Help talk:Sheet music

Regarding a lilypond code generation tool

 * Sent to Wikitech mailing list

Last time I used lilypond, I used jEdit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/jEdit). It's not web-based, but it is open-source (GPLv2) and multi-platform (I run it on Windows and Linux). Its LilyPond plugin has a number of features (pdf generation; midi generation) and also a "virtual piano" to generate markup. See http://i.imgur.com/57wQ5op.png

If you're interested, here are some basic steps:
 * Download / install jedit from here: http://www.jedit.org/
 * Select Plugins -> Plugin Manager
 * Select the Install Tab. Select and download the LilyPondTool
 * Depending on platform, you may have to configure the LilyPond binary path. Go to Plugins -> Plugin Options -> LilyPondTool -> Commands

Previous incarnations of ideas

 * Song of the day

Work to be done

 * Category:Pages requiring musical examples
 * Category:Pages containing sheet music
 * Category:Texts with missing musical scores

The extension and documentation

 * mw:Extension:Score

You can learn more about Lilypond, the software that the Score extension uses, at: Their manuals:
 * http://www.lilypond.org/introduction.html
 * http://www.lilypond.org/manuals.html
 * http://www.lilypond.org/doc/v2.16/Documentation/notation/index.html

Is this information current?
None of this is discussion is signed. Is this information current? The edit history looks about 2 years old. Anything recent to add? --Outlier59 (talk) 03:04, 25 October 2015 (UTC)

Music continues without line or page break
Bar 19 in this piece in my sandbox begins a new page in original image (see image p 7). It would seem that a line or page break should automatically be rendered after bar 18, but the music instead continues off the page. Should a page break be forced? I tried experimenting with commands from the LilyPond help pages, but couldn't figure out how to solve the problem. Any help appreciated! Please also refer to my comments in section at end of music. Londonjackbooks (talk) 00:42, 30 November 2017 (UTC)
 * This is one of the problems with turning printed scores into "eScores" in the Wikisource way. It really depends on how purist one wants to be about page-breaks in a score. There is a lot of extra commands required to start a new page of a score that doesn't look like it's the start of a new score. See Cox and Box (complete)/Overture and Page:Cox and box 2.djvu/14 for how I did it that way. However, doing this means that a single sound file can't be generated for the whole piece of music. The alternative is to run the pages together in the mainspace page, which is what I did with Essentials in Conducting/Appendix B. Beeswaxcandle (talk) 08:27, 30 November 2017 (UTC)


 * Linebreak is forced with \break at the beginning of the bar, I usually try to match line breaks with the scan. As to pages. I actually feel we need to make a change to WS workflow for this. I am going to propose it after I am not a newbie at ws myself (at least I have to finish reading all the guidelines). Breaking pieces is just so bad. I have seen how the French do it: s:fr:Page:Berlioz_-_Traité_d’instrumentation_et_d’orchestration.djvu/123. IMHO, it absolutely makes sense. --Base (talk) 10:30, 30 November 2017 (UTC)


 * Hmm. When I added a tuplet (forgive if my wording is incorrect) to the piece—if I did it correctly—as suggested by Beeswaxcandle, it seemed to work out the kinks. Would it have to do with correct time? BWC, the 3/4 tuplet sounds much better. The string of e notes was originally much too slow! Hoping the rest of the score will continue without needing to break it up! Thanks both :) Londonjackbooks (talk) 11:34, 30 November 2017 (UTC)


 * (See above comment first) Music is running off the page again after the 27th bar. I sense (based on almost nothing) that the problem might lie this time in bar 24. Either with the fingering (which might not be fingering), or,— in the image it almost looks as though the second c (after c sharp) is a dotted note? At your leisure, as always :) Londonjackbooks (talk) 15:36, 30 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Londonjackbooks, You have heavily edited the page while I was playing around, so look here: User:Base/Pond. There was a problem with a triplet as well. I also added explicit line breaks to match the PDF (and some comments to be able to find anything). --Base (talk) 17:30, 30 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Yes. Sorry about that. I assumed that you and Beeswaxcandle would be editing during later hours while I sleep based on previous replies. I am committed to faithfully transcribing at least the melody before Christmas in my sandbox, and later hope to tackle the whole piece for Wikisource. You are probably aware that I am not too familiar with music :) I will take a serious look at your User page edits and compare—I appreciate your going through the trouble. Best, Londonjackbooks (talk) 19:04, 30 November 2017 (UTC)
 * (Please read above first) I believe your change did the trick. I also noted the flat addition that I missed. I added notes to the score, and have hit another bump, being that the rest (r8) currently in bar 30 (in my sandbox version) should be in bar 29 (refer), throwing things off again. I will take a break now from the music until I hear back from one or both of you. RL is calling. Londonjackbooks (talk) 20:49, 30 November 2017 (UTC)
 * The problem is that I am no musician either, so I do not have a judgement in this matter, only solutions :) Writing that bar as  certainly is a way to put that eighth rest in place, by referencing the bass clef notes it seems that those 8 sixteens notes should take the time of 6 (3 beats). And as there is no visible marking   /   do not give exactly the same effect. But as to whether this makes any sense I hope  Beeswaxcandle can answer. --Base (talk) 22:40, 30 November 2017 (UTC)


