Re: Lead sheets: lyrics and chords, no melody?

[Aaron Hill]

On 2019-03-02 9:40 pm, Aaron Hill wrote:
> On 2019-03-02 8:51 pm, Christopher R. Maden wrote:
> > I’d like to produce what he’s used to: lyrics with chords above them.
> > (See _Rise Up Singing_ or a thousand other songbooks for examples.)  I
> > have many songs set in LilyPond already, with chords and lyrics
> > aligned to the melody.  If I can suppress the melody staff, but keep
> > the chords and lyrics aligned to them, that would be ideal.  Something
> > like <URL:
> > http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.19/Documentation/snippets/chords#chords-simple-lead-sheet
> > > but without the melody staff.
>
> It is a messy hack, but here is something:
>
> [ . . . ]
>
> My goal was to leave the lead sheet snippet from the docs intact and
> do everything with \layout.  There are probably other grobs that will
> need \omitting depending on your music.  Spacing will almost certainly
> require tweaking to work.  I also opted to left-align the lyrics to
> match the chords, as the alignment looks better without the notes.

Here is a slight improvement, that also preserves the bar lines:

%%%%
\version "2.19.82"

\layout {
  \context { \Staff
    \omit StaffSymbol
    \override StaffSymbol.line-count = #4
    \omit Clef
    \omit KeySignature
    \omit TimeSignature

    % Cannot \omit as it causes errors with slur attachment.
    \hide NoteHead

    % This is borrowed from NullVoice:
    \override NoteHead.X-extent = #(lambda (grob) '(0 . 0))
    \override NoteHead.no-ledgers = ##t
    nullAccidentals = ##t
    \consists "Pitch_squash_engraver"
    squashedPosition = #0

    \omit Beam \omit Stem \omit Rest
    \omit Slur \omit Tie
  }
  \context { \ChordNames
    \override VerticalAxisGroup.nonstaff-relatedstaff-spacing =
      #'((basic-distance . 0) (minimum-distance . 0)
         (padding . -2) (stretchability . 0))
    \override ChordName.extra-offset = #'(0 . -1)
  }
  \context { \Lyrics
    % This ensures that lyrics do not overlap barlines.
    \consists "Bar_engraver" \hide BarLine

    \override VerticalAxisGroup.nonstaff-relatedstaff-spacing =
      #'((basic-distance . 0) (minimum-distance . 0)
         (padding . 0) (stretchability . 0))
    \override LyricText.self-alignment-X = #LEFT
    \override LyricSpace.minimum-distance = #1
    \omit LyricExtender
  }
}

<<
  \chords { c2 g:sus4 f e }
  \relative c'' {
    a4 e c8 e r4
    b2 c4( d)
  }
  \addlyrics { One day this shall be free __ }
> >
%%%%

-- Aaron Hill