ABC Notation
ABC notation conveys all the information about a musical composition that sheet music does, but it is not usually used by a musician to play a composition. ABC, simply put, is a music notation standard based on pure text - letters, numbers, and other text characters - that captures pitch and duration of notes, and virtually everything else that sheet music does. ABC notation, as pure text, does not require a computer and can be manually coded and decoded, but you would not want to do that! At first encounter, ABC notation in an email or in a web post, looks very cryptic and daunting! With ABC notation and a computer, a composition can be emailed, posted to a website, and most importantly, copied and pasted or loaded into a software program that displays it as sheet music, can transpose to a different key, and can print - and usually much, much more. Here is the main point: you don't have to understand a single thing about ABC notation to start using it!
ABC notation is not meant to be played directly. Musicians play from sheet music. ABC is simply a more convenient notation to store and exchange music than paper sheets or electronic PDFs. So it is time now to get down to the fundamentals of ABC notation. Along the journey, if you do not already read music, you will learn almost automatically! The goal is that when you want to play sheet music, whether from a printed songbook, a downloaded PDF or printed out from an ABC file, you will directly associate the notes on the page with the sound (pitch and duration) that is represented. Of course, you need to know the fingerings associated with that sound, so have your fingering chart handy!
ABC notation is not meant to be played directly. Musicians play from sheet music. ABC is simply a more convenient notation to store and exchange music than paper sheets or electronic PDFs. So it is time now to get down to the fundamentals of ABC notation. Along the journey, if you do not already read music, you will learn almost automatically! The goal is that when you want to play sheet music, whether from a printed songbook, a downloaded PDF or printed out from an ABC file, you will directly associate the notes on the page with the sound (pitch and duration) that is represented. Of course, you need to know the fingerings associated with that sound, so have your fingering chart handy!
