⌂ Lyrics above the staff they are assigned to

Lyrics can also be placed above the staff to which they are assigned to. However, in this case you cannot simply place the line with \lyricsto above the staff definition, because at that point the voice to which the lyrics are assigned has not been created. Thus, you have to insert an empty dummy definition

  \new Lyrics = "lyricsname" { s4 }
  \new Staff = "staffname" << .... >>

and do the actual lyrics assignment later:

  \context Lyrics = "lyricsname" \lyricsto "voicename" \lyricsdefinition

This snippet is a simple example how to add lyrics above and/or below the staff.