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Staff symbol

The lines of a staff belong to the StaffSymbol grob. StaffSymbol properties can be modified to change the appearance of a staff, but they must be modified before the staff is created.

The number of staff lines may be changed. The clef position and the position of middle C may need to be modified to fit the new staff. For an explanation, refer to the snippet section in Clef.

     
     \new Staff \with {
       \override StaffSymbol #'line-count = #3
     }
     { d4 d d d }

[image of music]

The vertical position of staff lines and the number of staff lines can be defined at the same time. As the following example shows, note positions are not influenced by the staff line positions.

Note: The 'line-positions property overrides the 'line-count property. The number of staff lines is implicitly defined by the number of elements in the list of values for 'line-positions

     
     \new Staff \with {
       \override StaffSymbol #'line-positions = #'(7 3 0 -4 -6 -7)
     }
     { a4 e' f b | d1 }

[image of music]

Staff line thickness can be modified. The thickness of ledger lines and stems are also affected, since they depend on staff line thickness.

     
     \new Staff \with {
       \override StaffSymbol #'thickness = #3
     }
     { e4 d c b }

[image of music]

Ledger line thickness can be set independently of staff line thickness.

     
     \new Staff \with {
       \override StaffSymbol #'ledger-line-thickness = #'(1 . 0.2)
     }
     { e4 d c b }

[image of music]

The distance between staff lines can be changed. This setting has influence on ledger lines as well.

     
     \new Staff \with {
       \override StaffSymbol #'staff-space = #1.5
     }
     { a4 b c d }

[image of music]

The width of a staff can be modified. The unit is one staff space. The spacing of objects inside the staff is not influenced by this setting.

     
     \new Staff \with {
       \override StaffSymbol #'width = #23
     }
     { a4 e' f b | d1 }

[image of music]

Further details about the properties of StaffSymbol can be found here: staff-symbol-interface.

Modifications to staff properties in the middle of a score can be placed between \stopStaff and \startStaff:

     
     c2 c
     \stopStaff
     \override Staff.StaffSymbol #'line-count = #2
     \startStaff
     b2 b
     \stopStaff
     \revert Staff.StaffSymbol #'line-count
     \startStaff
     a2 a

[image of music]

Predefined commands

\startStaff, \stopStaff.

Selected Snippets

Making some staff lines thicker than the others

For pedagogical purposes, a staff line can be thickened (e.g., the middle line, or to emphasize the line of the G clef). This can be achieved by adding extra lines very close to the line that should be emphasized, using the line-positions property of the StaffSymbol object.

     
     {
       \override Staff.StaffSymbol #'line-positions = #'(-4 -2 -0.2 0 0.2 2 4)
       d'4 e' f' g'
     }

[image of music]

See also

Music Glossary: line, ledger line, staff.

Notation Reference: Displaying pitches.

Snippets: Staff notation.

Internals Reference: StaffSymbol, staff-symbol-interface.

Known issues and warnings

When setting vertical staff line positions manually, bar lines are always centered on position 0, so the maximum distance between the outermost bar lines in either direction must be equal.

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.

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