GDP - Learning Manuall Songs section
As one of the GDP helpers I'm having a first look at the Songs section which is to go into the new Learning Manual. It will be based on the Tutorial Songs section (section 2.4) in the present User Manual. This is rather short at present, and I would like to extend it. The question is, by how much. I'd welcome your views on the suggestions below. In particular, is this too long? Does this cover too many/too few topics? How many examples should be included? Are these good examples? Is the division into subsections optimal? Are the subsection headings right? IMO some of the explanations of lyrics in the vocal section of the present manual (section 7.3) are written in a tutorial style, and the easier parts of these could be moved with advantage into the Learning Manual. I am thinking in particular of sections 7.3.1 Setting simple songs and the easier parts of some other sections. Most of the _concepts_ associated with lyrics need to be introduced in the Learning Manual, as they are pretty well all needed whenever lyrics need to be set. But only the minimum number of technicalities should be covered; all alternative methods and all tweaks should remain in the new Notation Reference and simply referenced. Here's an outline of my thoughts on a possible new structure. It actually covers little more than the present Tutorial section, but includes more examples and splits the material up into subsections. The interpersing text could be quite brief. Lyrics (rather than Songs?) * Setting simple songs - introduce \addlyrics - take part of text from section 7.3.1 - example: Girls and boys come out to play and/or - example: Thus saith the Lord (Handel's Messiah) (hardly a song!) * Aligning lyrics to a melody - introduce \lyricmode, melismata, extenders, hyphens, use of slurs - example: Away in a manger First 4 bars and/or - example: first 3 bars of Purcell's Dido's Lament * Setting duets - two voices, introduce \lyricsto - example of divisi on single staff: taken from Handel's O Lovely Peace (Let fleecy flocks ..) * Multiple syllables on a single note - use of quotes, tilde and underscore - example of Italian: Rossini's Largo al factotem and/or - example of recit: Gilbert Sullivan's Hold monsters (Pirates or Penzance) and/or - example of a chant: versicle O Lord, show thy mercy upon us * Lyrics to multiple staves - how to write lyrics for SATB - example: three bars of Behold the Lamb of God (Handel's Messiah) * Languages other than English - use of unicode - example: ? .. (Onégin's Aria) * Lyrics separate from the music - example: a hymn with verses below the music * A lead sheet - introduce \chordmode and \chords - examples from popular music (but what about copyright? use nursery rhymes?) Trevor ___ lilypond-user mailing list lilypond-user@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user
Re: GDP - Learning Manuall Songs section
Quoting Trevor Daniels [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Most of the _concepts_ associated with lyrics need to be introduced in the Learning Manual, as they are pretty well all needed whenever lyrics need to be set. But only the minimum number of technicalities should be covered; all alternative methods and all tweaks should remain in the new Notation Reference and simply referenced. What I would like to see somewhere in the documentation, perhaps in the learning manual, perhaps in the reference, is an overview of the different basic options, to help readers get the big picture before going into any detail. For the particular case of lyrics, I would like to see the following hierarchy of options shown - Attach the lyrics to some line of music * \addlyrics (point out that it's only useful in very simple settings) * \lyricsto - Explicitly specify the duration of each syllable For each of these options, such an overview would contain one simple example and references to other sections that contain more details. Before the discussion about GDP, my idea was that such an overview would perhaps be most suited as an introductory subsection to the section on lyrics in the reference manual, but following Graham's intentions with GDP, it might fit better into the learning manual. /Mats ___ lilypond-user mailing list lilypond-user@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user
Re: GDP - Learning Manuall Songs section
Trevor Daniels wrote: This is rather short at present, and I would like to extend it. The question is, by how much. I'd welcome your views on the suggestions below. In particular, is this too long? Does this cover too many/too few topics? I've been thinking about the Tutorial vs. the rest of the Learning Manual, and I think I finally have a good answer: the Tutorial should cover just enough material to allow people to write simple pieces using the Templates. The current tutorial is already 22 pages in the PDF, so I don't think we should be trying to stuff much more material in there. Modifying the templates is covered later on (in Putting it all together), or perhaps in Fundamental concepts. The exact division of the rest of the LM is still a bit in flux. Now that I finally have the Formatting and Rewriting jobs organized, I hope to spend more time thinking about the LM. I should have a better answer for you in a few days. Cheers, - Graham ___ lilypond-user mailing list lilypond-user@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user
Re: GDP - Learning Manuall Songs section
On 26.09.2007 (17:41), Graham Percival wrote: Trevor Daniels wrote: This is rather short at present, and I would like to extend it. The question is, by how much. I'd welcome your views on the suggestions below. In particular, is this too long? Does this cover too many/too few topics? I've been thinking about the Tutorial vs. the rest of the Learning Manual, and I think I finally have a good answer: the Tutorial should cover just enough material to allow people to write simple pieces using the Templates. Can I come in here with a small request? I agree that the Tutorial should be limited to what you say, but concerning the templates, I don't think it should be limited to just being able to copy a template and filling in the dotted lines. It would be much more useful if the templates were lavishly commented (following the principle give a man a fish vs. teach him to steal cattle). I know this is a question of time, but I also know that I would have progressed more quickly from quite confused, making lots of mistakes, to having a vague idea why this works and finally heureka! if every non-trivial step had been explained. I've actually started on something like that, and I'll be happy to contribute eventually. Eyolf ___ lilypond-user mailing list lilypond-user@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user
Re: GDP - Learning Manuall Songs section
Eyolf Østrem wrote: I've been thinking about the Tutorial vs. the rest of the Learning Manual, and I think I finally have a good answer: the Tutorial should cover just enough material to allow people to write simple pieces using the Templates. Can I come in here with a small request? I agree that the Tutorial should be limited to what you say, but concerning the templates, I don't think it should be limited to just being able to copy a template and filling in the dotted lines. It would be much more useful if the templates were lavishly commented (following the principle give a man a fish vs. teach him to steal cattle). The problem with lavish comments in the templates is that after users have used the template once, they'll want to delete the comments every time after that. IMO it's better to explain how to modify the templates in the docs, so that the templates are easier to use. I'm completely open to expanding the Learning Manual 4.1 Extending the templates, though. Was that section around when you were first using lilypond? If not, please take a look at it now. We could either explain that example more, or give a completely new example or two. Cheers, - Graham ___ lilypond-user mailing list lilypond-user@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user
