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In some cases it may be necessary to override the automatic
beaming algorithm. For example, the autobeamer will not put beams
over rests or bar lines, and in choral scores the beaming is
often set to follow the meter of the lyrics rather than the
notes. Such beams can be specified manually by
marking the begin and end point with [
and ]
{ r4 r8[ g' a r8] r8 g[ | a] r8 }
Individual notes may be marked with \noBeam
to prevent them
from being beamed:
\time 2/4 c8 c\noBeam c c
Even more strict manual control with the beams can be achieved by
setting the properties stemLeftBeamCount
and
stemRightBeamCount
. They specify the number of beams to
draw on the left and right side, respectively, of the next note.
If either property is set, its value will be used only once, and
then it is erased. In this example, the last f
is printed
with only one beam on the left side, i.e., the eighth-note beam of
the group as a whole.
a8[ r16 f g a] a8[ r16 \set stemLeftBeamCount = #2 \set stemRightBeamCount = #1 f \set stemLeftBeamCount = #1 g a]
Flat flags and beam nibs
Flat flags on lone notes and beam nibs at the ends of beamed figures
are both possible with a combination of stemLeftBeamCount
,
stemRightBeamCount
and paired [ ]
beam indicators.
For right-pointing flat flags on lone notes, use paired [ ]
beam
indicators and set stemLeftBeamCount
to zero (see Example 1).
For left-pointing flat flags, set stemRightBeamCount
instead
(Example 2).
For right-pointing nibs at the end of a run of beamed notes, set
stemRightBeamCount
to a positive value. And for left-pointing
nibs at the start of a run of beamed notes, set
stemLeftBeamCount
instead (Example 3).
Sometimes it may make sense for a lone note surrounded by rests to
carry both a left- and right-pointing flat flag. Do this with paired
[ ]
beam indicators alone (Example 4).
(Note that \set stemLeftBeamCount
is always equivalent to
\once \set
. In other words, the beam count settings aren't
"sticky", so the pair of flat flags attached to the lone c'16
[ ]
in the last example have nothing to do with the \set
two
notes prior.)
\score { << % Example 1 \new RhythmicStaff { \set stemLeftBeamCount = #0 c'16 [ ] r8. } % Example 2 \new RhythmicStaff { r8. \set stemRightBeamCount = #0 c'16 [ ] } % Example 3 \new RhythmicStaff { c'16 c'16 \set stemRightBeamCount = #2 c'16 r16 r16 \set stemLeftBeamCount = #2 c'16 c'16 c'16 } % Example 4 \new RhythmicStaff { c'16 c'16 \set stemRightBeamCount = #2 c'16 r16 c'16 [ ] r16 \set stemLeftBeamCount = #2 c'16 c'16 } >> }