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Thread: ABC notation

  1. #1
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default ABC notation

    Is there a website where I can cut and paste a gob of ABC notation and get the fragment of sheet music back?

    Like Google translate, just enter the ABC on one side and get a staff on the other.

    Everything I see I have to download software and install it, and I don't think I will be doing this a lot, I just want to figure out some ABC I found.
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    Registered User Denman John's Avatar
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    Default Re: ABC notation

    Off topic, but I would love for someone to explain to me how to use ABC. I have a mac. Everytime I look at it I get confused and for the life I me can't figure it out.
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  3. #3
    somnamandolist Killian King's Avatar
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    Default Re: ABC notation

    Not quite as automatic as you describe, but you can import an abc file into the free tabledit software and then print to pdf.

    I use tabledit a lot so I have it installed on all my machines. I realize that this may not be the case for you.

  4. #4
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: ABC notation

    I don't know how anyone can read from it. I suppose I could learn, and some folks have no choice. But it was designed to be read by software, and I am not in the mood to learn to read directly something that was designed to be read by software. I do too much of that at work.
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    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: ABC notation

    Well if push comes to shove I will download or buy something. But I don't do ABC enough to warrant that.

    Maybe I will if I did, as they say.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
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  6. #6

    Default Re: ABC notation

    You can do this at http://thesession.org/tunes, go to any tune and start as if to add a new setting, enter the abc and you'll see the notation appear below.

    It's not what it's meant for, but it works.
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  7. #7
    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: ABC notation

    Quote Originally Posted by JeffD View Post
    Is there a website where I can cut and paste a gob of ABC notation and get the fragment of sheet music back?
    I use this one all the time. Only limit is that you can only paste one tune into it at a time.

    ABC Convertamatic

    If you want to print it download the pdf version -- prints very nicely. The screen image you get at first comes in fuzzy.

    I know that some people can actually read it like notation but I don't see the point of that.
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  8. #8
    Newbie Seeking Clues tangleweeds's Avatar
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    Default Re: ABC notation

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Garber View Post
    I use this one all the time. Only limit is that you can only paste one tune into it at a time.

    ABC Convertamatic
    That's what I use too. I have an abc->pdf converter somewhere in my computer, but the website is easier.
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    Registered User DougC's Avatar
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    Default Re: ABC notation

    ABC is not that hard to understand. Everything is an eighth note unless there is something near it. A 2 for example makes the note a quarter note and a slash / , means a 16th note. (3ABC means a triplet.

    ABC was for an earlier era where converting text into sound and sheetmusic was a big deal. The system was modeled after a baroque transcription style. It is still handy for jotting something down. And it is really good for playing along and setting the tempo to any speed. It is also free.

    My two cents. (Remember the cent symbol?)

    BTW Tangleweeds has a great avitar.
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  11. #10
    somnamandolist Killian King's Avatar
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    Default Re: ABC notation


  12. #11
    Registered User woodenfingers's Avatar
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    Default Re: ABC notation

    I like this converter :http://www.mandolintab.net/abcconverter.php. Put the abc in and get the notation in a pdf document. Transposes to other keys too.

    And I like Easy ABC (it's free) as a program to write a score in abc or to paste the abc into and not only have the notation displayed at the same time but you can also 'play' the tune to hear how it sounds.

  13. #12

    Default Re: ABC notation

    Anyone know how many MC regulars that can read abc? It has to be less than 5%.

    In some ways, converter apps have made it too easy, like what (SATNAV and) GPS did for shooting the stars with a sextant. But I learned navigation at 22, and I've forgotten a lot more than that since then.
    Last edited by R. Kane; Apr-16-2014 at 9:51pm.

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    Registered User John Flynn's Avatar
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    Default Re: ABC notation

    Quote Originally Posted by R. Kane View Post
    Anyone know the percentage of MC regulars that can read abc? Is there a way to poll?

