Re: Help getting started

[Mats Bengtsson]

Hopefully, the answer to most of your questions can be founds
in Chapter 4 "Changing defaults" of the manual.
Regarding the original question, look at
http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.2/Documentation/user/out-www/lilypond/Selecting-font-sizes.html#Selecting%20font%20sizes
especially the last line about predefined commands.
However, it may not be the note size but the distance between the
notes that's the bottle neck here. Unfortunately, that's a bit
trickier, but you can find some info at
http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.2/Documentation/user/out-www/lilypond/Horizontal-spacing.html#Horizontal%20spacing


Joe Neeman wrote:
> > I'm researching "how do I make a note head smaller" because I need to 
> > fit a few more notes on a line to keep it from going nuts and 
> > extending lines way past explicit "\break" commands.  I've googled and 
> > grep'd tons of documents, and I still don't know how to do it.  I've 
> > found possible solutions, but the syntax doesn't seem to work anywhere 
> > I place the commands.  I've tried searching the 
>
>
> \override Staff.NoteHead #'font-size = #-1.0
> This seems to work if you put it inside the \notes block. Its all in the 
> program reference, but it's a nightmare to sift through and it still 
> seems to require lots of trial and error. For example:
> 1) what do #' and # mean? They seem to get used a lot.
See
http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.2/Documentation/user/out-www/lilypond/Scheme-tutorial.html#Scheme%20tutorial

> 2) the Staff context here doesn't have to be created explicitly. What 
> sort of contexts get created implicitly and how long to they last?
Since notes are handles by the Voice contexts and Voice contexts
have to live in a Staff context, these two are created implicitly
as soon as you enter some music. See
http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.2/Documentation/user/out-www/lilypond/Interpretation-contexts.html#Interpretation%20contexts
with subsections.

> 3) what about << >>? If I use it within a \notes block, it seems to 
> create Voice contexts and combine them into a single staff. But what if 
> I have
> << \new Staff {blah} \new Staff {blah} >>
> or
> << \new Staff \new Voice {blah} \new Voice {blah} >>
> What do the << >> do in this situation?
> And is << \new Staff {\new Voice {blah} \new Voice {blah}} >> any 
> different from the example 2 lines ago?

See 
http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.2/Documentation/user/out-www/lilypond/Music-expressions-explained.html#Music%20expressions%20explained

I have a question to you; how can the manual be changed so that it is
easier to find the answer to your questions?

   /Mats