10.5 Skipping corrected music

When entering or copying music, usually only the music near the end (where you are adding notes) is interesting to view and correct. To speed up this correction process, it is possible to skip typesetting of all but the last few measures. This is achieved by putting

showLastLength = R1*5
\score { ... }

in your source file. This will render only the last 5 measures (assuming 4/4 time signature) of every \score in the input file. For longer pieces, rendering only a small part is often an order of magnitude quicker than rendering it completely

Skipping parts of a score can be controlled in a more fine-grained fashion with the property Score.skipTypesetting. When it is set, no typesetting is performed at all.

This property is also used to control output to the MIDI file. Note that it skips all events, including tempo and instrument changes. You have been warned.

     
     \relative c'' {
       c8 d
       \set Score.skipTypesetting = ##t
       e e e e e e e e
       \set Score.skipTypesetting = ##f
       c d b bes a g c2 }

In polyphonic music, Score.skipTypesetting will affect all voices and staves, saving even more time.