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Tune Links (16, indented)

New Hampshire Old-Time Fiddle Web Site

Using abc Notation for Writing Out Fiddle Tunes

abc Musical Notation About Page: Explanation & Links

An Overview of the Section with Useful Links

This portion of the web site looks at abc notation, which I used to transcribe all the tunes. The abc notation system has become a widespread method of presenting fiddle tunes in notation form. It is especially useful when it comes to exchanging tunes over the internet. Here we look at what it is, how it's been used, some links to useful web sites, and some discussion of relevant software for using abc notation.

 

 

Links to Related Pages

abc Notation ◆ Intro ◆ Tune Header ◆ Tune Body ◆ Formatting

abc Links: ◆ Informational

Musical ◆ Software

 

Tune Home ◆ The Tunes ◆ Tune List

About abc ◆ abc Links

abc: Help File ◆  Reference Card

Learning Tunes (By Ear & Reading)

 

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What makes abc notation worth learning?

Let's start this section by looking at why abc notation turns out to be so useful.

  • It is a way of writing out a piece of music as text . This makes it easy to exchange between musicians, as text documents are readable on any system. This has a couple useful consequences.
    • An abc tune is easily sent right in the body of an email; no need for a separate attachment.
    • Likewise it's easy put on a web page. It can go right on the page; no need for a link.
  • The software is free or very inexpensive, and it lets you display the tune in standard musical notation as well as play it back. That combination makes it especially useful for writing out music; the ease of playback makes for easy and effective proofreading.
  • Because it's so easy to use and the software is mostly free, many thousands of tunes are available on the Internet to download, print out and play back. This is a great source of learning materials!
    • If a tune isn't written out as you prefer, it's easy to make modifications to make it fit your needs.

 

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Look for the following abc notation resources on this web site:

 

An abc Tutorial. Starting on the next page is a modest abc tutorial.

Useful abc Links. Links with descriptions given to informational web sites and to useful abc software. Once you're done with the tutorial, this should help you to further your knowledge.

Peter's abc Help File. I made it for my own use but you may find it to be useful too.

NH Country Dance Tune Book. Many of these tunes are from the Lamprey River Band Tune Book. There are quite a few others I wrote out as well.  All are presented here in abc format and as PDFs.

 

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The next few pages contain a tutorial on abc notation followed by useful links for learning and using abc notation. You don't have to understand much about abc notation to copy and print out a tune; but it really helps if you want to do anything more than that.

Contact Form: If you have questions, corrections, or any other feedback or thoughts about this or any other part of the web site, please feel free to send me a note!

Click on the Next Page arrow to begin the abc Tutorial.

 

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The NH Old-Time Fiddle Website covers a variety of topics related to traditional music and dance of New Hampshire and surrounding areas.

Designed & Edited by Peter Yarensky

 

Contact & About Page + Site News

Use the Menu (upper left) to navigate. Here are the main topics covered on this web site.

  • Fiddle Tunes! Tunes in abc notation and in PDF format.
  • abc Notation . Music written out in text form that can be displayed as standard notation and played back for proofreading or tune learning. Section includes:
    • abc tutorial on basics of using abc notation & links to web sites that document/teach abc, sources of music in abc, & to abc reader/converter software.
  • Learning tunes by ear and from notation, a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of each, differences in what is learned, combining the use of both kinds of learning with relevant links.
  • About Fiddle Music. General discussion of fiddle-related topics, starting with choosing chords for a tune.
  • Lamprey River Band. About the transition from the Dover dance to the Durham dance with schedule information.

 

 

Menu

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What makes abc notation worth learning?

Let's start this section by looking at why abc notation turns out to be so useful.

  • It is a way of writing out a piece of music as text . This makes it easy to exchange between musicians, as text documents are readable on any system. This has a couple useful consequences.
    • An abc tune is easily sent right in the body of an email; no need for a separate attachment.
    • Likewise it's easy put on a web page. It can go right on the page; no need for a link.
  • The software is free or very inexpensive, and it lets you display the tune in standard musical notation as well as play it back. That combination makes it especially useful for writing out music; the ease of playback makes for easy and effective proofreading.
  • Because it's so easy to use and the software is mostly free, many thousands of tunes are available on the Internet to download, print out and play back. This is a great source of learning materials!
    • If a tune isn't written out as you prefer, it's easy to make modifications to make it fit your needs.

 

​

Look for the following abc notation resources on this web site:

 

An abc Tutorial. Starting on the next page is a modest abc tutorial.

Useful abc Links. Links with descriptions given to informational web sites and to useful abc software. Once you're done with the tutorial, this should help you to further your knowledge.

Peter's abc Help File. I made it for my own use but you may find it to be useful too.

NH Country Dance Tune Book. Many of these tunes are from the Lamprey River Band Tune Book. There are quite a few others I wrote out as well.  All are presented here in abc format and as PDFs.

 

​

 

The next few pages contain a tutorial on abc notation followed by useful links for learning and using abc notation. You don't have to understand much about abc notation to copy and print out a tune; but it really helps if you want to do anything more than that.

Contact Form: If you have questions, corrections, or any other feedback or thoughts about this or any other part of the web site, please feel free to send me a note!

Click on the Next Page arrow to begin the abc Tutorial.

 

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