Trad tunes in ABc's TradABc.com

trad

With the approval of my fellow Trad Mods I'd like to introduce boards.ie to my website

www.tradabc.com

The site contains (so far) about 120 tunes in ABc notation and hopefully will be of benefit to those learning trad tunes who don't read sheet music or aren't gifted enough to play by ear (me).

It's set out in a slightly different way to conventional ABc's and has been tried and tested by a Slow Sets group.

The tunes are in excel spread sheets and can be copied and pasted into a spread sheet. Site contains no ads and is not for profit.

I'll be adding more tunes over time and there's a facility on the site to request a tune to be added.

nuttz

How does your format differ to the established abc notation format? Why reinvent the wheel is really what I'm curious about?

There are alot of databases of traditional tunes in ABC notation format already established for years now.
Personally, I just read the staff notation and suggest to pupils they learn to read staff also, because I feel they will will be limited otherwise. But I find abc notation format is a good portable, legible format, which has plenty of software supporting it.

trad

Not trying to re - invent the wheel just make it roll smoother. A lot of the teachers I've been with read staff notation and have little or no time for ABc's. The effort they made to transcribe a tune in ABc was generally a mish mash of all capital letters some with a ' to denote the higher octave, some drew lines under the letter to denote the high octave, some drew circles around the letters and some couldn't be bothered "Go learn staff notation or play by ear".

Layout is different and easier (in my opinion) to follow
Here's the Cork Hornpipe off thesession.org

X: 1
T: The Harvest Home
R: hornpipe
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Dmaj
|:AF|DAFA DAFA|defe dcBA|eAfA gAfA|(3efe (3dcB AGFE|
DAFA DAFA|defe dcBA|eAfA gfec|d2 f2 d2:|
|:cd|eAAA fAAA|gAfA eAAA|eAfA gAfA|(3efe (3dcB (3ABA (3GFE|
DAFA DAFA|defe dcBA|eAfA gfec|d2 f2 d2:|

Here it is on my site http://http://tradabc.com/hornpipes.html#Cork (won't fit on this page)


Here's a difference
(3efe (3dcB (3ABA (3GFE| on the session

efe dcB ABA GFE on tradabc. I use bold italics to denote triplets which is far easier to read.

Layout
I lay out the tunes with part 1 on the top line and part 2 on the bottom line in landscape rather than portrait making it much easier to find your place if and when you get lost.

This site is aimed at those learning tunes not experienced players. For a lot of us staff notation is a step too far.

There are subtle differences and in my experience

NauP

Like it a lot!

Páid

You realise that all of the abc players will play the tunes on your website without triplets and won't support any of the changes you made to the abc notation on your website.

Abc (or staff notation for that matter) isn't that difficult to master. It just takes practice.

Teaching someone the incorrect way to use ABC will mean that they will have to unlearn it later and then learn the correct way.

trad

Thanks for the input.

From my experience most teachers only want pupils to learn the "correct" way.

Teachers by their very nature are good musicians. have studied music and understand the complexities of the music. some of us find playing a few tunes an achievement.

This site is aimed at people who have not and never will learn staff notation or can't pick up a tune by ear, they just want to play a tune and if this makes it easier then I'm happy and they will also be happy that they can play a tune.

Páid

trad wrote: »

From my experience most teachers only want pupils to learn the "correct" way.

I was referring to the fact that the "version" of abc that you have on your website will not play the tunes correctly in an ABC player (if they play at all) and that if people learn to read abc using abc visual they will experience difficulties reading normal abc e.g. if they search thesession.org for a particular tune they want to learn.

It's interesting that you have "solved" the problem of teachers using differing versions of abc by creating yet another flavour of abc.

trad

Again thanks for the input.


The object of the exercise is to help people playing trad tunes.I don't think it really matter how we get there. If this works, great, If standard ABc's work great, if staff notation works great, whatever works for the player to learn a tune.