Re: How to create a thick horizontal line (as its own staff)?

[David Nalesnik]

On Thu, Jul 14, 2016 at 10:24 AM, Mojca Miklavec
<address@hidden> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Just as an exercise I went on reading different parts of the manuals
> and also came up with an alternative "poor man's" solution that
> achieves the desired output, but would be way more tedious to input.
> I'm attaching it nevertheless (maybe it turns out that parts of the
> complex code could be simplified).

This is clever, never would have thought of it myself.  However, I
wonder if you would be able to typeset complex examples like the one
you attach down-thread with this approach.


>>
>> Ah, OK.  Good.  I assumed that the push applied to both staves and so should 
>> be
>> centered like many piano dynamics. But as I say I know nothing about
>> accordion notation!
>
> Yes, push applies to both staves of course (with a bit of humour:
> pushing open part and pulling the other would probably result in
> translation of the instrument rather than music :) :) :) :).

That puts it into perspective :)


>
> I checked one of the scores I got and the lines are in fact not
> aligned vertically. They might indeed be "centered in the empty space
> between the staves", but the effect is not noticeable because the
> differences in line heights are just minor ones.

I think you will be able to do much more with alignment putting the
line into its own context.  In the attached example, I
put it into a Dynamics context.  You have to use spacers to get the
attachments right--redundant information, but I think that
the advantages make the extra trouble worth it.

That is if you can come to grips with the complex vertical spacing engine :)

.
>
> Thank you. But now the line from the 8th bar on is too close to the
> bottom stave (and in the second example the last horizontal line is
> too close to the upper stave).
>
> It looks slightly better if I add >c'< to the basses of the first
> example or >c< to the main melody of the second example.

Again, you have complete control over vertical spacing with the line
in its own context.

[coloring objects affected by push/pull}

>
> What I meant was rather the following:
>
> \new PianoStaff <<
>   \new Staff {
>     f'1
>     \startPush
>     f'
>     \startPull
>     f'
>   }
>   \new Staff {
>     \clef bass
>     f1
>     f % some magic to make this one red automatically
>     f
>   }
>>>

Oh, OK, not trivial at all to do this automatically.  Probably you
will end up just doing it manually.

>
>> And also how lyrics relate.
>
> Usually it's (from top to bottom):
>
> - (optional) names of buttons and/or fingers
> - first stave / melody
> - lyrics
> - horizontal line to mark push/pull
> - (optional) whatever markings are needed for the basses (could be
> fingers, staccato, ...)
> - second stave / basses
> - (optional) whatever markup might be needed below (very often there
> is the button number to help people who don't know musical theory)

Please see the attached example, where I recreate the PNG you attach
down-thread.  I omitted several elements
which are easily handled by extra Dynamics or Lyrics contexts.

>
>
> I need to add that many people who play the instrument know absolutely
> nothing about the music theory and are not able to read the scores.
> Until recently the instrument has never been taught in music schools
> and most people have learnt it on their own simply by trying out what
> sounded right. Many of them are usually able to repeat any melody they
> hear.
>
> But even for those who know the scores and are only starting playing
> the instrument it's super difficult to remember which pitch belongs to
> which of the 30+ buttons. The pitch also changes when playing
> direction changes, making the whole thing even trickier. Playing form
> "button labels" (A2, C5, B4, ...) is thus much much easier and many
> still learn just the "button name notation" without ever learning any
> theory. Teachers also rarely use anything else but the button labels.
>
> The "best" scores for beginners contain all of the following elements:
> - all the pitches in both staves (melody + basses), even if everyone
> ignores them
> - all button names for both staves
> - all finger numbers (at least for the upper stave)
> - lyrics
> - playing direction

Thank you for the explanation.  My reaction is that it would be nice
to be able to present different
"editions" which provide this and that information but omit details
which, say, an experienced player wouldn't need.  Judging by the PNG,
these scores are cluttered and possibly a bit
overwhelming for the player?

I hope that the attached will give you what you need.  It didn't take
me long at all to recreate what I did of the score example.

Best,
David

accordion2.ly
Description: Text Data