How to set a simple song with a refrain, in LilyPond

Question

I have been fiddling around for a whole day now — trying to set a correct LilyPond notation. While I found with trial and error, that I could display all tones and vocals, I am not able to get the correct timings (and tones), so I have a few questions.

1. How can I get the right bars and times? It seems that LilyPond sets some weird timings for example with 9/8 timing, and whatever I do I can't get the bars (or the vocals) to the right places.

2. How can I correctly separate the refrain from the main text? The score is without a break and I didn't manage to find the structure for a simple song.

3. Does anyone know, what the right English notation I have to write is, for example when I try to display an "h"? I've tried it with a "b" but it seems, it displays always one octave deeper.

4. The timing is weird, for example on bar 5, there is more than 4/4 tact, and on bar #7 I can't figure out, what is happening at all.

5. I try to get a simple framework to convert my songs to LilyPond, therefore I tried to make it as simple as possible, but until now I had no luck.

Here is what I have found out until now:

\version "2.18.2"
\include "predefined-guitar-fretboards.ly"

verseI = \lyricmode {
  \set stanza = #"1."
  Ach was
  wird denn mei -- ne Mut -- ter  
  sa -- gen wenn 
  ich einst kehr zu    rück?
}
verseII = \lyricmode {
  \set stanza = #"2."
  Und wenn  
  ich dann ei -- nen Voll -- bart 
  ha -- be mein 
  Sohn was bist jetzt    Du?
}
theChords = \chordmode {
   s4  g1  c1  d1  g1
}
staffMelody = \relative c' {
   \key d \major
   \clef treble
   \time 4/4
   \override Score.BarNumber.break-visibility = #'#(#t #t #t)
   \set Score.currentBarNumber = #1
   % Permit first bar number to be printed
   \bar ""
 \partial 4 a8 d8 
 fis4 fis8 fis8 fis8 g4 fis8 
 e4 b2 b'4 
 f4.  f4 f4 f8
 fis2 r4 r4
 f8
}
theChordsRefrain = \chordmode {
   a d   g1  c1  d1  g1 d g 
}
RefrainI = \lyricmode {
 \set stanza = #"2."
 Ich bin \bar ":|"  Po 
 lier, fi -- de -- ri, fi -- de 
 ra, sauf nur noch 
 Bier -- fi -- de -- ri -- fi -- de 
 ra -- ich bin Po 
 lier, sauf nur noch 
 Bier, ich 
 bin Po 
}
staffRefrain = \relative c' {
  \key d \major
  \clef treble
  \time 4/4
  r2  a2 d2 e2      
 \bar  ".|:-||"
 fis4 fis8 fis8 fis4 fis8 fis8  
 fis4 fis4 g4 fis4                                  
 e4  b8 b8   b4  b8 b8                         
 b b4 b4 b4                     
 b2. b8                     % lier sauf 
 b2. b8                     % nur noch
 b8  \bar  ":|."            % Bier Ich
 b8  b8 b4                  % bin Po 
}
\score {
{
  <<
   \context ChordNames { \theChords }
   \new Staff {
     \context Voice = "voiceMelody" { \staffMelody }     
   }
   \new Lyrics = "lyricsI" {
   \lyricsto "voiceMelody" \verseI
   }
   \new Lyrics = "lyricsII" {
   \lyricsto "voiceMelody" \verseII
 }
 >>
  <<
  \context ChordNames { \theChordsRefrain }
   %\new Staff {
     \context Voice = "voiceMelody" { \staffRefrain }    
   %}  % Dont know
   \new Lyrics = "RefrainI" {
   \lyricsto "voiceMelody" \RefrainI
   }
   >>
   }
}
\layout { }
\midi { }

---

Addendum:

With the help of Alephzero, I managed now to display a better notation:

....
\score {
  <<
   \context ChordNames { \theChords \theChordsRefrain }
   \new Staff {
     \context Voice = "voiceMelody" { \staffMelody \staffRefrain }
   }
   <<
   \new Lyrics = "lyricsI" {
   \lyricsto "voiceMelody" \lyricmode { \verseI \RefrainI }
   }
   \new Lyrics = "lyricsI" {
      \lyricsto "voiceMelody" \lyricmode { \verseI \RefrainII }
   }
   \new Lyrics = "lyricsI" {
   \lyricsto "voiceMelody" \lyricmode { \verseI \RefrainIII }
   }
      \new Lyrics = "lyricsI" {
   \lyricsto "voiceMelody" \lyricmode { \verseI \RefrainIV }
   }
   >>
   \new Lyrics = "lyricsII" {
   \lyricsto "voiceMelody" \lyricmode { \verseII }
   }
      \new Lyrics = "lyricsIII" {
   \lyricsto "voiceMelody" \lyricmode { \verseIII }
   }
      \new Lyrics = "lyricsIV" {
   \lyricsto "voiceMelody" \lyricmode { \verseIV }
   }
 >>
}
....

Two questions remain:

1. How can I place the chords not only at the boundary of the bars?
2. How can I write the first lyric only once, and not (because it is the same) 4 times?

I attached the new progress (It is not fully correct since it is only an example)

Answer 1

I think there is a fundamental problem with the way you tried to do this. You defined \context Voice = "voiceMelody" inside the first << ... >> but then tried to reference voiceMelody inside the second << ... >>.

In Lilypond version 18 this seems to crash the program, which is (by definition) a bug, because it should be impossible to cause a crash by supplying the wrong input. But even if it didn't crash, I don't think it wouldn't have done what you wanted.

The easiest way is to create one score that contains both the verse and the chorus, something like this:

% Delete the "f8" at the end of staffMelody
% No other changes from the start until...

RefrainI = \lyricmode {
 \set stanza = #"Chorus"
 Ich bin  Po
 lier, fi -- de -- ri, fi -- de
 ra, sauf nur noch
 Bier -- fi -- de -- ri -- fi -- de
 ra -- ich bin Po
 lier, sauf nur noch
 Bier, ich
 bin Po
}
staffRefrain = \relative c' {
  r2  a2 d2 e2
 \repeat volta 2 {
 fis4 fis8 fis8 fis4 fis8 fis8
 fis4 fis4 g4 fis4
 e4  b8 b8   b4  b8 b8
 b b4 b4 b4
 b2. b8                     % lier sauf
 b2. b8                         % nur noch
 b8                  % Bier Ich
 }
 b8  b8 b4                      % bin Po
}
\score {
  <<
   \context ChordNames { \theChords \theChordsRefrain }
   \new Staff {
     \context Voice = "voiceMelody" { \staffMelody \staffRefrain }
   }
   \new Lyrics = "lyricsI" {
   \lyricsto "voiceMelody" \lyricmode { \verseI \RefrainI }
   }
   \new Lyrics = "lyricsII" {
   \lyricsto "voiceMelody" \lyricmode { \verseII }
   }
 >>
}

There are several mistakes in the rhythms, but you should be able to fix those. If you write a | character at the end of every bar, Lilypond will give an error message if the length of the notes in the bar don't add up to the correct amount. The reason you got "weird timings" is because Lilypond doesn't care if you write a long note that would continue past the bar line into the next bar - in early music notation (15th and 16th century) music was intentionally written like that, instead of the modern notation using tied notes.

Note, also I changed your attempt at writing a repeat into the standard way to do that, using \repeat volta.