ABC Navagator

[SlideMeister]

Anyone here (besides Agustin  ) familiar with ABC, as in ABC Navigator?

Looks like it might be another interesting method.

http://abcnavigator.free.fr/

@ge

[EHW]

There are a number of programs dedicated to playing and printing ABC files, and some other music composition programs like Harmony/Melody Asst will accept them as input.  Designed originally for sharing folk music, there are hundreds of tunes available in ABC format. 

[Sander]

My neighbours wish you hadn't posted that. I've been playing folk songs all evening 

The abc file format has been around for ages. I find the format itself hard to read and hadn't given it any notice. The cool thing about them is that it's apparantly fairly straightforward to generate scores (for sight players) or midi files (for ear players and importing in harping or biab) from them. What's more: loads of tunes are available for free (and legal!) in this format on the internet.

I hadn't seen the abc navigator before, and I must say I - unlike my neighbours - like it a lot.

Intro to the abc format + collection of collections of tunes	http://abcnotation.org.uk/tunes.html
Trillian abc tune finder	http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/tunefind
A random collection of collections of abc tunes	http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/tunefind

[dddeon]

Wow! Thanks.

I hadn't noticed this thread until now. I recently stumbled across a site that had different ABC format readers (Groik version, like abcnavigator.free.fr, and others). Of course, I can't remember where it was now (I think it might have been some folk music site). This thread just jarred something in my memory.

What a cool resource for folk and traditional music!

[Squidward]

Hi All
  Go to http://www.norbeck.nu/abc/  for the ultimate abc file source for Irish tunes.

Squidward

[Dirk Buchbinder]

My absolutely favourite ABC site is http://www.thesession.org/   where you can search for thousands of irish / celtic tunes. Besides ABC  it also has sheet music and more information about almost every tune, eg who recorded them, on which CDs they are to find etc. A very nice feature is that you can save your own tunebook (after registering only) , that you can sort by name, style, key etc, and after that download as one ABC file, very comfortable!!!

One great advantage of ABC files is that you have the tune in its basic origin, which makes learnin the tunes quite simple. If you try to learn tunes from a CD it is often pretty hard because every musician plays decorations fitting to his instrument and his taste, so that sometimes it is almost impossble to recognise the basic melody. If you have the ABC you can learn the tune, and then make it fit to your own taste.

Another very nice feature of ABC Navigator is that you can arrange tunes to sets, very helpful because irish tunes are usually played in sets of 2, 3 or more tunes. This feature is also good for practicing key changes or harmonica changes if you prefere to play harmonicas in different keys. 
ABC Navigator plays the tunes with the patches of your choice, I prefere flute, to practice tunes, and you can choose the playback speed, excellent for practicing and learning tunes. Besides the ABC, which is difficult to read for me, it also shows the tunes as sheet music.

So if you like celtic tunes ABC Navigator or similar programs and excellent sites like thesession are very helpful.
Have fun, and all the best from germany,
Dirk
 

[Renault]

I looked at one of the ABC sites. Other than the fact that you can write ABC notation on a computer (or typewriter) I really don't see any advantage over traditional notation. It's just as hard to learn as "the old way."By the way, a better way to do it would be to use a modification of Nashville Notation - instead of typing "C F G" type "I IV V" (tonic, subdominant, dominant) - that way you could use the same sheet music for any key - provided you knew what the notes for that key are.

[Grizzly]

My absolutely favourite ABC site is http://www.thesession.org/   where you can search for thousands of irish / celtic tunes. Besides ABC  it also has sheet music and more information about almost every tune, eg who recorded them, on which CDs they are to find etc. A very nice feature is that you can save your own tunebook (after registering only) , that you can sort by name, style, key etc, and after that download as one ABC file, very comfortable!!!
8<
So if you like celtic tunes ABC Navigator or similar programs and excellent sites like thesession are very helpful.
Have fun, and all the best from germany,
Dirk

Thanks, Dirk, this site is the best set up of any of the ones listed here.

Here's another, with sheet music, midi files and abc files for folk dance music:

http://harbormist.com/tunes1/default.aspx

Tom

[Renault]

OK, the fact that Grizzly likes ABC made me take a second look at it. I may have been a little hasty - it does seem like a workable system and a good compromise between standard notation and tabs. Guess I'll have to give it a try.

[Grizzly]

Truth in lending: I never said I liked abc notation. It's the topic of this thread, so I'm passing on what I found when I was looking for contradance music (in standard notation). I haven't even looked at it to see if I could sightread from it.

But don't let that dissuade you. Standard notation isn't the only boat in the ocean. Work with it, and let us know what you think.

The best for my purposes from among those already listed is http://www.thesession.org/ from Dirk.

Tom

[llumagsara]

hello All

i see the most interesting of ABC is, there are in the net a lot of tunes of many countries, so if you want to know some of these music, with programs like harmony assistant or the free abc navigator, you can hear the music (the melody only), read it in ABC or sheet music or pass it to midi.

 I understand a little how goes abc writing, but really don't know it, but i think it'll be a very helpful tool for this forum for example when we want to explain a unknown tune, the abc is like a tab with measure. If i want to see an abc tune i pass it to midi-sheet music with abc navigator to read it, more easy for me...

good health

Agustín