indicating same lyric for long stretches of notes

[Mike Solomon]

Hey all,

I’m working on a vocal project where the bass sings a lot of walking bass 
interspersed with lyrics.

I’d like to put a symbol under each walking bass note (doesn’t matter what it 
is - call it & for now).

The thing is that there are gigantic stretches of walking bass where sometimes 
I’ll add an 8th note here or there and it is getting annoying to remember where 
I need to add an extra & here and there.  What would be infinitely easier is a 
syntax like:

bassVoice = \relative c, {
c4\walkingBassOn e g a |
bes a g e |
c e g a |
bes a\walkingBassOff g8 g e4 |
f4\walkingBassOn a c d |
ees d c a\walkingBassOff | % ….
}

bassLyrics = lyricmode {
\set walkingBassSymbol = #”&"
Li — ly — Pond
}

To get a result equivalent to:

bassVoice = \relative c, {
c4\walkingBassOn e g a |
bes a g e |
c e g a |
bes a\walkingBassOff g8 g e4 |
f4\walkingBassOn a c d |
ees d c a\walkingBassOff | % ….
}

bassLyrics = lyricmode {
& & & & & & & &
& & & & & &
Li — ly — Pond
& & & & & & & &
}

The UI can of course be different - whatever it is, just something that spares 
me from having to remember to unfold the right number of ampersands for long 
stretches of walking base.

Cheers,
MS