I ended up moving on to a different project before I could try out one of the proposed solutions but now I have and it's got problems as well. Another user suggested creating the voices separately and then combining them at the end of the score:

\version "2.16.1"

upper = \relative c' {

   \voiceOne

   \clef "treble_8"

   \override NoteHead #'style = #'harmonic-mixed

   g8 a b c b4

}

lower = \relative c {

   \override NoteHead #'style = #'default

   \voiceTwo

   \clef "treble_8"

   d8 d f e a4

}

\score {

     \new Staff = "guitar"

      <<

        \context Voice = "upper" { \upper }

         \new Voice = "lower"   { \lower   }

      >>

     \layout { }

   \midi {

     \context {

       \Score

     }

   }

}

This works, but as I said, there are issues.  As far as I can tell this requires me to use two voices throughout the entire piece.  Most of the piece only needs one voice and I would prefer to let Lilypond format it as if it were just one voice.  But if I use this method then I think I have to go through and add invisible rests throughout the piece for the second voice and then manually change some of the stem directions for the other voice which kind of defeats the purpose of using Lilypond.

Or am I missing something with respect to this last option?  Or is there some other way to go about solving my problem?

Thanks,

Dave Bellows