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4.1.4 Structure of a note entry

A note entry in LilyPond consists of a pitch, followed by a duration, optionally followed by one or more post-events. LilyPond post-events add things such as articulations, fingerings, string numbers, slurs, ties, and explanatory text.

The pitch may be explicitly defined using the current LilyPond input language as described in Note names in other languages. The pitch may be omitted. If the pitch is omitted, the pitch of the current note will be the same as the pitch of the previous note in the input file, see Durations. Note that neither ‘r’ nor ‘s’ (a spacer rest, see Invisible rests) is a pitch.

The duration includes a number and optionally one or more dots. If a duration is not explicitly defined, the duration of the current note will be the same as the duration of the previous note, chord, rest, or spacer rest, see Durations.

Post-events follow the note to which they are attached. Suppose we want to have an eighth note c’ with a fingering of 1, a tenuto articulation, a slur beginning with the note, a tie beginning with the note, and a text annotation. This can be accomplished as shown.

{ c'8-1--(~^\markup{"text annotation"} c' d') }

See also

Learning Manual: Ties and slurs, Articulations and dynamics, Adding text.

Notation Reference: Pitches, Rhythms, Expressive marks.