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Dynamics placement

Dynamic markings will normally be positioned beneath the staff, but may be positioned above with the \dynamicUp command. They will be positioned vertically relative to the note to which they are attached, and will float below (or above) all within-staff objects such as phrasing slurs and bar numbers. This can give quite acceptable results, as this example shows:

\relative {
  \clef "bass"
  \key aes \major
  \time 9/8
  \dynamicUp
  bes4.~\f\< \( bes4 bes8 des4\ff\> c16 bes\! |
  ees,2.~\)\mf ees4 r8 |
}

However, if the notes and attached dynamics are close together the automatic placement will avoid collisions by displacing later dynamic markings further away, but this may not be the optimum placement, as this rather artificial example shows:

\dynamicUp
\relative { a'4\f b\mf a\mp b\p }

Should a similar situation arise in ‘real’ music, it may be preferable to space out the notes a little further, so the dynamic markings can all fit at the same vertical distance from the staff. We were able to do this for markup text by using the \textLengthOn command, but there is no equivalent command for dynamic marks. So we shall have to work out how to do this using \override commands.