Re: Jazz Combo Template

[Graham Percival]

On Mon, 07 Jul 2003 22:31:35 -0400
Rick Sutphin <address@hidden> wrote:
> Attached is a template for a small jazz combo (4 horns and rhythm
> section). It handles part extraction and chord names on the score (once
> at top) and on individual parts. I put it together with ideas from the
> lilypond website and some suggestions from address@hidden (any
> hare-brained ideas or stupid mistakes our most likely  mine,
> unfortunately).

Looks good, although I haven't tested it yet (waiting for 1.8 to compile).
I personally give all Lilypond input files a .ly suffix; I use "sc" to
denote files that produce output (such as "score.ly", then "sc-vln1.ly",
"sc-fl.ly", etc.  I'm not suggesting that the "sc" prefix is a good idea,
but I think that giving all Lilypond files a ".ly" _is_ a good idea.

This file raises another question -- should we extend the templates
section to include multiple files?  Currently they all demonstrate
how to set up a score with all music in one file, but that's not too
practical to use for a large orchestra piece, for example.  Shall we
include something like "orchestra.tar.gz", which produces a directory
with multiple files?

Apart from benefitting newbies, this could help experienced users
understand each other's scores better.  Currently I think we all have
our own "coding" standards, both in terms of individul parts (ie how
many bars per line, what kind of indenting, whether you use "a-(" or
"a(", etc) and in terms of the overall structure of the work (ie do
you have a "strings.ly" in which you define all the string parts, or
split it up into "vln1.ly", "vlc.ly", etc?  Do you use a "global.ly",
and if so, how much do you stick in there?)

For the purposes of help / teaching, we ask that people submit short
examples which demonstrate the problem, but occasionally we want to
look at the whole piece -- arranging a Mutopia piece for a different
instrument combination, perhaps study purposes (either to study the
music itself, or just to learn more about Lilypond), etc.

If we more-or-less agreed on how to structure works and how we should
write the input files, it would be easier to share input files.  Of
course we'd all need to change some of our personal coding habits -- if
we wanted to follow whatever standards we use, of course.  There's no
way this could be anything but voluntary, even if we _wanted_ to try to
force a standard (which I'm sure nobody wants!).

Cheers,
- Graham