Transcribing Songs in ABC

Discussion in 'Player Created Resources' started by Graynight, Jan 2, 2017.

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  1. Graynight

    Graynight Avatar

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    So, if you're like me, there's just something about doing it yourself that is rewarding. I mean, sure, anyone can just download an .abc file, stick it in their sheet music folder, and play to their hearts content.

    But where's the fun in that? And really, I've gone searching, and I can't find the music I want to hear.

    Because of that, I started writing my own ABC files. Now, I'm certain that someone with more experience will probably come along and correct me, but as I couldn't find anything on these forums about how to transcribe songs, I decided to make one. Consider this my "What I learned from trying to write and import into SOTA" tutorial.


    Lesson 1: What needs to be placed on top.

    For purposes of this, I am using notepad. I am sure there are a lot of programs out there that will help (and I'll get into the one I use shortly), but notepad is quick, simple, and nearly everyone has it. Really, any type of txt program will work.

    X:1
    T:<Song Title>
    C:<Original Writer>
    Z: <Person who Transcribed>
    Q: <Notes per minute>
    L:<What's the standard note>
    M:<Time Signature>
    K:<Key Signature>
    <Song Here>

    That is the top of your text. It should alway be there. I think it's pretty self explanatory. To my knowledge the X can be any number you want. I use "1" simply because I copy/paste from one song to the other and write the info into it.

    Also note, don't add the < > Just write the information.

    Lesson 2: Notes and Language

    I am assuming everyone understands basic music. You have notes A-G, and they repeat. .ABC considers Middle C the starting point.

    C - Middle C the starting point
    C, - This is one octave below middle C
    c - This is one octave above middle C
    c' - This is two octaves above middle C
    _C - This is the symbol for Flat. With the C there, we have CFlat (Cb)
    ^C - This is the symbol of Sharp. So I'm showing CSharp (C#)
    =C - This is the symbol for Natural.
    C/ - This means play the note at half the length of your "L" standard. So if you have it at 1/4 (quarter note), this will be an eighth note
    C2 - This means play the note at twice the length of your "L" Standard. Half note
    C4 - Four times the length. Whole note (You can also use fractions here. A dotted quarter note would be a C3/2)
    z - This is a rest. Think sleeping... Zzzzzzzzzzzz Must be lowercase, or it won't be recognized
    [ ] - This tells the program to play all the notes inside the bracket at the same time. [CGc] will have it play all three of those at the same time, while CGc will have it play C then G then c.
    | - Bar. Purely visual
    |] - End of the song. Purely Visual


    - When you are going up or down an octave, that symbol is placed AFTER the letter, but before the note length
    - Sharps and Flats are placed BEFORE the letter _C ^F =G
    - Note length is placed at the END of the note...notation. C,,,,/ D'2 =F''3/4
    - Stuff is case sensitive. C and c are different octaves.
    - you want to go higher or lower? Keep adding ,,,, and '''' (For Bass clef notes, I have put in F,,,, before)

    Certain symbols/commands you find won't work in Sota (though they WILL work in other programs)
    (3 - Triplets (Use instead C1/3C1/3C1/3)
    H - Fermata (just extend the note a couple of beats)
    ( ) - Slur/Hold the note through a couple of bars. (not happening. Extend the note yourself)
    . - Staccato (Same thing. Won't work)
    |: :| - Repeat (Sota will just continue on)
    |1 |2 - Those happy "First time around, do this, second time do this" (SOTA will play through |1 and go to |2 without stopping, then continue on)

    Confused yet? Awesome.


    Lesson 3: Structure and putting it all together

    Ok, time to introduce an ABC program. I use a freebie download called EasyABC. It allows me to see the music in note form as I write it, as well as play it so I can be sure it sounds right. Honestly, I just downloaded the first freebie one I could find. EasyABC

    So, we download, open it up, and it looks like this.

    [​IMG]

    Well, actually, it's blank most times but I stuffed my information in it to begin with. You can see that nothing appears up top. That is where it will convert what you write on the bottom to music notes.

    Let's fill in some stuff. For this lesson, I'm going with the old fashioned "Greensleeves". Why? Public domain, (The song has been around a few hundred years) and you can pick it up from free sheet music sites (like 8notes.com) It's a great place to find stuff. Greensleeves (for those that want to follow along)

    [​IMG]

    You'll notice that it's writen in a master staff (Having treble and bass). While I have asked MANY people, the answer I get is ABC can't read both staffs. So if you want it to be solo, you need to alter it to fit it all in one staff.

    First things first. Let's fill out the information we know.
    X:1 <-I've yet to discover any difference if I add a different number, so I go with 1
    T: Greensleeves <-The name of the song
    C: Traditional <-Lacking a proper "written by Bob". Although rumors state Henry VIII wrote it
    Z: Graynight <-Me. I'm transcribing it, so I get to put my name here
    N: For Accordion and Piano <-If you have specific instruments in mind.
    Q:1/4=100 <- 100 quarter notes per minute is the tempo
    L:1/4 <- Quarter note (1/4) is the standard note
    M:3/4 <- Time signature. Three beats per bar, quarter note standard
    K:C <- Key of C. No unintended Sharps or Flats. Everything is natural unless I say otherwise

    Back to the song. Let's do this one line at a time

    [​IMG]


    Isn't it pretty? It's got Mezzo Piano, and slurs and....yeah. Sota doesn't really care about bars, the little symbols and notes that you add in to make it look pretty. So you can toss "mezzo Piano (MP)" in all you want, and it will laugh at you while playing it unaltered. It doesn't recognize them. So if you want some fun fermatas or whatever, you'll have to do it manually.

