Beam larger note values in LilyPond

Question

Here is some sample input:

\relative c'' {
  \key g \minor
  d8^[ c]
}

This works as expected, beaming the two eighth notes together:

When I do this with half notes, I get the following instead:

\relative c'' {
  \key g \minor
  d2^[ c]
}

when I want this:

How do I manually beam notes greater than an eighth note in duration?

Answer 1

If you simply want the eighth-notes to be hollow then use this

\relative c'' {
  \key g \minor
  \override NoteHead.duration-log = #1
  d8^[ c]
}

the notes still take up the same length as a regular eighth.

If you want them spaced as half notes you might need something like this

\relative c'' {
  \key g \minor
  \override NoteHead.duration-log = #1
  d8^[ s4. c8] s4.
}

D

Answer 2

That's very similar to the symbol for a tremolo repeat, eighth notes (quavers) of C and D, taking up the total time of a half note (minim). In LilyPond you would write:

\repeat tremolo 2 {d8 c}

But in you image you have that symbol taking up a full bar in 4/4 time, which is a whole note (semibreve) long. If you really want it to take up this amount of time you would have to distort the duration of the notes like this:

\repeat tremolo 2 {d8*2 c}