> > When touch-typing abc you don't spend much time looking at the screen,
> > so the equivalent is:
> >
> > *Look at the score, see that the next note is A and it's 1/8.
> > *Hit the Shift and A keys without taking your eyes off the score.
> >
> > No competition.
> >
> > Of course if you are entering a tune out of your head the difference
> > is much less, but even so I think abc has the edge.
>
> Actually, I find that I'm even faster when I'm entering a tune out of my
> head.  In Phil's descriptions above, with a graphical editor, the slow
> step is dragging the note from the palette to the staff.  With abc, the
> slow step is looking at the score to see what the length and value of
> the next note are.
>
> If I've got a tune already in my head, I can just type the whole thing
> as I hear it, often at about half speed.  In fact, ABC is the only thing
> I've found so far that's faster for me than a pencil and staff paper.

Now there certainly are a couple of things we must not forget.

I know people who can't read sheet music at all. I know people who can't sing 
sheet music even if they can play it. I know people who can't write sheet 
music at all. I know people who can write sheet music in the same key as it's 
played on the original CD if they have a musical instrument at hand. Often I 
don't even have to hear the original record. I just sit down and type in the 
tune the way I think it should be, then do an optical proofreading without 
midi conversion, and - voila! - that's it.

Etc. etc. you know what I am aiming at, right?

I personally type on a keyboard which has no letters and numbers at all 
printed on it. This means I'm not able to look at the keyboard and enter a 
"p" with one index finger. I must look away and put the fingers where they 
belong and then, with the right pinky, I hit the "p" all right. I have seen 
how easy it is to teach this proper way of typing to a 9 year old girl (my 
daughter).

Also I can write down any tune in any key using the abc format without having 
any other tools at hand than my right foot to tap the rhythm with. I just use 
abc2ps now and then to see that I actually did everything alright.

For such people, abc is a very good choice. You can enter a complete song in a 
few minutes and that's it. Such people can have a tremendous sheet music 
output.

But - on the other hand - if you are a musician who is only occasionally 
writing any tunes at all, and if you are not very experienced with typing, 
and if you are using abc so little that you have problems remembering the 
syntax, and if... and if... , - then you better go and use Noteworthy or some 
other simple graphical tool which anyone can intuitively use. As we can all 
see, such a person will not be entering whole songbooks like Atte does, and 
he will certainly not bother filling it with lyrics and chords etc.

====

My conclusion:

abc is good for people who (1) are very experienced in the use of a computer, 
(2) who can do the necessary intellectual abstractions in their mind and type 
in the tune at the same time (3) who use sheet music - both reading and 
writing, and who write a lot of musical notes and therefore have a big sheet 
music output.


Just my 2 cents

Ulf
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