I’m working on the B-flat hornpipe “The Mountain Top.”
It’s in B-flat which I’ll grant you isn’t my favorite key on Irish flute–which is exactly why I’m spending so much time working on this!–but even with the two flats and the F-natural, you’d not think this thing would be that hard.
At first I could play the B part fine but the A part needed work.
Now I can play the A part fine but on the B part I am having some trouble with leaking air from my second and third fingers on the little Bb-A-Bb-G-Bb-F-Bb-D figure. If I try to “choke up” on the flute more I leak worse from the second finger; if I back off the flute a bit, I leak from the third.
I’m still working on it but just thought I’d share the frustration. Aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhh!!!
From time to time on this forum I have asked, why do people not use the Finale 2002 software? I never get a response. No one says, I don’t like it, or it costs too much, just no response. I use it all the time. I download midi files, turn them into Finale (.mus) files. What you get is the sheet music. I use it to have a vertual orchestra play along with me. Or to learn a new song, I slow it down. An arrow points to the notes being played. One can also write lyrics and score fast and change key signature pronto. For example, it took me about 10 minutes to copy the notes from the url that James cited for “Mountain Top”. When I switched it over from Bb to D major, it sounds good in either key. If otheres had the software, I could send out “Mountain Top” or any other song to anyone in the forum.
There are many thousands of songs in all genres in midi format that you could turn into a score to play along with you or play for you while you listen
So why do none of the people in this forum use this software?
Well, the ABC program I use is free, the format is open rather than propriatary, it’s easy to enter tunes (I can enter a reel in around five minutes), pretty easy to read even without a music program, and easy to post. What’s not to like?
If you want to see what the end result looks like – at least the PNG version, the program’s Postscript output looks even better when printed – click on the link in my sig and look for “dots” links.
Now, to your question, but first apologising to the owner of this thread for going off topic.
I use Cubase SL3 for recording audio and MIDI. I very rarely use the score editing page because I don’t find it helps me to see the “dots” - I can think better in melodies and keyboard shapes, and the piano-roll editor more closely reflects what is actually being played than the score pages do (it’s almost impossible to accurately render a piece of real-time playing into traditional musical notation).
When it comes to folk music, if I ever have to write something out for someone else to play, I almost always do it the old-fashioned way - manuscript and a fine 2B propelling pencil. I am considered by my friends to be a PC and recording guru (well, by some of them anyway!) and yet I still find it easier to write music by hand rather than entering it with a mouse or keyboard.
Plus, if I have my choice, I would rather read handwritten music than computer-generated scores. All those old session books with handwritten dots just seem easier to read than the slick, fussy computer prints from score-editing programs.
Still, I am sure there are lots of people on this forum who use Finale or Sibelius or a related product.
Learning to write ABC format took a little effort but was well worth it.
For sharing trad tunes in email, forums, and mailing lists, ABC is the established standard.
Why introduce a new standard when there’s already a working, easy, and free standard available?
Also if you want printed scores from ABC there are free programs for just about any operating system you can think of that will do this. That’s particularly handy for me since I may be using any one of 6 OS when I hit the boards.
BTW, it occurred to me that my estimate of how fast it was to ABC was based mostly on tunes I’d written, where I have to keep a whistle at hand to figure out the notes as I go. So I just opened a tunebook and entered “The Liffey Banks” as ABC. Took me 3 minutes and 26 seconds to enter it in completely, including a couple of rolls and first and second endings. I made three mistakes in the process, which once I’d printed it out took me another ten keystrokes or so to fix.
ABC is very well-optimized for entering tunes. ABC’s simplicity is a very good match to traditional dance music.
I guess I did not make my point clearly. Suppose you want a guitar or piano accompaniment for an Irish or other tune. ABC does not do that. Suppose you want to play a duet flute with or without another instrument, ABC does not do that. Suppose you go into a site with hundreds of midi files. You download it and right now, there is the score. Switch it from D to Bb or Eb or G or what ever. ABC does not do that. Aren’t there some times when everyone wants to play something that is not strictly Irish tred?
Yes, if I want to play a guitar accompaniment to an Irish tune, it helps to see the dots for the tune, but I can generally do it by ear.
I would do harmonies with another instrument by ear.
There are free file converters from ABC to MIDI or score. I don’t read ABC, but it is no hassle to convert if I need it.
Rare to switch a ITM tune to a different key - you won’t be able to play it with anyone! The exception is going up a fifth on the fiddle or banjo - just move up a string.
Non-Irish trad: totally agree, score is better. I have never seen Latin rhythms written in ABC! But then, this is an ITM forum, no?
ABC will let you do chords above the staff, and there is at least one version that will do as many parts as you want.
Suppose you want to play a duet flute with or without another instrument, ABC does not do that.
See above.
Suppose you go into a site with hundreds of midi files. You download it and right now, there is the score. Switch it from D to Bb or Eb or G or what ever. ABC does not do that.
Most certainly the ABC program I use lets you effortlessly transpose keys, a fact I’ve used to my advantage when dealing with tunes in A major by playing them on E whistle.
Aren’t there some times when everyone wants to play something that is not strictly Irish tred?
Sure, but I don’t generally create scores for such. If I did, I probably would install Lilypond or something similiar designed to that sort of work. But I wouldn’t talk about it here.
For the purposes of tunes, which I do translate to notation on a regular basis, ABC is just about perfect. I’ve ABCed over 100 tunes this year, and it just really works well for the job. Though I do need to sit down and figure out how to generate fermatas and DCs/DSs for my great-great-grandfather’s tunes.
The tune may be available in easier keys, but it’s still a good exercise to work on tunes in the harder keys if your goal is to get comfortable with them. Perhaps the guys who put together O’Neill’s transcribed it from someone playing a Bb set of pipes or something. Who knows.
I’ve been playing Over The Moor to Maggie in F, and learning tunes like Broken Pledge, Golden Castle, and Galway Bay which all use a few keys in their normal keys. It is slowly getting easier, and I’m realizing that the bigger limitation of these keys on flute is the ornamentation options. For instance, it’s possible to roll on F but it’s weird compared to any non-keyed note. I basically do it as two cuts, the first being a lefthand note and the second being a release/press of the F key again. It’s awkward to get the timing right.
However, there’s just something about the sound of G minor/dorian that I really like, so I’m determined to get comfortable in it
At the height of the simple system flute, even self-taught amateurs were routinely playing music keys ranging from six sharps to six flats with a range of three octaves, sometimes more. They had a deep familiarity with the wooden flute and from what I’ve read, they had a standard of playing which was quite high.
I’m not looking to equal that–few people can, today, on the simple system flute. But I am hoping to get comfortable in keys ranging from four sharps to four flats over maybe two octaves and a fifth.
It’s a work in progress, like everything else about my playing.
