Re: Best way to center beam between upper/lower staff?

[Andy Bradford]

Thus said Aaron Hill on Thu, 07 Mar 2024 23:58:21 -0800:

> Is `\autoChange` [1] what you were looking for?

Well, I had looked at \autoChange but  it seems to add extra staves when
used with multiple  voices. I had also looked  at Beam.auto-knee-gap and
it didn't seem to make any difference either. Maybe I'm doing it wrong.

I think I'll  just stick to using  a variable as Werner  suggests (I was
already doing that but wondered if I was missing some obvious feature).

Thanks,

Andy

Re: Best way to center beam between upper/lower staff?

[Werner LEMBERG]

> I'm trying to have some notes cross from the lower staff to the
> upper staff but want the beam to automatically center.  In my
> example this is accomplished in measure 3 with much manual work.  Is
> there a better way?

No, there isn't – in general, how shall LilyPond know which note
belongs to which staff?  However, you can define shortcuts to reduce
typing, for example

```
U = \change Staff = "up"
D = \change Staff = "down"

{
  ...
  r8 a \U c \D a \U d ...
}
```

[Of course, our Scheme wizards may produce a solution to automatically
 split notes between the upper and lower staff depending on a pitch
 threshold; this might be nice for simple cases.]


Werner

Re: Best way to center beam between upper/lower staff?

[Aaron Hill]

On 2024-03-07 9:12 pm, Andy Bradford wrote:

Hello,

This has to be a FAQ, yet all my searching turned up a mixed bag.

I'm trying to have some notes cross from the lower staff to the upper 
staff but want the beam to automatically center.  In my example this is 
accomplished in measure 3 with much manual work.  Is there a better 
way?




Is `\autoChange` [1] what you were looking for?

[1]: 
https://lilypond.org/doc/v2.25/Documentation/notation/changing-staff-automatically


You might also need to play with `Beam.auto-knee-gap` [2].

[2]: 
https://lilypond.org/doc/v2.25/Documentation/notation/automatic-beams



-- Aaron Hill

Best way to center beam between upper/lower staff?

[Andy Bradford]

Hello,

This has to be a FAQ, yet all my searching turned up a mixed bag.

I'm trying to have some notes cross from the lower staff to the upper staff but 
want the beam to automatically center.  In my example this is accomplished in 
measure 3 with much manual work.  Is there a better way?


%%%
\version "2.22.2"

\score {
  <<
\new PianoStaff {
  <<
\new Staff = "up" {
  <<
\new Voice {
  \relative c'' {
R1 
a4 g f e
e f g a
  }
}
  >>
}
\new Staff = "down" {
  <<
\clef "bass"
\new Voice {
  \relative c {
\voiceOne
d4 e f g
r8 a \change Staff = "up" c \change Staff = "down" a \change 
Staff = "up" d \change Staff = "down" a \change Staff = "up" e' \change Staff = 
"down" r
r8 a, \change Staff = "up" \stemDown c \change Staff = "down" 
\stemUp a \change Staff = "up" \stemDown d \change Staff = "down" \stemUp a 
\change Staff = "up" \stemDown e' \change Staff = "down" \stemNeutral r
  }
}
  >>
}
  >>
}
  >>
}
%%%

Thanks,

Andy