Like David said earlier, you actually have 2 implicit scores.
\version "2.22.2" % score 1 that yields the warning and prints nothing (hence no key signature) \key d \major % score 2 { a } This works: \version "2.22.2" \relative { \key d \major a } From: lilypond-user <lilypond-user-bounces+david.santamauro=gmail....@gnu.org> on behalf of Andrew Musselman <andrew.mussel...@gmail.com> Date: Friday, June 3, 2022 at 1:16 PM To: lilypond-user@gnu.org <lilypond-user@gnu.org> Subject: Re: Key and tie questions As for the key signature, I am still seeing nothing about key in the pdf when I do this to remove all complexity: \version "2.22.2" \key d \major { a } Log says: $ lilypond -f pdf the-mountain.ly<http://the-mountain.ly> GNU LilyPond 2.22.2 (running Guile 2.2) Processing `the-mountain.ly<http://the-mountain.ly>' Parsing... Interpreting music... the-mountain.ly:2:1: warning: skipping zero-duration score \key d \major the-mountain.ly:2:1: warning: to suppress this, consider adding a spacer rest \key d \major Interpreting music... Preprocessing graphical objects... Finding the ideal number of pages... Fitting music on 1 page... Drawing systems... Converting to `the-mountain.pdf'... Success: compilation successfully completed On Fri, Jun 3, 2022 at 10:09 AM Andrew Musselman <andrew.mussel...@gmail.com<mailto:andrew.mussel...@gmail.com>> wrote: Okay subtle but I do see the difference; thank you On Fri, Jun 3, 2022 at 10:07 AM David Kastrup <d...@gnu.org<mailto:d...@gnu.org>> wrote: Andrew Musselman <andrew.mussel...@gmail.com<mailto:andrew.mussel...@gmail.com>> writes: > I got a beam by adding `\(` and `\)` around the b and c, looks good. That's not a beam but a phrasing slur, and at that point in the score, a phrasing slur seems like an odd choice: it usually extends over whole phrases rather than joining two notes. You probably want a straight slur, gotten with `(` and `)`. A beam is a straight line substituting for flags on a note stem and connecting several notes of length 1/8 or shorter. -- David Kastrup