 * Doing this bar with \scaleDurations is pretty much the best way to do it. Other editions have put in tuplets to make the notes fit, but that appears to not be what Chopin intended. By the way, for consecutive notes of the same time value you only need to put it in on the first one. Every note after that will have the same value until you put another value on a note. Beeswaxcandle (talk) 04:41, 1 December 2017 (UTC)

Scores disabled?
At Oregon, My Oregon, which had a complete score transcription, I see a note "Musical scores are temporarily disabled." There's no explanation. Anybody know what's up? -Pete (talk) 02:49, 18 December 2020 (UTC)
 * The page itself is the smaller example. Maybe there's an easy explanation (aside). Perhaps it is even good news, and they are finally updating to a recent version of Lilypond? Ask this question at the Scriptorium? Oh, bad news - "the Score extension has been destroyed for some months now..." Still, perhaps a better directed question there would get a better statement of status re: Score extension and Lilypond. Shenme (talk) 03:08, 18 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the reply . I had a little trouble following. But I notice now that the score is rendering -- but the midi feature (IMO the most useful thing about having scores transcribed here) seems to have gone away. I'll bring it up at the Scriptorium if nobody here knows what's going on -- good idea. -Pete (talk) 20:13, 21 February 2021 (UTC)
 * Updated link to the Scriptorium discussion you mentioned: Scriptorium/Archives/2020-12 -Pete (talk) 20:22, 21 February 2021 (UTC)
 * See w:Help:Score and phab:T257066 for all the details. I'll update the help page here. There is some progress on the Phabricator task at about the time you last posted here so we might get something eventually. There is a current work-around which involves commenting out the %vorbis=1% (or %sound=1%) parameters (using the % signs as shown); but of course no new scores can be produced this way. A shame, I was doing something on the English Hymnal here (before a CU messed up), but that is also obviously on hold. Anyway, seems like there's not too much that can be done besides being patient. Cheers, RandomCanadian (talk) 05:44, 6 March 2021 (UTC)

Help with Index:Te Amo music.pdf
I'm working on transcribing this, and I've mostly got it but there are still a few issues. Thanks! —CalendulaAsteraceae (talk • contribs) 03:21, 10 November 2021 (UTC)
 * 1) On page 1, I can't figure out how to have a header and sound. Probably the issue is that I don't understand LilyPond MIDI notation?
 * 2) Also on page 1, can I have the piano intro and the subsequent vocal parts be in the same score, instead of separate scores?
 * 3) Once I've sorted these issues out, what should I do about transclusion?
 * 4) The way I handled the Cm6/E♭ chords was to just put the Cm6 chord. Does this seem reasonable?
 * 5) This isn't really a technical question, but if anyone wants to listen to a recording of this melody (albeit with different lyrics) and check if I've got the tempo about right, I'd appreciate that.
 * CalendulaAsteraceae: I’ve made a few changes, and there are still a few things to fix, but here are your answers:
 * You need a few more curly brackets; consult the manual.
 * They have been combined, and the otherwise blank lines overridden. There are a few tricks to show blank lines, which I’ll try to show later, but in the mean time, there are a few stray “d” notes.
 * The entire score is proofread from page 1; this is the only way known, unfortunately.
 * Although it does stretch the bar, you should put the slash chord when it’s there.
 * And I’ll check this later.
 * Thanks for working on the score! TE(æ)A,ea. (talk) 14:49, 10 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Thank you! —CalendulaAsteraceae (talk • contribs) 22:35, 10 November 2021 (UTC)

Multiple voices on one line
How should I input music where the piano part has multiple parts for one hand/chords that don't all have the same rhythm? An example of this (and the one I'm currently working on) is Page:New Math music.pdf/2. —CalendulaAsteraceae (talk • contribs) 11:45, 26 November 2021 (UTC)


 * Looks like there's an example at w:Help:Score; I can probably figure this one out. —CalendulaAsteraceae (talk • contribs) 20:59, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

Import from XML?
Is there any possibility to get a musical score encoded with GNU LilyPond or ABC markup syntax from existing xml format? A1 (talk) 08:36, 22 July 2022 (UTC)

'The Winding Walk'
After a painful few days, I've just proofread and put together - as someone who isn't a musician, I now feel like I've forced myself to take a music theory exam! As there are a few more pieces of sheet music coming up in future volumes of The Strand Magazine, I'd appreciate constructive feedback from someone who knows Lilypond, so that future transcriptions can be more 'correct'. Qq1122qq (talk) 09:38, 29 August 2022 (UTC)