2.1.4 How to read the tutorial

As we saw in Working on text files, LilyPond input must be surrounded by { } marks or a \relative c'' { ... }. For the rest of this manual, most examples will omit this.

If you are reading the HTML documentation and wish to see the exact exact LilyPond code that was used to create the example, simply click on the picture. If you are not reading the HTML version, you could copy and paste the displayed input, but you must add the \relative c'' { } like this:

\relative c'' {
  ... example goes here...
}

Why omit the braces? Most examples in this manual can be inserted into the middle of a longer piece of music. For these examples, it does not make sense to add \relative c'' { } – you should not place a \relative inside another \relative, so you would not be able to copy a small documentation example and paste it inside a longer piece of your own.

Other languages: French.