How do you go about growing your collection of tunes in ABC notation?
Check Out the Forum Here!
The Forum here is a place to post and request tunes in ABC format. I have seeded it, I hope everyone will contribute their favorites, and our collection will grow. Check out instrument specific forums (fora?) like The Ocarina Network, or forums for fiddle, mandolin, tin whistle, whatever! Check out websites devoted to traditional music, folk music, or the music of some particular country like England, Scotland, Ireland, America, Canada, or virtually anywhere. You will find tunes in all these places! and more! GENTLE REMINDER, please do not post copyrighted songs here!
Searching for Tunes in ABC Notation on the Internet
There are thousands and thousands of tunes in ABC notation on the internet, spread out over hundreds of websites. Sites for a genre of music, devotees of some particular instrument, whatever. The trick is finding the ones you want!
The best ABC search engine is JC's ABC Tune Finder.
Always remember Google is your friend! If you type in the name of a tune and "ABC notation," you will probably get hits that JC's Tune Finder does not know about. Try this in the Google search bar: "bonnie kellswater abc notation." It will take you to a couple of ocarina sites on which I posted my ABC transcription of this Irish Rovers tune. Google is amazing that way.
Bear in mind that most of what exists is traditional or folk music, since most pop music is protected by copyright, but what a variety! Music from all around the world, from medieval times right up to the present.
Collections and Tunebooks
Unquestionably the one site that contains more tunes in ABC notation and more links to other sites than any other is abcnotation.com. You can spend a lifetime browsing and following the links.
Jack Campin's Homepage is truly amazing as well with the emphasis on collections of Scottish tunes through time. Here you will also find Jack Campin's Nine Note Tunebook. The Nine Note Tunebook contains hundreds of traditional tunes that can be played on instruments with a limited range.
Paul Hardy's Session Tunebook is a wonderful resource as well.
The Session is a website that contains thousands of "session" tunes, which are jigs, reels, slip jigs, hornpipes, barndances, waltzes and mazurkas. Sign up to follow The Session on Facebook to see what is new on an almost daily basis.
Import Tunes from MIDI or MusicXML
It its possible to add copyrighted music to your personal ABC collection as well. If you can find a MIDI file, and they abound on the internet, you can import the MIDI file into EasyABC, which will convert it to ABC notation! EasyABC can do the same with MusicXML files, which is the universal file format used to exchange tunes between different music notation programs.
By far the largest source of MusicXML files is Wikifonia. This is a huge repository of all kinds of tunes, of questionable copyright status, in compressed MusicXML format. Wikifonia may be up or down on a given day at any particular time, but when it is up, it is a treasure trove of music. Download tunes in MusicXML format, and try to import them into EasyABC. Usually it will work, but EasyABC may choke on some compressed MusicXML files, and you will have to convert them to uncompressed MusicXML. You can do this with MuseScore. MuseScore is a wonderful graphical music notation program in its own right.
Transcribe Tunes from Printed Songbooks to ABC
I have collections of printed songbooks going back many years and plan to transcribe favorites to ABC. The public library has songbooks you can check out. Amazon has songbooks you can purchase, and if you get them from sellers of used books, they can be a tremendous value.
Create Your Own Tunebooks
You probably will save individual tunes as separate .abc files, but creating a tunebook really helps organize your tunes. Create a tunebook by creating a new file, for example, Pat's Tunebook.abc. Then import (don't "open") each individual .abc file. Be sure to save your work periodically! Use the Tools menu in EasyABC to sort the tunes in the file by title (T:), and then to renumber the reference (X:) field starting with whatever number you specify - 1 seems logical! The tune list is on the right tab in the right pane of EasyABC, and you just click on whatever tune you want to open, play, transpose or print!
Check Out the Forum Here!
The Forum here is a place to post and request tunes in ABC format. I have seeded it, I hope everyone will contribute their favorites, and our collection will grow. Check out instrument specific forums (fora?) like The Ocarina Network, or forums for fiddle, mandolin, tin whistle, whatever! Check out websites devoted to traditional music, folk music, or the music of some particular country like England, Scotland, Ireland, America, Canada, or virtually anywhere. You will find tunes in all these places! and more! GENTLE REMINDER, please do not post copyrighted songs here!
Searching for Tunes in ABC Notation on the Internet
There are thousands and thousands of tunes in ABC notation on the internet, spread out over hundreds of websites. Sites for a genre of music, devotees of some particular instrument, whatever. The trick is finding the ones you want!
The best ABC search engine is JC's ABC Tune Finder.
Always remember Google is your friend! If you type in the name of a tune and "ABC notation," you will probably get hits that JC's Tune Finder does not know about. Try this in the Google search bar: "bonnie kellswater abc notation." It will take you to a couple of ocarina sites on which I posted my ABC transcription of this Irish Rovers tune. Google is amazing that way.
Bear in mind that most of what exists is traditional or folk music, since most pop music is protected by copyright, but what a variety! Music from all around the world, from medieval times right up to the present.
Collections and Tunebooks
Unquestionably the one site that contains more tunes in ABC notation and more links to other sites than any other is abcnotation.com. You can spend a lifetime browsing and following the links.
Jack Campin's Homepage is truly amazing as well with the emphasis on collections of Scottish tunes through time. Here you will also find Jack Campin's Nine Note Tunebook. The Nine Note Tunebook contains hundreds of traditional tunes that can be played on instruments with a limited range.
Paul Hardy's Session Tunebook is a wonderful resource as well.
The Session is a website that contains thousands of "session" tunes, which are jigs, reels, slip jigs, hornpipes, barndances, waltzes and mazurkas. Sign up to follow The Session on Facebook to see what is new on an almost daily basis.
Import Tunes from MIDI or MusicXML
It its possible to add copyrighted music to your personal ABC collection as well. If you can find a MIDI file, and they abound on the internet, you can import the MIDI file into EasyABC, which will convert it to ABC notation! EasyABC can do the same with MusicXML files, which is the universal file format used to exchange tunes between different music notation programs.
By far the largest source of MusicXML files is Wikifonia. This is a huge repository of all kinds of tunes, of questionable copyright status, in compressed MusicXML format. Wikifonia may be up or down on a given day at any particular time, but when it is up, it is a treasure trove of music. Download tunes in MusicXML format, and try to import them into EasyABC. Usually it will work, but EasyABC may choke on some compressed MusicXML files, and you will have to convert them to uncompressed MusicXML. You can do this with MuseScore. MuseScore is a wonderful graphical music notation program in its own right.
Transcribe Tunes from Printed Songbooks to ABC
I have collections of printed songbooks going back many years and plan to transcribe favorites to ABC. The public library has songbooks you can check out. Amazon has songbooks you can purchase, and if you get them from sellers of used books, they can be a tremendous value.
Create Your Own Tunebooks
You probably will save individual tunes as separate .abc files, but creating a tunebook really helps organize your tunes. Create a tunebook by creating a new file, for example, Pat's Tunebook.abc. Then import (don't "open") each individual .abc file. Be sure to save your work periodically! Use the Tools menu in EasyABC to sort the tunes in the file by title (T:), and then to renumber the reference (X:) field starting with whatever number you specify - 1 seems logical! The tune list is on the right tab in the right pane of EasyABC, and you just click on whatever tune you want to open, play, transpose or print!
