In step 1 I need to just provide lyrics for my vocalists, and lyrics
with chord names for the musicians. So for example I would need the
Lilypond equivalent of:
G D C D
Over all the earth You reign on
G
high
the problem with this, is that you somehow will need to tell Lilypond how to sync the lyrics with the cords. And for that I think that it might be easiest to just write down the melody and sync the lyrics to that just like the following snippet (uncomment either of the commented choices to get desired effect).
harmonies = \new ChordNames \chordmode {
b2 f2 es2 f2/es % and so on ...
}
thelyrics = \lyricmode {
O -- ver all the earth You reign on high % and so on ...
}
melody = \relative c' {
\key bes \major
r4 d8 f a4 ~ a16 bes16 g8 ~ | g4 g f8. f16 ~ f8 f % and so on ...
}
\score {
<<
\harmonies
% uncomment the following line for just chord sheet
%\new Devnull = "melody" \melody
% uncomment the following line for melody sheet
%\new Voice = "melody" \melody
\new Lyrics \lyricsto "melody" \thelyrics
>>
\layout {
}
}
\paper {
}
I guess my questions is, is Lilypond geared toward formal music to
the extent that there is no easy way to use it for simple chord
sheets until I become proficient enough to use it for melody lines?
there might be simpler choices yes, but I don't have any names to give
hope this helps
/Simon