Re: Possible feature request for 'q' shorthand or tie syntax

[Stefan Thomas]

Dear Jim,
I don't like writing lots of ties too. And I use the following solution, which works fine for me.
\include "changepitch.ly"
   AV = {  c8  c4  }
    av = #(define-music-function (parser location x) (ly:music?)
    #{
      \context Voice <<  { \changePitch \AV  { $x $x } } { s8 ~ s8 } >>
    #})
    \new Staff \relative c' {
      c4. \av es f4 fis4 \av fis g4
    }
 You can easily define  other commands like this for all combinations of durations.

> A humble suggestion....
>
> Please educate me if there is already a way to do this, but it
> appears that 'q' as a shorthand for the repetition of the
> previous note(s) only works for chords.  It would be handy if it
> worked for single notes also, specifically in ties.
>
>   \time 12/8
>   \partial 8
>   aes8
>   des,4. ~ q4 aes'8  d,4. ~ q4 a'8
>   des,4. ~ q4 aes'8  d,4. ~ q4 a'8
>
>
> For that matter, it would be nice (though I suspect more
> syntactically problematic) for subsequent notes in ties to only
> require a duration, since by definition the pitch has already
> been specified in the first note of the tie.
>
> This might be written as:
>
>   \time 12/8
>   \partial 8
>   aes8
>   des,4.~4 aes'8  d,4.~4 a'8
>   des,4.~4 aes'8  d,4.~4 a'8
>
> Flipping that around, it might (or might not, I'm not qualified
> to say) be syntactically convenient to define a 'compound
> duration' as one that includes two or more simple durations
> separated by tildes.  In the above example, the pitch is 'des,'
> and the duration is '4.~4'.  In 4/4 time, 'a2' takes up the same
> time as 'a4~4' but of course in the notation, 'a4~4' is two notes
> tied, and 'a2' is a single note.
>
> I think this helps the readability to show that it is one pitch
> of a given duration tied to a second duration, and conceivably
> more:
>
> Here the long C has a duration of '1~1~2~4~8', and the final
> c has an implied duration of 8 since that is the duration of the
> note preceding it in the notation.
>
>   \time 4/4
>   \partial 16
>   c16
>   c1~1~2~4~8 c
>
> Instead of the current syntax:
>
>   \time 4/4
>   \partial 16
>   c16
>   c1~c1~c2~c4~c8 c
>
>
>
> In chordmode:
>
>   \time 4/4
>   bes4~16:m7  ees16~8:7  aes2:maj7
>
>
> Perhaps this idea has plenty of holes, but I think I would enjoy
> learning from the discussion.
>
> Thank you for your time,
>
> Jim