align notes vertically disregarding their duration

Question

I am trying to make a book page for explaining different notes and their durations. What I currently get is this:

How can I align the notes vertically? (i.e., spacing in each line should be as in the first.)

Hint: I need some space on the right side to add explanatory text/images. That's why I chose ragged-right to be #t, but there might be other options.

---

Here is my code:

\version "2.20.0"

\paper {
  indent = #0
}

\bookpart { 
  \score {
    \relative {
      c'1 d e f g a b c r \break
      c,2. d e f g a b c r \break
      c,2 d e f g a b c r \break
      c,4. d e f g a b c r \break
      c,4 d e f g a b c r \break
      c,8 d e[ f] g_[ a b] c r \break
      }
    \layout {
      ragged-right = ##t
      \context {
        \Staff
        \remove "Time_signature_engraver"
        \remove "Clef_engraver"
        \remove "Bar_engraver"
        %\remove "Staff_symbol_engraver"
      }
      \context {
        \Score
        \remove "Bar_number_engraver"
      }
    }
  }
}

---

One way I tried was this:

1. add time signatures so that each note has its own measure.
2. Utilizing this snippet to force the width of all measures to be equal.

But the notes were still not aligned: Notes of different duration have a different distance from the left end of their measure.

---

I also tried this, i.e. I added

\override Score.SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t
\override Score.SpacingSpanner.shortest-duration-space = #8
\override Score.SpacingSpanner.base-shortest-duration = #(ly:make-moment 1/8)

or any subset of these three lines into my Score context. But it did not change a thing.

Answer 1

1. The first problem is the ragged-right = ##t, which tells LilyPond that each line can be a different length. Removing that line (or setting ragged-right = ##f) will force each line span the full width of the page.

2. Since leftover space is needed for text, the lengths of the staves can be controlled by setting the line-width property in the \score's \layout section

3. To get the proper spacing between notes, add

\newSpacingSection
\override Score.SpacingSpanner.spacing-increment = #X

I played around with values of X and at which points they were needed. The best results I got are reflected in the code below.

4. To get the eighth notes to align, add \override SpacingSpanner.uniform-stretching = ##t to the score layout context.

---

Full code solution

\version "2.20.0"

\paper {
  indent = #0
}

\bookpart { 
  \score {
    \relative {

      \newSpacingSection
      \override Score.SpacingSpanner.spacing-increment = #2
      c'1 d e f g a b c r \break
      c,2. d e f g a b c r \break
      c,2 d e f g a b c r \break

      \newSpacingSection
      \override Score.SpacingSpanner.spacing-increment = #4
      c,4. d e f g a b c r \break
      c,4 d e f g a b c r \break
      c,8 d e[ f] g_[ a b] c r \break
      }

    \layout {
      ragged-right = ##f
      line-width = 125
      \context {
        \Staff
        \remove "Bar_engraver"
        \remove "Time_signature_engraver"
        \remove "Clef_engraver"
        %\remove "Staff_symbol_engraver"
      }
      \context {
        \Score
        \remove "Bar_number_engraver"
        \override SpacingSpanner.uniform-stretching = ##t
      }
    }
  }
}

Answer 2

This is just a partial answer. Maybe someone can complete it?

The idea is to always use whole notes (so the spacing algorithm will align them vertically), but to tweak them so that they look like half/quarter/etc notes.

Like this:

\relative {
  % line of whole notes
  c'1 d e f g a b c r \break

  % line of whole notes with duration of half notes
  \tweak duration-log #1 c,1
  \tweak duration-log #1 d
  \tweak duration-log #1 e
  \tweak duration-log #1 f
  \tweak duration-log #1 g
  \tweak duration-log #1 a
  \tweak duration-log #1 b
  \tweak duration-log #1 c
  \tweak duration-log #1 r \break
  
  % line of half notes
  c,2 d e f g a b c r \break
  
  % ...
  }

It produces this:

Spacing seems to work with this method.

But how can I add stems, flags (for 8th notes) and punctuation?

Answer 3

I think you want to create a multi-staff system. In the notation application I have used the spacing will be automatic and even within a measure between the staves.

If you really want to do it only in Lilypond, these two pages seem to be the references to work from:

http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.20/Documentation/learning/multiple-staves

...and then maybe adapt this template...

http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.20/Documentation/learning/string-quartet

I use Musescore. I took me only a few minutes to create this...

...which I think is what you want.

There are some tweaks to hide the time signature, add many extra beats to make it look unmeasured, and use one line percussion clefs/staves so that it's really just a bunch of note values lined up. But the main point is get all the parts in one system and the software should handle the lining up vertically by default.

---

Depending on the software there can be various controls to override default rhythmic spacing. In Musescore the "inspector" panel has an "offset" which can move elements horizontally...

...it very, very tedious to move things out of the default alignment. The software doesn't want to do it, because the result it contrary to good, readable rhythm alignment. Above I only re-aligned the first two notes to demonstrate it can be done.

You can say the lesson is not about rhythm, but the problem you've encountered in software is entirely about rhythm notation and spacing conventions. I don't really see the connection between your color coded xylophone description and the rhythm/spacing problem. But it seems clear you're working against the notation software.

I don't mean to be sarcastic, but drawing a picture, free hand, on paper might make clear what you want. I can't visualize the whole xylophone, color coded, rhythm notation re-aligned from your written description.

I have the sense that it might be easier to get what you want by doing a lot of the work outside of the notation software in an image editor. The screenshot below is not the best example, but if you drop the initial notation into an image editor you can cut/paste/stretch things in a purely visual way...

...you could assemble the notation elements like that then move it into some desktop publishing application to do the rest.