<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <!-- header_tag --> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>Multiple staves - GNU LilyPond Learning Manual</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <meta name="description" content="GNU LilyPond Learning Manual"> <meta name="generator" content="makeinfo 4.11"> <link title="Top" rel="start" href="index.html#Top"> <link rel="up" href="Multiple-notes-at-once.html#Multiple-notes-at-once" title="Multiple notes at once"> <link rel="prev" href="Music-expressions-explained.html#Music-expressions-explained" title="Music expressions explained"> <link rel="next" href="Staff-groups.html#Staff-groups" title="Staff groups"> <link href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/" rel="generator-home" title="Texinfo Homepage"> <!-- Copyright (C) 1999--2007 by the authors Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections. 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If the score begins with simultaneous music expressions, LilyPond creates multiples staves. However, it is easier to see what happens if we create each staff explicitly. <p>To print more than one staff, each piece of music that makes up a staff is marked by adding <code>\new Staff</code> before it. These <code>Staff</code> elements are then combined in parallel with <code><<</code> and <code>>></code>: <blockquote> <pre class="verbatim"> \relative c'' { << \new Staff { \clef treble c } \new Staff { \clef bass c,, } >> } </pre> <p> <a href="../3b/lily-469687b9.ly"> <img align="middle" border="0" src="../3b/lily-469687b9.png" alt="[image of music]"> </a> </p> </blockquote> <p>The command <code>\new</code> introduces a ‘notation context.’ A notation context is an environment in which musical events (like notes or <code>\clef</code> commands) are interpreted. For simple pieces, such notation contexts are created automatically. For more complex pieces, it is best to mark contexts explicitly. <p>There are several types of contexts. <code>Score</code>, <code>Staff</code>, and <code>Voice</code> handle melodic notation, while <code>Lyrics</code> sets lyric texts and <code>ChordNames</code> prints chord names. <p>In terms of syntax, prepending <code>\new</code> to a music expression creates a bigger music expression. In this way it resembles the minus sign in mathematics. The formula (4+5) is an expression, so -(4+5) is a bigger expression. <p>Time signatures entered in one staff affects all other staves by default. On the other hand, the key signature of one staff does <em>not</em> affect other staves. This different default behavior is because scores with transposing instruments are more common than polyrhythmic scores. <blockquote> <pre class="verbatim"> \relative c'' { << \new Staff { \clef treble \key d \major \time 3/4 c } \new Staff { \clef bass c,, } >> } </pre> <p> <a href="../60/lily-b4fc1932.ly"> <img align="middle" border="0" src="../60/lily-b4fc1932.png" alt="[image of music]"> </a> </p> </blockquote> <!-- footer_tag --><br><hr> <div class="node"> <p> Next: <a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Staff-groups.html#Staff-groups">Staff groups</a>, Previous: <a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="Music-expressions-explained.html#Music-expressions-explained">Music expressions explained</a>, Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="Multiple-notes-at-once.html#Multiple-notes-at-once">Multiple notes at once</a> </div> <div style="background-color: #e8ffe8; padding: 2; border: #c0ffc0 1px solid;"> <p> <font size="-1"> This page is for LilyPond-2.11.57 (development-branch). <br> <address> Report errors to <a href="http://post.gmane.org/post.php?group=gmane.comp.gnu.lilypond.bugs">http://post.gmane.org/post.php?group=gmane.comp.gnu.lilypond.bugs</a>. </address> <br> Your <a href="http://lilypond.org/web/devel/participating/documentation-adding">suggestions for the documentation</a> are welcome. </font> </p> </div> <P> Other languages: <a href="Multiple-staves.fr.html">français</a>, <a href="Multiple-staves.es.html">español</a>, <a href="Multiple-staves.de.html">deutsch</a>. <BR> </P> </BODY></html>