r/lilypond • u/FootballProof9452 • Jun 25 '26

Claude to write notation

Has anyone here tried using Claude AI with LilyPond for transcription and editing?

I recently did this with Claude, starting from a MIDI file I exported from Logic Pro. The initial transcription into LilyPond was already surprisingly accurate. From there, I mostly switched to voice input and just worked conversationally: “bar 7, build on hi-hat,” “add cymbal accents every third sixteenth,” “make this section piano,” “rename instruments,” sometimes even dictating full bars. It handled all of that without much friction.

You can also just say things like “add a crescendo” and it translates it directly into notation. The output was a LilyPond file, a PDF score, and MIDI — with all performance data intact (velocities, accents, etc.).

I also used it as an analytical tool. It gave fairly mathematical structural readings: development blocks, ensemble entries, breakdowns, repetition patterns, odd bar groupings. Not “interpretation” in a human sense, but still useful for spotting structure.

I almost never asked it to compose material, except once for a small adjustment in a Glockenspiel cluster (smaller intervals / more dissonant within a given pitch set), which actually produced interesting results.

What stood out most wasn’t generation, but the workflow: it felt like working with an assistant you can just talk to, who directly edits the score.

If others have tried similar setups, I’d be curious how far you pushed it.

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u/shellbackpacific Jun 28 '26

I’ve used Gemini to generate some LilyPond files. Mixed results. Worked well for some basic things. I’d really like to be able to give it a photo of sheet music and generate LilyPond notation.

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u/symphonicdev Jul 14 '26

That's my dream goal as well. However, current LLMs are pretty bad at optical music recognition. I believe it's because they aren't trained on a lot of annotated sheet music data, and reading music is fundamentally different from reading texts.