alternate fretboard table

[Gary Brookman]

I'm a complete Lilypond neophyte, so please excuse me if I'm missing the basics.

I am learning to play rhythm to jazz standards. A friend is an expert on voicings used in big band and swing settings, and none of these are in the predefined fretboard table. After some reading, what makes sense to me is to create an alternative fretboard table with just the voicings I want. To that end I tried:

% Make a blank new fretboard table

#(define swing-fretboard-table (make-fretboard-table))

% Add a new chord shape

\addChordShape #'sixthstring #guitar-tuning #"8-2;7-1;9-3;x;x;x;"

% add a three note c with root on the sixth string

\storePredefinedDiagram #swing-fretboard-table

                        \chordmode { c }

                        #guitar-tuning

                        #(chord-shape 'sixthstring guitar-tuning)

mychords = \chordmode

{

  c c' c''

}

<<

  \context ChordNames

  {

    \mychords

  }

  \context FretBoards

  {

    \mychords

  }

>>

Not successful.

1. is this a good approach to the problem?
2. Even if not, why doesn't this approach work for this one chord?
3. What's the best way to get up to speed on LilyPond?

I know #3 isn't necessarily straight forward, but this is what I've experienced so far. There is a wealth of information available, but not in a form I'm used to digesting. I'm a retired programmer and late in my career I picked up python. I could search for any aspect of the language and find all sorts of help. I'm not finding that with Lilypond. For instance, the learning manual and Youtube videos show the syntax for only the most basic of use cases. But when I see I need addChordShape and search for it I find the definition:

\addChordShape [void] - key-symbol (symbol) tuning (pair) shape-definition (string or pair)

and a use case:

\addChordShape #'powerf #guitar-tuning "1-1;3-3;3-4;x;x;x;"

But what does symbol refer to? what's the # and ' for?

I think I know now, but that's from tons of searching and reading. I would expect that to be an introduction article. I'm sure it's out there and I just missed it. Is there a tutorial or article that provides the glue that ties together all the components that comprise this environment and how they interface?

Thanks.