Wow, this is absolutely perfect — exactly what I envisioned! Not only is
your technical solution brilliant, but you also understood my needs so
quickly and clearly. Truly impressive — thank you so much!
Finally I chose lightpink as the color, which matches my taste perfectly.
[image: image.png]
On Fri, Apr 25, 2025 at 11:09 AM Kieren MacMillan <
kie...@kierenmacmillan.info> wrote:
> Hi Peter,
>
> > Thank you so much for your response and the example code—it works
> beautifully and already gets very close to what I envisioned. I really
> appreciate the clarity and elegance of your approach using a custom
> Lyrics-based context. That was a creative idea I hadn’t thought of!
>
> I pride myself on thinking outside the box… :)
>
> > I’ve been trying to reproduce this effect using your method, tweaking
> position and transparency, but I haven’t quite managed to achieve a true
> overlay that floats behind the chords and melody without affecting spacing.
> Do you think it’s feasible to achieve such a watermark-like degree
> indication in LilyPond? Ideally, it would:
> > • Appear very large and semi-transparent;
> > • Overlay directly beneath or behind the chord symbol;
> > • Not affect vertical spacing or push any other elements out of place;
>
> “With Lilypond, all things are possible.”
>
> %%% SNIPPET BEGINS %%%
> \version "2.24.4"
> \language "english"
>
> % Define a new context for the roman numerals
> \layout {
> ragged-right = ##f
> \context {
> \Lyrics
> \name RN
> \remove Axis_group_engraver
> \override LyricText.extra-spacing-width = #empty-interval
> \override LyricText.layer = -2
> \override LyricText.font-size = #16
> \override LyricText.font-family = #'sans
> \override LyricText.font-series = #'bold
> \override LyricText.color = #(x11-color ‘mistyrose)
> \override LyricText.self-alignment-X = #LEFT
> \override LyricText.X-offset = #-1
> \override LyricText.Y-offset = #-4.5
> }
> \context {
> \Score
> \accepts RN
> }
> }
>
> % Define the chord progression
> theChords = \chordmode {
> f1
> d1:m
> g1:m
> c1
> }
>
> % Write the analysis as lyrics (with appropriate durations)
> theAnalysis = \lyricmode {
> "1"1
> "6"1
> "2"1
> "5"1
> }
>
> % Define a simple melody to go with the chords
> melody = {
> c'4 8 8 ~ 8 g'4.
> f'2. a4
> bf4 8 8 ~ 8 a'4.
> g'2 e'4 f'
> }
>
> \score {
> <<
> \new RN \theAnalysis
> \new ChordNames \theChords
> % Melody staff
> \new Staff {
> \clef treble
> \key f \major
> \time 4/4
> \melody
> }
> >>
> }
> %%% SNIPPET ENDS %%%
>
> Hope that helps point you in the right direction!
> Kieren.
> __________________________________________________
>
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