Hi Martin.
Well, I'm still pretty new to Lilypond but I have done some handbell music. I don't play them myself - my mother is the musician while I'm her tech support, I guess would be the way to phrase it. My approach with the more complex pieces her group was doing was to generate a somewhat simplified version just for her. I would make sure to retain enough of the main melody line that she could follow it, while cutting out anything else I could. Of course I had to make sure to leave in the notes that she was responsible for. Wouldn't work too well without them. Also I would put a larger callout symbol above each note she rings to help her see them - she's pushing 80 years old and her eyesight is going. While I was at it, I would also produce a complete version. But that was mainly just me playing around and gaining some experience.
A lot of that was made a bit easier by just carving up the piece in multiple voices, with each voice going into a variable. Then I could assemble the appropriate piece of music by just calling the variables I needed for that particular version. Lots of possibilities to redo entire scores without having to retype a whole bunch of music.
As for handbell tablature I've never seen it. None of the handbell music she has brought home for me to play with has had any tablature, just the "normal" music. Tablature for a few other instruments, yes, but not handbells.
Well, this was kind of rambling - sorry about that. Like I said I'm still kinda new to Lilypond. It's been an interesting journey so far, with still quite a long ways to go. Still trying to get a decent grasp on the whole Scheme thing. Oh well. Just gotta keep trying, I guess. Hope maybe something in all this might have helped maybe a bit.
Michael
