Lilypond Markup Alignment

Question

I have a fairly large note on how to program the keyboard in my piece that I would like to put between the right-hand staff and the left-hand staff. When I R1*3/4^\markup{\left-column{"G126 Vibra..., I get

It looks like the text is centered over the whole-bar rest. When I change to r1*3/4^\markup{\left-column{"G126 Vibra..., then I get

which is close, but you can see that the whole rest is not aligned properly.

Any tips on how to left-align text above objects, or perhaps how to attach text to the beginning of staves would be appreciated.

Answer 1

One option is to attach the markup to a hidden voice with an s spacer. Tell the voice with the bar rest to act like it is the only voice with the \oneVoice command, so that it doesn't get misplaced.

Also, use the \whiteout command to stop the bar lines from interfering with the text.

\score{
    {
        \new PianoStaff {
            \set PianoStaff.instrumentName = "Keyboard"
            <<
                \new Staff {
                    \clef "treble"
                    \time 3/4
                    \key aes \major
                        R2.*6 |
                }
                \new Staff {
                    \clef "bass"
                    \time 3/4
                    \key aes \major
                        << { \oneVoice R2. }
                        \\ { s2. 
                                ^\markup { 
                                    \whiteout \pad-markup #0.5
                                    \left-column {
                                        "G126 Vibraphone;lfo1 frequency 68"
                                        "amp1 mod lfo1 ams sw1 mod, intensity +25"
                                    } 
                                } 
                            } 
                        >> |
                        R2.*5 |
                }
            >>
        }
    }
}