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Using alternative flag styles

Alternative shapes for flags on eighth and shorter notes can be displayed by overriding the stencil property of Flag. LilyPond provides the following functions: modern-straight-flag, old-straight-flag, and flat-flag. Use \revert to restore the default shape.

To get stacked (i.e., vertically more compact) flags, call the command \flagStyleStacked, which can be reset with \flagStyleDefault.

Overriding the Flag stencil does not change how flag elements are positioned vertically. This is especially noticeable for flat flags: LilyPond doesn’t dynamically adjust the vertical gaps between flag elements in the same way as it does for beams. A possible solution to harmonize the appearance is to replace flat flags with half beams, as shown in the second staff; however, this can’t be done automatically. In the code of this snippet, such half beams are entered with @ as a prefix, for example @c8.

Be aware that half beams are not Flag grobs. This means in particular that modifying Flag properties won’t have any effect on them (you have to use Beam properties instead), and properties for their associated Stem grob will also behave beam-like.

"@" =
#(define-music-function (music) (ly:music?)
  #{ \set stemLeftBeamCount = 0 $music [] #})

testnotes = {
  \autoBeamOff
  c8 d16 e''32 f64 \acciaccatura { g,,,8 } a128 b
}

\relative c' {
  \override TextScript.staff-padding = 6
  \time 1/4
    <>^"default" \testnotes
  \override Flag.stencil = #modern-straight-flag
    <>_"modern straight" \testnotes
  \override Flag.stencil = #old-straight-flag
    <>^"old straight" \testnotes
  \override Flag.stencil = #flat-flag
    <>_"flat" \testnotes
  \revert Flag.stencil

  \flagStyleStacked
    <>^"stacked" \testnotes
  \flagStyleDefault
    <>_"default" \testnotes
}

\relative c' {
  \time 3/4
  \override Flag.stencil = #flat-flag

  <>^"flat" c8 c[ c] d16 d[ d] e''32 e[ e] f64 f[ f]
    \acciaccatura { g,,,8 } a128 a[ a a a a]
  <>^"beam-like" @c8 c[ c] @d16 d[ d] @e''32 e[ e] @f64 f[ f]
    \acciaccatura { g,,,8 } @a128 a[ a a a a]
}

\layout {
  indent = 0
  \context {
    \Score
    \override NonMusicalPaperColumn.line-break-permission = ##f
  }
}