hoodsmom
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« on: April 20, 2012, 04:36:44 pm » |
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Someone PM'd me asking about getting started in ABC, so I thought I'd post this: Learning ABCABC standard - once I had something of a grip on the basics, I bookmarked the standard and now I just look stuff up when I need to < http://abcnotation.com/wiki/abc:standard:v2.0> Online converters - Even though I have EasyABC, I use the online converters extensively for generating sheets and for help with transpositionA couple standalone convertersFree for your Android device!- Zap's ABC - available at Google Play <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=se.petersson.abc&hl=en> It works brilliantly on my 1st generation Kindle Fire. I e-mailed the generous developer to get the .apk because Amazon blocks Google Play on the Fire. The Google Play page links to the online instruction page at the developer's website.
Other software- Extensive list at <http://abcnotation.com/software>
- For those of us who refuse to trade in our Palms for iPads and iPod Touches: Palm ABC <http://www.palmabc.ganderband.com/> - I tried several and this one actually works w/o crashing my Tungsten TX
- MuseScore <http://musescore.org/>- Only "sorta" ABC-related. Free, open source, cross-platform WYSIWYG music notation program. Uses a plugin (under the plugins menu) to import ABC files. IIRC, I did not have to do anything special to install the plugin on the latest version, but your file has to have the extension .abc to work with the plugin. A little buggy, but can import and export midi files, so it's a good way to convert midi backing tracks designed for nontransposing instruments into a backing track that'll work with your Mountain G ocarina. If all you want is sheets from an .abc file, one of the online or stand alone Abc converters is a lot less trouble.
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« Last Edit: July 26, 2013, 10:12:54 pm by hoodsmom »
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angiessa
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« Reply #1 on: April 20, 2012, 06:47:04 pm » |
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Thank you for this! I know just enough about ABC to get myself in trouble. These links are very helpful. 
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kypfer
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« Reply #2 on: April 20, 2012, 09:42:16 pm » |
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If you're using a PC, I heartily recommend ABCExplorer http://abc.stalikez.info/abcex.php as a genuinely good piece of FreeWare. It'll transpose for you and generate pdf files, both of individual tunes and whole tunebooks. For instance, load Jack Campin's "Nine Note Tunebook" http://www.campin.me.uk/Music/Chalumeau.abc (now up to 388 tunes), select File | Export File | PDF and bingo! you've got a printable copy of the whole tunebook. Print it out double-sided, put it in a ring-binder, go away and practice ... for several months 
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"I'm playing all the right notes—but not necessarily in the right order."
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angiessa
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« Reply #3 on: April 20, 2012, 10:15:14 pm » |
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Ooh, fantastic tip. Thank you!
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draynham
Active Newbie

Posts: 5
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« Reply #4 on: May 13, 2012, 05:23:39 am » |
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If you're using a PC, I heartily recommend ABCExplorer http://abc.stalikez.info/abcex.php as a genuinely good piece of FreeWare. It'll transpose for you and generate pdf files, both of individual tunes and whole tunebooks. For instance, load Jack Campin's "Nine Note Tunebook" http://www.campin.me.uk/Music/Chalumeau.abc (now up to 388 tunes), select File | Export File | PDF and bingo! you've got a printable copy of the whole tunebook. Print it out double-sided, put it in a ring-binder, go away and practice ... for several months  WOW, WOW! Thank you so much for sharing this. I downloaded ABC Explorer and imported Campin's tunebook, as you suggested. It's amazing to see all that sheet music to appear, to be able to transpose music easily, and even to hear it in a variety intrument styles! And it's all legal and legit. I love it. What a great combination! Thanks again, and thanks to OP for summarizing all the ABC stuff, which was (is) still new to me.
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kypfer
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« Reply #5 on: May 13, 2012, 03:57:06 pm » |
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Thank you so much for sharing this. I downloaded ABC Explorer and imported Campin's tunebook, as you suggested. ... you're very welcome  For anyone else browsing, Jack's tunebook now has over 400 tunes in it ... and if you've missed my previous postings, John Tose's tunebook (200 mostly Welsh-orientated tunes) can be found here http://www.mochpryderi.com/Tose.html , now in pdf format.
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"I'm playing all the right notes—but not necessarily in the right order."
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R-Jay
Active Newbie

Posts: 11
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« Reply #6 on: July 07, 2012, 08:18:23 pm » |
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I am a great fan of abc notation. The archives of folk music that are available in abc notation are vast.
I have an unusual question. Is there a program that will take a simple melody line that was saved as a MIDI file, and make an abc file out of it? I know there are many utilities and web sites that will take an abc file and make a MIDI file out of it, I was wondering about utilities that go the other direction.
Thanks.
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kypfer
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« Reply #7 on: July 07, 2012, 09:27:55 pm » |
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ABC Explorer http://abc.stalikez.info/abcex.php (for the PC) will import a MIDI and convert it to ABC 
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"I'm playing all the right notes—but not necessarily in the right order."
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R-Jay
Active Newbie

Posts: 11
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« Reply #8 on: July 07, 2012, 11:48:09 pm » |
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Thanks a lot! i don't have a PC, but my better half does. But I guess I shouldn't be so lazy, abc format does not seem so hard to learn, particularly for simple objectives (documenting the melody lines of folk tunes). Thanks again.
RJ
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Traeak
Jr. Member
 
Posts: 60
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« Reply #9 on: September 03, 2012, 03:26:41 am » |
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Awesome links. I've used songbird's composer recently to make tabs but got in trouble trying to turn them into sheet music. Tried a couple of software packages (a couple on tablets as well) which IMHO are not very intuitive. I was thinking to go with chinese notation which I was exposed to the first time a couple of years ago (had to learn how to sight read and improvise chords in short order). Looks like this ABC notation is mostly okay and I'm more than happy with a text editor. I'm not too pleased with the first class measures (sucks for composition) but I can probably write some utilities to introduce those.
Any way to make this topic "sticky"?
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Poly G&C, Warmstone G
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hoodsmom
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« Reply #10 on: October 30, 2012, 04:02:23 pm » |
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I updated the first post in this thread to include a link to Zap's ABC, a free converter for Android devices. (I won a 1st gen Kindle Fire earlier this year  and while it's definitely no iPad, free is free!) If copying your text from a mobile browser into Zap's ABC, you will need to use Opera Mobile rather than Dolphin - or Silk on the Fire - because Opera Mobile preserves the line breaks properly, whereas the other browsers do not. It's easy to "sideload" (load apps from other than Amazon) apps onto a Fire. Just make sure to get your .apk's (app files) from reliable sources. < http://www.ubergizmo.com/2011/11/kindle-fire-sideload/>
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Nephiel
Jr. Member
 
Posts: 91
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« Reply #11 on: December 08, 2012, 10:44:09 am » |
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There's an app called Tunepal for Android that also supports ABC. It's not free though.
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