Article Tags: software lilypond

I've been thinking about the notation maker page I have. I've been thinking about how it doesn't do what I'd like. So, I started searching around. On SourceForge (http://sourceforge.org) I found and tried a few things. I wasn't too happy until I found LilyPond (http://lilypond.org/web/). This tells of my up then down then up experience so far.

Now, before reading further know that I'm a software guy too, so some may get technical. LilyPond is very nice and easy to use. From a technical standpoint, you have to be aware of something though. You type a text file, kind of like a script. From that a PDF is made and it's very nice in quality. But... The time it takes to make the PDF can take a few minutes. Also, there's not really an error report to tell you if your script is bad. So if you've done graphical rendering, the wait won't bother you. But, if you've done any computer work, the lack of error will bother you. Example: You type a script, make a PDF of your progress, wait a couple minutes and things look fine, add a couple more lines and recheck progress, you wait and nothing, wait some more and nothing, remove the addition and try to figure out what's wrong. Here's some advice: KEEP YOUR FIRST PROJECT SIMPLE. I know..my fault on that one, but...well no excuses.

Once you get used to things, it's really easy and the quality is very nice. Here's a sample script and link to a PDF.

\header{
	title = "Position I Diatonic"
	composer =  \markup \center-align { "Kyle Walz" }
	subtitle = "walzguitar.com"
	instrument = \markup \bold \italic "solo guitar"
}

\relative c {
	\clef treble
	e1 f g a b c d e f g a b c d e f g
}

(http://www.walzguitar.com/resources/pdf/Postion I Diatonic.pdf)

You can see, the actual music part is very simple. If you've ever worked with a text editor to make a web page (like Notepad on Windows) you'll find things very easy. Otherwise, the only tough part is getting used to the syntax of the script. LilyPond is going to be my new musical friend.

Added on: 2008 06 06