I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this question, but I'll post it anyway. I think it has more to do with music notation in general, but after reading a couple of threads, I'm confident some of you would be able to answer the following question about the use of ties or voices.
I'm copying a piano arrangement into lilypond. I'ts a jazz ballad and so there is a lot of inner movement going on. The notes in most of these passages have been split into multiple voices to accommodate the various note lengths. However, every now and then I run into something like this:
<a f c>4 c,8 <a' f>8 <g~ e b>4 <g es bes>8 <f des as>
and for some reason that g~ really annoys me. Wouldn't it be better to write:
<a f c>4 c,8 <a' f>8 <<{g4. f8}\\{<e b>4 <es bes>8 <des as>}>>
This way the top notes of the melody get separated from the rest and the {g4~ g8} becomes {g4.}
Or in general: When is it OK to introduce a (temporary) new voice to substitute for a tie? Or the other way around for that matter?
The following excerpt shows another example:
<<{<g e>2. r4}\\{<c, a>4 a8 c <cis b~> <d b> <e cis> <f c g>}>>
If we put the b~ in a separate voice and give it a duration or 4 the tie wouldn't be needed.
Any thoughts?