With this in mind, I've been struggleing while editing ABC lately. I'm not real good at reading music or ABC on the fly due to learing disability (latent cognition between reading and comprehending).
There's a few things that prove to be making reading ABC on the fly a real difficult task. I wonder what other people feel about my stumbling stones. 1. inline chords. Flotsom floating down midstream making navigation difficult. 2. spacing on either side of barlines... this actually is a very helpful deliniation for me... the problem arises with the numbered repeats |1 and :|2... all the programs I've tried only recognize these 'tokens' provided they do not have those spaces I like so much for readability | 1 aBc aBc :| 2 abc abc | anyone else struggle with these? > P J Headford comments: > | Just a reminder ... > | ABC is not just a computer thing. > | I know quite a few musicians who can play you the tune from the ABC > | notation. > > This is worth repeating periodically as a reminder of one of ABC's > main features. One example from last year: I got email from someone > saying that their daughter wanted to learn a tune for a musical > contest, and it was available online, but they were having problems > getting software to convert it to readable music. I recommended that > she learn to read the ABC directly, and sent a brief description of > how ABC works. A day or so later, I got another message saying that > she had learned the tune from the ABC and was busy practicing. > > One of the benefits of any plain-text data format is that you don't > necessarily need any fancy tools to read it. Plain text does work > against the fancy formatting, fonts, etc. that you can get with more > complex tools. But if you just want the information, plain text can > be a lot better than the fancier formats. > > Of course, there's a lot of ABC that's poorly formatted and difficult > to read, justasreadingruntogetherEnglishtextwouldbe. But that's not a > problem with ABC itself. > > | Also, when I'm in a session and someone plays a tune I'd like to > remember, > | I can simply note down the first few bars in ABC more quickly (and > more > | legibly) in ABC than stave notation. > > If you look up Chris Walshaw's story on how he invented ABC, you'll > see that this was exactly where he started. He was familiar with TeX > and MusicTeX, and it occurred to him that a simple translator could > turn his alphabetic notation into music notation. The result was > abc2mtex. But the original form of ABC was handwritten music. > > | >From what is being said on the list, I gather MusicXML would not > have this > | interface to the real world. > > MusicXML is intended as a computer-friendly music notation. It's not > at all a replacement or competitor for ABC. The advent of powerful > "word processor" software hasn't eliminated the usefulness of > plain-text documents, and it's likely that ABC will continue to be > used despite all the powerful music software that's being developed. > > To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: > http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html > -- Christian Marcus Cepel | And the wrens have returned & [EMAIL PROTECTED] icq:12384980 | are nesting; In the hollow of 371 Crown Point, Columbia, MO | that oak where his heart once 65203-2202 573.999.2370 | had been; And he lifts up his Computer Support Specialist, Sr. | arms in a blessing; For being University of Missouri - Columbia | born again. --Rich Mullins To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
