ukulele-template.ly

% Template for ukulele tablature
% by Thomas Preece
% Licence: CC0 / public domain

% This is a very quick primer in how to use Lilypond for ukulele tabs. It covers the very
% basics - play around with it, make changes and see what happens!

% To get started, open this file in Frescobaldi. You should see the code on the left and a
% blank space on the right. If you press Ctrl+M (Windows or Linux - I'm assuming it's Cmd+M
% on a Mac but don't know for sure), or choose Lilypond -> Engrave (Preview) from the menu, 
% it will engrave the document and display it in the space on the right.

% You probably figured that the character "%" starts a comment. Comments are there to 
% remind us what we're doing, and are ignored by Lilypond. You can put them in wherever
% you like. The rest of the comments explain what's going on with the code.


% Here we tell Lilypond which version we're using. This is sort of optional
% but recommended, and you'll get a warning if you don't include it. It
% prevents someone trying to compile the music with a too-old version. Don't
% worry about it. :)
\version "2.18.2"

% Here we tell Lilypond that we want to use English names for notes. Valid notes are:
% c  d  e  f  g  a  b (naturals)
% cs ds es fs gs as bs (sharps)
% cf df ef ff gf af bf (flats)
\include "english.ly"

% Here we tell Lilypond what our piece is called etc.
\header {
  title = "Title of the Piece"
  subtitle = ""
  composer = "Composer of the Piece"
  arranger = "arr Your Name Here"
  tagline = ""
}

% Here we set our paper size and staff size. If you're American, you'll probably want
% to change the paper size to "letter". Make the staff size number smaller or larger
% to change the size of the printed music.
#(set-default-paper-size "a4")
#(set-global-staff-size 22)

% This is where we enter the music for our piece. There are a few things going on here:
% 1. We assign the music to the name "piece". This means that when we want to print it out
%    (later in the document), we use this name to refer to it. This saves typing it in twice
%    for both staff and tab.
% 2. We transpose the music up one octave. This is because the default octave in Lilypond is
%    one octave too low for the ukulele. This means that the note "c" is now the lowest note
%    on the uke.
piece = \transpose c c' {
  
  % Enter the key signature and time signature for your piece of music.
  % These should be fairly self explanatory. Note that "\time 4/4" is rendered as a "C" for
  % common time - there is an option to change it to numbers if you want, but it doesn't
  % really matter.
  \key c \major
  \time 4/4
  
  % A tempo marking is optional. Here we say that a note of duration "4" (ie, a quarter note)
  % is 120 beats per minute.
  \tempo 4 = 120
  
  % Now we enter the music! Let's start with a C major scale.
  % The "4" after the first c means that this note, and all the notes that follow it until
  % we change, should be quarter notes.
  % The last note is c' - this means c an octave higher.
  % We tell Lilypond which notes we want, and it calculates the tab for us.
  c4 d e f g a b c'
  
  % Notice that you can click on notes in the preview (right-hand pane), and it will
  % highlight the relevant line in the code.
  
  % This puts in a double bar. I'm using this to make the different sections clearer in the
  % output. You'll see this below as well.
  \bar "||"
  
  % We can extend our scale to the next octave. This time let's use eighth notes.
  c'8 d' e' f' g' a' b' c''
  \bar "||"
  
  % Now let's have another scale with some weird timings.
  c1 d2 e4 f g8 a b4 c'2
  \bar "||"
  
  % It's good practice to include "bar checks" - enter a pipe at the end of each bar. If you
  % entered the music wrong, you'll get a warning when you compile it.
  c4 d e f | g a b c' |
  \bar "||"
  
  % You can specify which string to put the note on by adding the string number afterwards. 
  % Lilypond isn't smart enough to know how to put notes on the ukulele's high G string,
  % so when you want a note there, you have to do it manually.
  % The strings are numbered starting at the highest - ie:
  % A => \1
  % B => \2
  % C => \3
  % g => \4
  % Here the scale climbs up the g string, instead of the A string.
  c4 d e f | g\4 a\4 b\4 c'\4 |
  \bar "||"
  
  % Obviously you want to put the notes on sensible strings - ie, not like this:
  % (Note that saying a\1 is redundant, as it'll put the note on string 1 anyway).
  c d e f\3 | g\3 a\1 b\4 c'\3 |
  \bar "||"
  
  % If you want to play multiple notes at the same time, enclose them in <angle brackets>
  % You have to tell it which string to put each note on - it's not usually smart enough to
  % figure it out for itself. The note duration goes after the whole chord.
  <c\3 e\2 g\4 c'\1>1
  \bar "||"
  
  % To do dotted rhythms, just add the dot after the note duration.
  c4. d8 e4. f8 | g4. a8 b4. c'8 |
  
  % For accidentals, just enter the name of the note. Note that each note is independent - if
  % you say fs (F sharp), but then f (F natural) later in the bar, it will be rendered as an
  % F natural. If you want them both to be F sharps, put fs for both. As G sharp and A flat
  % are the same note, they are both assigned to the same fret in the tab.
  cs4 d ef fs | gs af bf c' |
  \bar "||"
  
  % To change the key, just use the \key command again. Let's change to G major.
  \key g \major
  g a b c' d' e' f' g' |
  \bar "||"
  
  % That's not what we wanted - G major has an F sharp in it, but remember that f always means
  % F natural, and fs always means F sharp. Let's try that again.
  
  g a b c' d' e' fs' g' | % That's better
  
  % Finish the piece with a nice double bar.
  \bar "|."
}

% The rest of this is just boilerplate to tell Lilypond that we want to see a staff and a
% tab staff of the same music. Notice how we can say "\piece" to refer to the music we
% entered above, rather than having to type it out twice.

\score {
  <<
    \new StaffGroup \with {
      instrumentName = #"Ukulele"
      shortInstrumentName = #"Uke"
    } <<
      \new Staff \with {
      } \new Voice \with {
        \remove New_fingering_engraver
        \remove Dynamic_engraver
        \remove Text_engraver
      } \piece
      \new TabStaff \with {
        stringTunings = #ukulele-tuning
        \tabFullNotation
      } \piece
    >>
  >>
}