Re: LilyPond, Finale and Sibelius (was Review of Valentin's Opera)

[Jonathan Kulp]

Nick Payne wrote:
> > ...
> > That's a real interesting report!.  You note that entering chords in
> > lilypond is real slow as compared to using MIDI entry.
> >
> > While that's no surprise, I wonder if there's anything  that we can or
> > should do about it.  Typing <> is just real awkward...
> Try setting guitar scores. I just did a quick count on the first page of the
> BVW1004 Chaconne that I have been playing around with setting for guitar in
> Lilypond, and I have 187 left-hand fingering indications, 10 right-hand
> fingering indications, and 23 string number indications. A typical note
> entry would be something like
>
> <f-1\4-\RH #1 >
>
> If only there was some way to avoid all those <>...
>
> Nick
The way I avoid this on my guitar scores is to put minimal fingerings, 
only ones that I really, really care about that are not obvious from the 
context.  If I'm actually performing the piece later I'll write in more 
fingerings with a pencil. :)

My thoughts on this thread: I can enter music much more quickly in 
Lilypond than in Finale, in most cases.  It helps that I've gotten 
comfortable with Vim and learned how to take advantage of some of its 
editing features, too.  The syntax for entering expressive markings like 
slurs, articulations, and dynamics is excellent and much quicker than in 
Finale, where you have to switch from one tool to another.  Chords are 
slower, though, for sure.  What takes longest for me is precise 
positioning of things like fingerings, because I usually don't like the 
default placement and have to use extra-offset to get them exactly where 
 I want them.

What's nice about Lilypond from my "composer's" point of view is that 
it's gotten me back to writing music with pencil and paper instead of 
doing it in Finale.  I've realized for a while that in some pieces 
Finale was making me lazy as a composer (and the same happens with my 
students).  I was using the copy-and-paste function way too much and not 
thinking enough about the content of the music.  With Lilypond I'm again 
separating composition from typesetting, which is a good thing IMO. 
Last semester I bought a book of staff paper for the first time in more 
than 15 years!

Jon

--
Jonathan Kulp
http://www.jonathankulp.com