Lesson files

If you want to write lesson files, my advise is to look at some of the files in lesson-files/ and use this document and the music format spec for reference. To use the lesson files, you have to save them in $HOME/lessonfiles/.

Lesson file contents

A lesson file contains of a header block and one or more question blocks:

header {
  ASSIGNMENT
  ASSIGNMENT
  ...
}
question {
  ASSIGNMENT
  ...
}

Header block

The header block can be placed anywhere in the file, but by convention it should be the first block in the file. If more that one header block is found, for example when using the include function, only the first header block is used, the rest are ignored.

Definitions to put in the header block:

version = STRING

Tell the oldest version of solfege the lessonfile is known to work with. For example version = "1.1.1" This variable is not required, but it should be used because it can (but don't guarantee to) help avoid trouble if the lesson file format changes in the future.

title = STRING

Short oneline description.

description = STRING

Long description that can contain html tags.

content = LIST

Possible values: chord, dictation, id-by-name, harmony and sing-chord

Some lessonfiles can be useful for more than one exercise. For example, a file with chords can also be used by the id-by-name exercise, and should have: content = chord, id-by-name

musicformat = normal | chord | satb
normal

The default value.

chord

Any music "MUSIC CODE" will be interpreted as:

\staff{ < MUSIC CODE > }

or:

\staff\transpose NOTENAME{ < MUSIC CODE > }

chord format is necessary if lesson files written for the chord exercise should be used by for example the id-by-name exercise.

satb

the music "c | bes g | e | G C" will be interpreted as:

\staff{ \stemUp < c > }
\addvoice{ \stemDown < bes g > }
\staff{\clef bass; \stemUp < e > }
\addvoice{ \stemDown < G C > }

This is used by the sing-chord exercise.

random_transpose = [key|semitones|accidentals], INTEGER, INTEGER | no | yes

In some exercises the program can transpose the music to create variation. The variable is ignored in exercises that does not support transposing.

random_transpose = no

This is the default value. No transposition will be done.

random_transpose = yes

The exercise will do random transposition. What kind of transposition depends on the exercise, but you get a ok result from this.

random_transpose = accidentals, INTEGER, INTEGER

Transpose the music by random. But make sure the number of flats or sharps are within the range specified by INTEGER, INTEGER. To explain how this works, think of flats as negative numbers and sharps as positive numbers. The code

random_transpose = accidentals, -2, 3

will give you questions with 1 or 2 flats, 0 accidentals or 1, 2 or 3 sharps. The code

random_transpose = accidentals, 2, 3

will create questions with two or three sharps.

Please notice that the music in the lessonfile has to be in c major or a minor for this to work correctly.

random_transpose = key, INTEGER1, INTEGER2

Transpose the music INTEGER1 steps down or INTEGER2 steps steps up the circle of fifth. (And by my own definition, up is more sharps and down is more flats ... :-) )

random_transpose = semitones, INTEGER1, INTEGER2

Transpose the music at most INTEGER1 steps down or INTEGER2 steps down. The code

random_transpose = semitones, -2, 6

will transpose the questions no more than 2 semitones down and 6 semitones up. This is the same as the old random_transpose = INTEGER, INTEGER syntax.

labelformat = normal | progression

(Default: normal)

For "Id by name" exercise only

filldir = horiz | vertic

Tell the direction the buttons are filled. Default value is vertic.

fillnum = INTEGER

Tell how many buttons there are in each row or column.

Question block

name = "some short name"

Questions written for id-by-name and chord exercise need a name.

music = "\staff{c'2 g' e4 e c1}"

The music in the question. Note that there is a shortcut. Instead of:

question {
   tempo = 160/4
   name = "Lisa gikk til skolen"
   music = "\staff\relative c'{c d e f g2 g2}"  
}

you can write:

question {
   tempo = 160/4
   name = "Lisa gikk til skolen"
   "\staff\relative c'{c d e f g2 g2}"  
}

tempo = 130/4

beats per minute / notelen per beat

Chord questions only

In lesson files that is written to work with chord exercise, two more variables can used:

inversion

0 = root position, 1 = first inversion etc.

toptone

1, 3, 5, 7

Dictation exercise

By default, the dictation exercise will show the first column of music, and then the user should write the rest. But if the first column is not good enough, if there for example are only rests on the first beat, these two variables can tell the program how much music to display:

clue_end = nn/dd

clue_end=1/4 will display all music in the first quarter note.

clue_music = MUSIC

Write the exact music you want to display. If for example you want to display the whoe bar in the upper staff, and only one note in the lower staff.

(Use only one if these variables in a question. Using both are undefined.)

Sing chord exercise

Questions for this exercise need to have the key variable set if the key signature is anything else than c major (or a minor). Example:

question { "c''|e'|g|c" }
question { "a'|e'|c'|a" }
question { key="d \major" "a'|fis'|d'|d"}
question { key="f \minor" "as'|f'|c'|f"}

Global variables

Global variables can save you a few key strokes.

s = "\score\relative c'{ %s }

question {
  # instead of music = "\score\relative c'{ c d e f g2 g2 } :
  music = s % "c d e f g2 g"
}

The global variable tempo will be the default tempo for the questions following the definition. If not set, the default value is 120 beats per minute. That equals the definition:

tempo = 60/4

Comments

Everything after # on a line is ignored

Grammar

Disclaimer: I don't know any of the standard ways of describing grammar, like BNF. So this is just an attemt to describe the file format to get people started writing lesson files.

Lessonfiles consists of assignment statements and blocks containing assignment statements.

Functions

_

takes a string as its only argument. Use this if you want Solfege to translate the string for you. Example:

description = _("This is a short description")

include

includes another file in to this file. Example:

include(singchord-1)

Types

string

is quoted using the " character, like this: "this is a string". Use tripple quotes for strings that contain line breaks:

description = """<h1>Long desription<h1>
               This lessonfile need very much descriptions.
               bla bla bla"""

If the string need to contain the " character, you have to use tripple quotes:

description = """Try <a href="solfege:practise/melodic-interval">this
</a> for a simpler interval exercise."""

NB: All strings have to be unicode strings. You can change the encoding of a file using the iconv program:

    iconv -f YOUR_ENCODING -t utf8 your.file
integer

is an integer is an integer...

tempotype (in lack of a better name)

is entered as bpm/beatlen. An example:

tempo = 120/4

will set the tempo to 120 beats per minute, each beat being a quarter note.

Operators

Operators can only be used on strings

+

is used for joining strings

%

is similar to what you find in python, but it is very limited. It only know about %s. One example:

"\staff\relative c'{%s}" % "c d e"

evaluates to

"\staff\relative c'{c d e}"

Reserved words

To be put on the right side of assignments. The current parser does not complain if you redefines the identifiers, so don't do that!

chord, dictation, id-by-name, sing-chord

Possible values for content

horiz, vertic

Used for table filling in id-by-name exercise

normal, progression

labelformat values.

Identifiers

Identifiers match the regular expression "[a-zA-Z]+[\w_-]*".

Block

There are two block types, header and question.

blocktype {
  CONTENTS
}