    One other thing. I don't know how it works on your computers, but whenever I sit down to play something, half the time it will jump a bar ahead. Because of that, I usually stick a two beat rest in first.

    So here's the first bar of the song.

    z2 A|

    Yup. That's the first bar. You don't have to have the space between the 2 and A; you'll see as I get going that I don't. I usually place spaces in to seperate eighth notes, but in essence, you can write it all without a single space. Same for lines down. I usually go one line of music to one line of code, and I try to place the bars (|) where they are in the music. That way if I need to find a bad note, I can go "Third line, second bar"; but Sota doesn't care. It's for your visual, not for playing.

    Back to the song. Here's the first line

    z2 A|[A,2c2]d|[A,3/2e3/2]|f/e|[G,2d2]B|[G,3/2G3/2]A/B|[F,2c2]A|[F3/2A3/2]^G/A/|

    On easyABC, it looks like this

    [​IMG]

    You can see I combined the Treble and Bass Clefs together to make the song. While it doesn't have the full flavor of the Bass Cleff notes going through the whole bar, it still allows the notes to be played.


    ABC won't let you play one note as a whole while playing other notes. It's an all or nothing theory. So you can see, I had to alter. Keep in mind, the notes do ring on a for a bit, it's usually enough that people miss the note isn't being played all the way.

    Alright. So now that that's done, here's the whole song.
    z2 A|[A,2c2]d|[A,3/2e3/2]|f/e|[G,2d2]B|[G,3/2G3/2]A/B|[F,2c2]A|[F,3/2A3/2]^G/A|
    [E,2B2]^G|[E,2E2]A|[A,2c2]d|[A,3/2e3/2]f/e|[G,2d2]B|[G,3/2G3/2]A/B
    [F,3/2c3/2]B/A|[E,3/2^G3/2]^F/^G|[A,3A3]|[A,3A3]|[C3=g3]|[C3/2g3/2]=f/e|[G,2d2]B|[G,3/2G3/2]A/B|
    [A,2c2]A|[A,3/2A3/2]^G/A|[E,2B2]^G|[E,3E3]|[C3g3]|[C3/2g3/2]f/e|
    [G,2d2]B|[G,3/2G3/2]A/B|[F,3/2c3/2]B/A|[E,3/2^G3/2]^F/^G|[A,3A3]|[A,3A3]|]
    You'll notice at the end I place a |] This says "Done" for the program. If you want the sound to last, extend the last note.

    Put it all together, and you get this happy little finished piece.

    X:1
    T: Greensleeves
    C: Traditional
    Z: Graynight
    N: For Accordion and Piano
    Q:1/4=100
    L:1/4
    M:3/4
    K:C
    z2 A|[A,2c2]d|[A,3/2e3/2]|f/e|[G,2d2]B|[G,3/2G3/2]A/B|[F,2c2]A|[F,3/2A3/2]^G/A|
    [E,2B2]^G|[E,2E2]A|[A,2c2]d|[A,3/2e3/2]f/e|[G,2d2]B|[G,3/2G3/2]A/B
    [F,3/2c3/2]B/A|[E,3/2^G3/2]^F/^G|[A,3A3]|[A,3A3]|[C3=g3]|[C3/2g3/2]=f/e|[G,2d2]B|[G,3/2G3/2]A/B|
    [A,2c2]A|[A,3/2A3/2]^G/A|[E,2B2]^G|[E,3E3]|[C3g3]|[C3/2g3/2]f/e|
    [G,2d2]B|[G,3/2G3/2]A/B|[F,3/2c3/2]B/A|[E,3/2^G3/2]^F/^G|[A,3A3]|[A,3A3]|]


    Copy this, paste it into your notepad or text whatever. Save it as "Greensleeves.abc" (make sure it's set to any files) and save it in the appropriate place. When you get in game, find an instrument and use the command /play Greensleeves


    ****
    I'd like to thank these two links for showing me most everything I learned.
    http://www.lesession.co.uk/abc/abc_notation.htm#k_field
    http://poorfox.com/hymns/How_to_Write_ABC.html

    If you have any questions, corrections to what I've written, or you just want something transcribed, feel free to pm me.

    I will update as I become more proficient on this, but for now I hope this is a good starter for you.
     
    Last edited: Jan 2, 2017
  2. majoria70

    majoria70 Avatar

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    Thanks for your work in giving us the info Graynight Has anyone found the song 'Just A Closer Walk With Thee'? I have files and a short version of this song, but I'd like a fuller version.
     
    Roycestein Kaelstrom likes this.
  3. Maus Merryjest

    Maus Merryjest Avatar

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    I wonder if someone could come up with a plugin for MuseScore that could export simple scores into ABC, provided they followed the format rules...]


    EDIT: I found out there is actually a way-
    Using MuseScore can export to MusicXML (visa File / Save As in 1.3, File / Export in the nightly builds for 2.0; no plugin required). Once you've exported to MusicXML, you can run the excellent xml2abc from Wim Vree:

    http://wim.vree.org/svgParse/xml2abc.html
     
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