this is kewl!

and for those of you who know how much i abhor using terminology like that, it’s an indication of truly how kewl it really is… 8)

check this out: LilyPond.org

there you will find a free program with which you can typeset music, called Lilypond. it’s a small, intuitive, easy to use, text-based markup language similar to HTML, and the shell script it uses to turn .ly files, which you create with any text editor, into .pdf files of typeset music.

apparently it’s also good for midi stuff, but i haven’t gotten that far yet…

however this:

\header {
  title = "Game Show Theme"
  composer = "Fred Hawkinson"
  instrument = "Bb Sousaphone"
}

{
\clef bass
\time 2/2
\repeat volta 2
     {
     g2 e2 a4. d8 r2 g2 e2 a4. d8 r2 g2 b2 a4. b8 r2 d4 r4-POP r4 r8 e8 d8. fis16 g4 r2
     }
}

turns into this:

with far less trouble than it would take me to write out anything half as legible! is that not one of the kewelest things you have ever seen??? w00t!