7.3.6 Another way of entering lyrics

Lyrics can also be entered without \lyricsto. In this case the duration of each syllable must be entered explicitly, for example,

play2 the4 game2.
sink2 or4 swim2.

The alignment to a melody can be specified with the associatedVoice property,

\set associatedVoice = #"lala"

The value of the property (here: "lala") should be the name of a Voice context. Without this setting, extender lines will not be formatted properly.

Here is an example demonstrating manual lyric durations,

     
     << \new Voice = "melody" {
          \time 3/4
          c2 e4 g2.
       }
       \new Lyrics \lyricmode {
         \set associatedVoice = #"melody"
         play2 the4 game2.
       } >>