so, somebody please explain what this means?
X:1233
T:You Never Saw Her Equal
R:Reel
N: Collected by F. O’Neill
B:O’Neill’s 1233
Z: Transcribed by Trish O’Neil
M:C|
L:1/8
K:G
(Bc)|dBGB (3ABA GB|dBGB A2(Bc)|dBGB (3ABA GB|cABG A2(Bc)|
dBGB (3ABA GB|dBGB A2(Bd)|gfga bagf|gedB A2||
(Bd)|(3efe de gedg|(3efe dB A2(Bd)|(3efe de gedB|cABG A2(Bd)|
(3efe de gedg|(3efe dB A2(Bd)|(3efg (3fga gedB|cABG A2||
Cran, the only stupid question is the one you don’t ask! 
That is ABC notation, which is a kind of shorthand way of writing music. When people first started connecting computers together, everything was text-only, so the traditional way of writing tunes with the staff and written notes didn’t work well.
ABC is not very hard to learn, and in time you can actually learn to “sightread” it just as you could regular written music.
Here is a good page on ABC:
http://www.lesession.co.uk/abc/abc_notation.htm
–James
Use the ‘ABC Convert-A-Matic’ at concertina.net to convert it to regular sheet music or MIDI.
http://www.concertina.net/tunes_convert.html
Thank you, thank you.
Thank you.
I am not exactly sure how whistle notation looks, and whatnot.. but one might even be able to use the “Electric Pipes” software to convert it. The free trial package is a great for pipes.. but you never know unless you try it out.
Well, Cran, I must be stupid too because I don’t understand what’s written there!
I find standard notation easier to read for whistling, but I do like tab when it comes to guitar. Go figure . . . 
This is the “ABC Homepage” I use:
http://www.gre.ac.uk/~c.walshaw/abc/#collections
where I collected not only the software, but a vast amount of traditional music in abc format.
The nice thing is, using the software and the .abc files, your computer suddenly has a vast repository of music which it can play to you (so you can pick up the rhythm and pitch), while at the same time being able to convert the format to printed sheet music (with or without tablature).
Hope this helps!
Yes, definitely, but ABC is much easier to store on a computer and share with anyone on any operating system, as it is just plain ASCII text. I always wanted to learn it, looks like a useful shorthand for quick tune notation as well (I’m still using a different one that I made up a few years ago, but nobody else can read it).
Sonja
You’re right, it would be easier to share. I just might have to learn it!
Sonja… I don’t know what ‘flavour’ of Linux you use (assuming from your profile you’re running a Linux distro), but there are a few apps (for Debian that I know of for sure) that run on Linux which will convert ABC format to sheet music (output either in .pdf or .ps), and still others which will directly convert *.mid files to ABC/notation.
The ‘homepage’ link I posted above explains the notation fully, including all the information that’s held in the ‘header’ of the tune (key signature, tempo, etc).
If start looking you’ll find people using little snatches of abc in their posts to point out different versions etc etc. Here is an example I remember because I posted it, see particularly StevieJ’s post. Very useful.
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=5277
For the benefit of those who haven’t been around long enough to see the warning before, I’d like to strongly discourage learning tunes from abc converter software (or midi files). If you do, you will sound like you yourself are computer-generated. After all, the point of learning by ear is picking up all the little things that you don’t see in musical notation and those are the things lost in abc converters or midi files. Abc converters are fine for getting a first impression, seeing if you recognize a tune and so forth, but that’s it. So, better get a real recording if you are going to learn a tune.
Just my $.0125:
I think having the notes written down, be it on sheet music or in ABC, is a great assistance in learning a tune. One of the hardest parts, especially for a newer player, is picking up the notes “out of the thin air” from a recording–but with the notes in front of you, you are halfway there.
That said, it’ll only get you halfway there. Bloomfield’s caution is accurate: there is a lot going on in this music you simply can’t notate. You gotta listen, and you gotta get a feel in your head for what each kind of tune can sound like.
And it takes time…a lot of it. But it’s great fun, and deeply satisfying when your playing really starts coming together.
–James
I wholeheartedly agree with Bloomfield and peeplj…
But I’ve only been playing for a couple of weeks now, and using the .abc/pooter combo is teaching my fingers where to go, and when…
Playing a reel or a jig on the PC (never mind the stereo) in ‘real time’ is terrifyingly quick, but I can slow it right down (unlike a CD or a cassette tape) to a fraction of its ‘proper’ speed and listen, and learn to play, each note. Not that I have any expectations of diving straight into the complicated stuff like reels and jigs at this stage!
When the fingers have learned to do their stuff all on their own, that’s when I can start thinking about interesting things like rhythm, and cranking the speed up a bit. Lately I’ve been having a b*gger of a job trying to convince the fingers to move from an A straight to an F without going through G first…that’s the stage I’m at, hence my present reliance on the artificial aids.
I believe that slow-down software like Transcribe! or Amazing Slow Downer are the way to go if stuff happens too fast on a good IrTrad CD. Best way to learn!
Playing along with an ABC or midi file does NOT teach your fingers “where to go, and when” because what you hear is NOT music but only staff notation made audible.
(And I’ll shut up now… 
)
If you are running a flavor of Windows, check out Winamp with the pacemaker and Musicians loop tool plugins. You can change tempo and/or pitch with the pacemaker plugin.
Yes, and thanks for the link. I’m still trying to learn to read and write ABC by eye and hand only, for even if I’m a geek I don’t always have a computer with me
Sonja
ABC notation is also useful for indexing tunes, and for finding tunes in such indexes. Henrik Norbeck, who has ABC’d over a thousand Irtrad tunes, has constructed indexes like this one, which is for reels in keys beginning with D:
http://www.norbeck.nu/abc/index/xreeld.htm
So suppose you remember the first few bars of a reel in D. If it’s an Irtrad tune, you’d have a good chance of finding it in this index … assuming you’re fluent in ABC. And from there you can find the full ABC notation – and then convert it to standard notation if you wish.
Norbeck’s ABCMus software allows you to create such indexes for your own ABC collection. I use such an index as a memory aid for tunes I know. I can list ~100 tunes, including the ABCs for the first two measures, on the front and back of one sheet of paper.
–C#/D