    In some ways, converter apps have made it too easy, like what (SATNAV and) GPS did for shooting the stars with a sextant. But I learned navigation at 22, and I've forgotten a lot more than that since then.
    I also learned navigation in my 20's, in the Navy, so I can relate. But I don't think your analogy fits here. ABC was always intended as an input code for computers. The inventor used it with a program called MusicTex in the '80's. It is possible to visually read and play ABC, just like it would be possible to read this webpage in HTML code, but it would not be as easy or enjoyable. You seem to be talking about the computer programs that interpret ABC as some kind of shortcut, but I see them as the fulfillment of what was originally intended.

    Now, if you want to talk about tab being a shortcut for notation, that's a whole different argument. Also, the sextant was a new-fangled device anyway. The ancient Polynesians navigated over much of the Pacific by eyeballing the stars! BTW, you can learn all about ABC on abcnotation.com.

  15. #14
    Yarrr! Miss Lonelyhearts's Avatar
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    Default Re: ABC notation

    ABC notation has been around longer than computers. It doesn't need to be much more complicated than the letters that represent the notes, with numbers to show note length, and bar lines. Some Irish musicians back in the day (at least as far back as the early 1900s) used an ABC system to catch and store tunes.

    I learn most of my music by ear, but I've sight read regular staff notation since I was forced to take piano lessons as a kid almost 50 years ago), and I learned ABC back in the 1970s when I came across it in some hand-written tunes from an old Irish fiddler. That old stuff was very similar to the conventional ABCs for digital use common today.

    It's easy to sight-read it for single-line melodies (even at speed)--not much different than staff notation or tablature. Staff notation has the advantage of being able to readily see the rising and falling contour of a tune, but you can see something similar in the upper and lowercase letters, too. Being fluent in several notation styles opens up a great variety of sources for music.

    For converting ABC to staff (for students and friends who prefer staff notation), I use the tune-o-tron at www.concertina.net, and also Easy ABC.
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  16. #15
    Registered User John Flynn's Avatar
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    Default Re: ABC notation

    Quote Originally Posted by Miss Lonelyhearts View Post
    ABC notation has been around longer than computers.
    There have certainly been letter-based systems of notation around longer. Some used the letter "H" to mean "B" while "B" meant Bb. Some systems would add an "s" or "is" for sharps, such as "Cis" for "C#." But the current system formally referred to as "ABC Notation," the system I think we're talking about here, is the standardized version invented in the 1980's by Chris Walshaw, now a Principal Lecturer and Reader in Informatics in the School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences at the University of Greenwich, London. He is also a bagpiper.

    He developed it as a system for writing down bagpipe notes by hand in such a way that it could be typed into a computer as ASCII code and converted to standard notation. So although it can be read, it was not invented with that in mind and IMHO, it is a visually less efficient system for reading than notation or tab for the reasons you describe. I'm happy to let my computer do what it does best to convert the music into what I consider a better system for reading.

  17. #16
    Yarrr! Miss Lonelyhearts's Avatar
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    Default Re: ABC notation

    John, my point above is that I saw old, hand-written ABC notation in the 1970s that was nearly identical to what we today think of as Walshaw's system but it had nothing to do with computers. Walshaw didn't "invent" it, though he did refine an existing ABC system for qwerty keyboard characters, and added many details. A well-known Irish fiddler gave me photocopies of tunes hand written in ABC notation that used the standard letter names of the notes, bar lines, and numerals for note length. The tune name, key, and whether it was a reel, jig, etc. were written above the tune without the X, T, M, L, and K fields, but the info was there. This old system even used the tilde (~) for rolls. My fiddle mentor told me this was a common way for Irish players to jot down tunes learned at fleadhanna or from visiting musicians so they wouldn't forget them.

    My guess is that Walshaw too had seen such earlier ABC. He certainly deserves credit for expanding and standardizing it, but its "invention" and use far predates his time on the planet.
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