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Note: New users are sometimes confused about accidentals and
key signatures. In LilyPond, note names are the raw input; key
signatures and clefs determine how this raw input is displayed.
An unaltered note like c means ‘C natural’,
regardless of the key signature or clef. For more information,
see Accidentals and key signatures.
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The key signature indicates the tonality in which a piece is played. It is denoted by a set of alterations (flats or sharps) at the start of the staff. The key signature may be altered:
\key pitch mode
Here, mode should be \major
or \minor
to get a
key signature of pitch-major or pitch-minor,
respectively. You may also use the standard mode names, also
called church modes: \ionian
, \dorian
,
\phrygian
, \lydian
, \mixolydian
,
\aeolian
, and \locrian
.
\key g \major fis1 f fis
Preventing natural signs from being printed when the key signature changes
When the key signature changes, natural signs are automatically printed
to cancel any accidentals from previous key signatures. This may be
prevented by setting to "false" the printKeyCancellation
property in the Staff
context.
\relative c' { \key d \major a4 b cis d \key g \minor a4 bes c d \set Staff.printKeyCancellation = ##f \key d \major a4 b cis d \key g \minor a4 bes c d }
Non-traditional key signatures
The commonly used \key
command sets the keySignature
property, in the Staff
context.
To create non-standard key signatures, set this property directly. The format of this command is a list:
\set Staff.keySignature = #`(((octave . step) . alter) ((octave
. step) . alter) ...)
where, for each element in the list,
octave
specifies the octave (0 being the octave from middle C to
the B above), step
specifies the note within the octave (0 means
C and 6 means B), and alter
is ,SHARP ,FLAT ,DOUBLE-SHARP
etc. (Note the leading comma.)
Alternatively, for each item in the list, using the more concise format
(step . alter)
specifies that the same alteration should hold in
all octaves.
Here is an example of a possible key signature for generating a whole-tone scale:
\relative c' { \set Staff.keySignature = #`(((0 . 3) . ,SHARP) ((0 . 5) . ,FLAT) ((0 . 6) . ,FLAT)) c4 d e fis aes4 bes c2 }
Music Glossary: church mode, scordatura.
Learning Manual: Accidentals and key signatures.
Snippets: Pitches.
Internals Reference: KeyChangeEvent, Key_engraver, Key_performer, KeyCancellation, KeySignature, key-cancellation-interface, key-signature-interface.
This page is for LilyPond-2.11.58 (development-branch).
Report errors to http://post.gmane.org/post.php?group=gmane.comp.gnu.lilypond.bugs.
Your suggestions for the documentation are welcome.