Lilypond is both a language and a computer program that can read music written in Lilypond (the language) and create a publishable PDF file with a perfectly engraved rendition of the music, complete with all the elements we guitarists usually want: left- and right-hand fingerings, string numbers, chord diagrams and chord names, and that must-have feature especially for those who don’t read standard notation — tablature.

Don’t let the word “language” put you off. No, you don’t need to be a computer programmer to understand and use Lilypond. It’s not anywhere near as complicated as a general-purpose programming language such as C++ or Java.

In fact, Lilypond isn’t really a programming language at all. Think of it instead as a scripting tool, a simple means by which you can have a conversation with a computer — in this case, a dialog specifically about a song you want the computer to nicely and neatly engrave.

Writing music with Lilypond is similar to writing computer code only in that you use a common text editor for input. In plain text, you write down your song’s notes and chords, a title, your name perhaps as composer, and details such as fingerings and string numbers using easily learned conventions that may seem cryptic at first, but in time will make better sense.

Let’s take a look at a few simple scores so you can begin to understand LilyPond’s ways. Here’s a simple engraving of a C Major scale that I created using LilyPond:

Here’s the entire LilyPond script that created the engraved image (minus a version statement that doesn’t interest us here):

Try to match up the text with the image, but don’t be concerned with understanding everything at first. Indentation helps organize the parts of a LilyPond score in text form. You could write the entire score on one line and the results will be the same, but the text will not be as easy to read.

Braces { and } enclose the contents of a new Staff containing a clef declaration, and stating that the music is relative to the note C. Finally the scale notes in lowercase inside a second pair of braces {c, d, e, …​} are listed between vertical bars that resemble the bars of the engraved score’s measures.

The "8" in treble_8 and just below the clef in the engraved score indicate that, if this tune is to be played similarly on a piano, the notes must be lowered one octave because a guitar’s middle C is the same frequency as C below middle C on the piano.

LilyPond needs to know in which octave to position your music. That’s what the relative statement does.

Need tabs in your score? Here’s the same scale in a tablature staff showing the notes to play on the guitar fretboard.

The text for the tablature engraving is almost the same as for the standard staff:

All I did was take out the clef statement and change Staff to TabStaff. The notes are identical.

As you probably know, most guitar scores join the staves together and align the notes. Here’s the finished score. Looking good!

Reading through LilyPond scores in text form is probably the best way to learn to speak LP.

Still, some of the conventions and syntax rules can take a bit of pondering to understand. One reason for its cryptic reputation is that Lilypond is a terse language. But that’s good. It’s kind of like the ultimate shorthand for jotting down, with precision, all the elements of a song — a repeated section, for example, alternate endings, coda, the key, time signatures, stuff like ties and rests, chord diagrams, and on and on.

All such common elements are simple and easy to specify. I just tell Lilypond that I want a rest here and a tie there, and it figures out how best to engrave the end result. It can even handle multi-verse lyrics. Unlike with other programs, with Lilypond, I never have to deal with any drawing commands or graphics objects at all!

For a real life example, follow this link to view the entire text of my Happy Birthday score from the beginning of the article:

Happy Birthday Source: View

To compile the sample source code and produce a PDF document of the score, install the software if necessary, go into source/ and type lilypond plus the source-code .ly filename. If all goes well, open the resulting PDF file to see the finished score (here, I use the command-line xdg-open, which opens any file in the preferred application).

Honestly, I don’t understand why music publishers continue to use the other programs I mentioned such as Finale and Sibelius. Capable as they are, they are all in the end graphics drawing programs. With those and similar CAD (Computer Aided Design) systems, you are forced to think in terms of graphics and typesetting objects and rules.

With Lilypond, however, you instead think in terms that are probably more familiar to you — musical terms. You don’t deal with notes as graphics shapes. You simply write down what the notes are. Lilypond knows what they’re supposed to look like.

Can you tell? I love LilyPond!

Website: https://www.tomswan.com

GitHub: https://github.com/TomSwan/why-i-love-lilypond

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