The home of traditional Irish music in Indonesia

abc Music Notation Resource Page

The abc website

abc was created in 1980 by Chris Walshaw. Chris runs the main abc website where there is a lot of information and tutorials the website is here: abcnotation.com

You can also find an online manual here: abc Manual


abc Tune Libraries

The Session

Probably one of the best places to go to find and research traditional tunes is "The Session", see the website here: https://thesession.org/ The session has an excellent collection of traditional tunes being very extensive and having many different versions. You will also find discussion and advice to help search out what you arelooking for with alternative tune names, abc code, sheet music, sound files and history.

Henry Norbek's ABC Tunes

Another excellent site is Henry Norbek's site, you will find it here: http://norbeck.nu/abc/. The great thing about Norbek's collection is that the tunes are generally the widely known versions which is iportant if you intend to join sessions in different parts of the world.


abc Music Notation Software

Many programmes are available for using abc on computer tablet and smartphone.

Easy abc.

Probably the best abc program for computer is Easy abc. It is very easy to use, you can edit and create the abc code, you can search the internet for abc tunes, the program runs on Windows, Mac and Linux, it can import and export pdf and midi files, has a selection of "voices" for playback, you can transpose tunes to different keys, you can control the speed of playback and Easy abc can recognise tune rhythms and play the tune in these rhythms.

Download Easy abc from the website at: https://sourceforge.net/projects/easyabc/

The Craic

The Craic is an abc based software for writing, editing and playback of tunes. It runs on both Apple and Android smartphones and tablets. It is a very user friendly program and can edit and create music, you cab view tunes as sheet music or as abc files, you can search abc libraries on the internet for tunes, you can import and export files using itunes, it has a selection of "voices" for playback. It is very easy to adjust the playback speed which is very useful for practicing tunes. One shortcoming is that you cannot export more than one files directly from the program but you can do this using itunes. Last updated April 2017, you can find in on the Apple app store here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-craic/id586009292?mt=8

See the Craic website here: http://thecraic.co

Tunepal

Tunepal is another abc based software for both Apple and Android smartphones, It has the same abilities as The Craic but is less user friendly (a pain changing the speed of playback). Tunepal has a very interesting feature in that you can record part of a tune and Tunepal will go off and search abc tune libraries and come back with a list of options, when it work it is very good but trying to get it to recognise a tune can be difficult. Tunepal has not been kept up to date and can be buggy and may seize up on modern smartphones. Tunepal is very good for finding tunes bringing up a useful selection that is not too obscure. Last updated September 2017, you can find in on the Apple app store here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tunepal/id356935033?mt=8

See the Tunepal websitehere: https://tunepal.org

Tunebook

Tunebook is another similar abc based program and has similar abilities to Tunepal and The Craic. It was one of the first of abc programs for smartphones and is still both capable and relevant. Last updated April 2017, you can find in on the Apple app store here https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tunebook/id310492506?mt=8.

See Tunebook website here: http://www.jhlabs.com/tunebook/


See abc in Wikipedia at: abc on Wikipedia


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