Thanks again, William! Got it the way I want it, with
\version "2.24"
\include "english.ly"
\relative c'
{
\time 6/8
\override Beam.positions = #'(-1.5 . -1.0) % staff spaces below centre
\override Stem.length = #5 % in half-spaces
e'4^\markup "short" d8 cs d cs | \section \revert Stem.length \revert
Beam.positions e4^\markup "revert" d8 cs d cs
}
Carolyn
> On Jul 1, 2026, at 7:19 PM, William Rehwinkel <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> Dear Carolyn,
>
> That's great. You can shorten the stems of unbeamed notes by modifying
> Stem.length, like this:
>
> \version "2.26.0"
>
> \relative e'' {
> e8 r8
> \override Stem.length = #5
> e8
> }
>
> -William
>
> On 7/1/26 6:53 PM, Carolyn Beeton wrote:
>> Thank you. That gives me something to play with for the beamed eights.
>> Still haven’t figured out how to shorten the unbeamed eighth.
>> Carolyn
>>> On Jul 1, 2026, at 4:28 PM, William Rehwinkel
>>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>> Dear Carolyn,
>>>
>>> It seems that Stem.details.beamed-lengths gets overridden by other spacing
>>> rules in some way. You can try manually setting the position of the beam
>>> like this:
>>>
>>> \version "2.26.0"
>>>
>>> \relative d'' {
>>> \time 6/8
>>> d8 b cis
>>> \override Beam.positions = #'(-1 . -1.3)
>>> d b cis
>>> }
>>>
>>> Does this work for you?
>>> -William
>>>
>>> On 7/1/26 3:54 PM, Carolyn Beeton wrote:
>>>> I am trying to shorten the stem length for a couple of notes (because
>>>> there is another voice underneath, from the other staff) to reproduce this
>>>> music.
>>>> This snippet shows the default rendering, and then I’m trying to shorten
>>>> and revert the stem length, but nothing changes. This is only the one
>>>> voice, but I can’t shorten the stems even in this simple example.
>>>> I have been able to make the stems long, but not short.
>>>> What am I doing wrong, and how can I achieve this?
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Carolyn
>>>> \version "2.24"
>>>> \include "english.ly"
>>>> shortBeams = { % none of this works
>>>> \override Stem.details.beamed-lengths = #'(0.5)
>>>> \override Stem.details.beamed-minimum-free-lengths = #'(0.5)
>>>> \override Stem.details.beamed-exteme-minimum-free-lengths = #'(0.6)
>>>> \override Stem.details.stem-shorten = #'(0.5)
>>>> }
>>>> \relative c'
>>>> {
>>>> \time 6/8
>>>> e'4^"default" d8 cs4 d8 | d b cs d e8 e8 | d4 c8 b4 c8 ~ | 8 a b ~ 8 d c
>>>> \section
>>>> e4 d8 cs4 \shortBeams d8^"short" | d b cs \revert
>>>> Stem.details.beamed-lengths d^"revert" e8 e8 |
>>>> d4 c8 b4 c8 ~ | \shortBeams 8^"short" a b ~ \revert
>>>> Stem.details.beamed-lengths 8 d c
>>>> }
>>>
>
