ABC entry demo/test tools

ABC entry demo/test tools

This is a web form that accepts "tunes" in ABC notation, and feeds them to assorted software. There are buttons here that will retrieve a PostScript, PDF, GIF, PNG, SVG, or MIDI file and send you the results.

After filling in the above information, the PS, PDF, GIF, PNG and MIDI buttons will convert the tune to that format and return it to your browser, which should be configured to accept the format. (The PS and PDF formats will first give you a form page to set lots of formatting options.) The Submit button will add the tune to the demo/Tunes/ directory. After you submit a tune, there is currently no way to make further modifications.

If you would like to learn more about the ABC format, I have a number of documents:

ABCintro.txt is a plain-text introduction to ABC.
ABCprimer.html is an HTML introduction to ABC.
ABCtutorial.html is a longer, much more detailed tutorial text.
The abc home page is the central repository of all information about ABC.

Descriptions of fields

Your name should be whatever you like people to call you.

Your email address should be an address reachable from the Internet as a whole. An address that is likely to last for a few years is preferred. (I may want to contact you and ask what you'd like done with the music you contributed here. ;-)

X: is the tune's index, and should be an integer.

T: is the tune's title. If more than one title is wanted, the rest should be entered in the data area.

C: is the name of the composer.

O: is the tune's origin. This is usually a geographic area.

S: is the tune's source. This is usually the name of someone you learned it from, or an event where you learned it.

Z: holds transcription notes. If you transcribed the tune, put your name and email address here. I often find that including a date can be useful, too.

R: rhythm, such as reel or jig or tango.

M: meter, such as 3/4 or 6/8. You may use C for 4/4 and C| for 2/2 time, or none for free meter.

L: is the default note length. 1/4 means that an unmarked note is a quarter note. 1/8 means an eighths note.

Q: is the tempo. For example, Q:3/8=130 would mean that a dotted quarter note is one beat at metronome setting 130.

K: is the key. D means D major (two sharps), Dm or Dmin means D minor (one flat). The classical modes are all legal, so EDorian and AMixolydian mean two sharps. The mode name may be abbreviated to three letters. A mode of m alone means minor. Case isn't significant.

Send comments and suggestions to John Chambers at MIT.

(This page was created a few years ago, with the name "contrib", which was a "Ha, ha, only serious" reminder of something that visitors to web sites often overlook: Anything you enter into a page like this is in effect a "contribution" to the owners of the site. You've given your info to them, they can now do with it as they like, and you really have no further say in the matter. Later on, I renamed it "demo", to use in a situation where I wanted a simple example of online data input, complete with programs that do a few useful things with the info. All the demo did was convert ABC text into PS/PDF/GIF/PNG/MIDI/whatever formats, but that was good for a demo of what could be done, and was simple enough that nearly anyone could understand it (even if they're musically illiterate). Then I left it online, and people started actually using it. Now it looks like I may have to add some new features, to make it really useful and not just a simple demo ...)

Send comments and suggestions to John Chambers at MIT.

Experimental things that probably aren't working yet:

I've been experimenting with a few tools to do useful things in directories full of .abc tune files: Tune lister -- Collection lister -- Session lister These are "works in progress" that I've included here to get ideas for making them more useful.