LilyPond Cheat Sheet

LilyPond turns plain text into publication-quality sheet music. The essentials: the file skeleton, how notes and durations are written, and the commands for time, key, chords and dynamics.

File skeleton

\version "2.24.0"State the LilyPond version

\relative c' {
  c d e f g a b c
}

Notes relative to the previous pitch

\header { title = "My Piece" }Title and other metadata

\score { … }Wrap music + layout to render

Notes & durations

c d e f g a bNote names (Dutch default)

c4 d8 e2 c1Quarter, eighth, half, whole

c4.Dotted (adds half again)

r4A quarter rest

c' c,Up / down an octave

cis cesC sharp / C flat (-is / -es)

Structure & marks

\time 3/4Time signature

\key d \majorKey signature

\clef bassChange clef

\tempo 4 = 120Tempo mark

<c e g>4A chord

\repeat volta 2 { … }Repeated section

Dynamics & text

c\ff c\pDynamics attached to a note

c\< … c\!Crescendo hairpin to a stop

\addlyrics { … }Attach lyrics to a voice

LilyPond — Text-based music engraving. · LilyPond in the tool directory →

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