ABC Notation - Unravel the Code

ABC notation is nothing new (it's been around since late 1991), but for many musicians it remains a bit of a mystery. For those still 'in the dark', ABC notation is a computer language that was created so that people could notate tunes in plain text format.

Unlike many other musical program languages, ABC is relatively easy to read/comprehend just by looking at it once you have a very basic ABC education.

Speaking of basic, (and I'm really going to date myself here) - anyone remember the first programming language learned in high school in the early 1980s? It was called BASIC. I remember learning it on a Commodore 64 (and playing lots of Space Invaders on that same machine)! lol. I mention it because ABC was written with much the same intent as BASIC - so that someone with only little or basic knowledge of the language could look at the script and read/understand what the program was meant to do. BASIC used terms that we were already familiar with like 'input' and 'print' and 'go to'. ABC is no different - a 'G' is the note G and a 'G2' is a G held twice as long as a 'G'.

So, that's pretty cool, but why bother to learn it when there is a ton of free music out there that is already transcribed onto our traditional staffs? Let me just answer that with a few 'becauses':

• Because for every traditionally transcribed tune you are seeing (on my site and others), there are hundreds of ABC notated tunes out there. Who wouldn't want to add those tunes to their library as well?
• ABC notation is like shorthand for the musician. Although most traditional players learn aurally (by ear) and simply commit tunes to memory, if you're learning a new tune and have limited time to "lock it in" or simply don't trust your memory (grimace) ABC is a fast, efficient way to jot down a tune and be able to read it later (when your memory has unashamedly taken an eraser to the chalkboard of your brain).
• Traditional tunes seem to invariably have multiple variations and, of course, we will want to find 'the one' we heard and 'the one' may be a bit difficult to find. ABC notation provides an additional hunting ground. Many ABC notation sites currently offer several takes on the same tune (or even tunes transcribed in different keys).
• Because it's just cool to learn something new, something someone else might not know. Remember wanting to be a spy as a kid (Maybe you're old enough to remember decoder rings? This time, I'm NOT! - lol) and wanting to send notes that only you and your best friend could read? ABC kind of resembles spy code, no?

So, have I convinced you to try ABC? I hope so. Learning ABC is like being given a key to a treasure chest of tunes and as I stated above there are several great ABC sites on the Internet. Simply type 'ABC notation' into a Google search and it will return an abundance of sites. The first result abcnotation.com will likely be your primary learning source. The tutorials located there are top notch and the search function for finding tunes is awesome. Another great source for tunes is JC's ABC Tune Finder.

Additionally, this post wouldn't be complete without mentioning the fact that there are several, excellent programs out there that will transcribe ABC notation into our traditional staff notation. So, if you find an ABC file for a particular tune, you need only to open it with one of these programs and it will transcribe the tune for you. You can also write your own tunes in ABC notation within these programs and they will generate the traditional staff notation for you. Nice, huh?

Even nicer, is that many of these programs are freeware or shareware. abcnotation.com has a link that lists several options for you to try. Currently, I have been testing out BarFly (I have a Mac) and am very happy with it at the time of this writing. Their icon is pretty cute too:

Bottom Line: If you haven't heard of or haven't taken the time to familiarize yourself with ABC notation you're missing out on a whole lot of possibilities. And why would you want to do that?