please could somone advise me of a program that can be used to transcribe piping tunes - something that would allow you to notate things like triplets and to indicate rolls and crans - anything that would allow tunes to be notated along the lines of what e spring did with the camden breeze would be perferct
Edwin Spring of The Camden Breeze fame - a program that allows you to type in notes straight into manuscript would be perfect (i don’t get on very well with abc)
I hate ABC as well and prefer a proper music score. Was recommended the following http://musescore.org/ which I am told is based on the high end Sibelius scorewriting program and is just as powerful
It is available for all platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac) and best of all it is free of charge
John
I hate ABC as well and prefer a proper music score
… might I suggest having a look at “ABC Explorer”, http://abc.stalikez.info/abcex.php it’s freeware for the PC and, once you’ve got the headers entered (title, tempo and key), just type your notes (A b c/2 etc) and the musical score appears at the same time. Yes, you do need to spend a few minutes familiarising yourself with the basics of ABC notation initially, but once you’ve mastered those (or made up a crib sheet) you can look up the more advanced features as you need them.
wow finally I hold something in common with Elmek??
imho, there is no substitute for notation. Transcribing a tune from a recording to paper by hand, gives one an intimate connection with the piece that is seldom broken 
[abc my ars, btw] 
In the sense that they’re both scorewriting programs, perhaps…
and is just as powerful
It’s not!
It is available for all platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac) and best of all it is free of charge
But it is free.
Best way to start any transcription, no matter what you intend to do with it afterwards! 
I saw the title “tool for transcribing tunes”, and immediately thought: pencil. 
oh, the intervals…
I tend to agree with the pencil idea. Lots to be learned in the process.
But at the same time, I don’t understand at all the “I hate ABC” crowd. I’d hate it too if I intended to play from it, but I don’t view it as that sort of thing. It is a useful tool for quickly getting a tune onto paper, for exchanging tunes with others, and for collecting tunes without using tons of storage space.
What makes it useful for me, though, is the simplicity of seeing the music notation result. Easy ABC does this beautifully on any platform. I’m told ABC Explorer does it too, though I don’t use that. If what you want is nice clean notation ABC is an excellent tool. If what you want is bagpipe notation ABC handles it. Playing from it would be a drag, particularly I think for pipers, but some folks love it for that.
Just decided to see how fast I can enter ABC.
Here we go, three tunes I know but have never seen transcribed.
X:1
T:Boyd's Cove Joey Clement's
M:2/4
L:1/8
R:Single
K:D
EF AF|EF D2|EF AF|EF A2|Bc/B/ AF|EF D2|EF AF|E2 E2:|
|:Be ed|BA d2|Be2f|e2 de|fe ed|B2 AF|EF AF|E4:|
X:2
T:Boyd's Cove Single #2
M:2/4
L:1/8
R:Single
K:G
GA Bd|de/f/ g2|GA Bd|GB A2|GA Bd|de/f/ g2|ae ed|GB A2:|
|:ae ed|de/f/ g2|ae ed|GB A2|ae ed|de/f/ g2|ge ed|GB A2:|
X:3
T:Boyd's Cove Single #3
M:2/4
L:1/8
R:Single
K:D
dc B2|AF AB/c/|df e2|fe e2|dc B2|AF AB/c/|df e2|[1 fd d2:|[2 fd de|
|:fd fg|a2 ag|fd fg|a2 ag|fd B2|AF AB/c/|df e2|[1 fd de:|[2 fd d2|]
Look at the time stamps to see how long it took me, and hey, I had to go check out the Lima Locomotive works in the family room.
[Edited to fix errors in my conception of how the tunes should be notated.]
Ah! Got you IDed. How goes it? See y ou next Midland, maybe. We can play Frieze Britches…
Chuck Boody
Oh! I certainly never put together your ID and your face. That was Steph who knew Frieze Britches, though, I only know “Buried My Wife…” (two-part version). Suppose I should get off my behind and learn F.B., though, it’s a classic.
BTW, everyone, I’m pretty sure those ABCs above have rhythmic glitches. Not a limitation of ABC at all, just the hazard of quickly notating music which might be crooked – I think I stuck the downbeats in the wrong spot on #2 and definitely accidentally added a beat in the second part of #3. So I was able to use ABC to quickly get all the notes and rhythms I wanted (actually made no ABC coding mistakes at all entering those three) but I wasn’t able to quickly figure out the details of the tunes. I’ll update them in a minute (and update them again if Gerry Strong comes back with further suggestions).
Anyway, here’s the Dardanelles playing the set.
I never knew my ID and my face had anything in common! 
Yeah I know you didn’t play FB, my comment was a gentle push!
Seriously, it was fun to play with you folks. A nice sense of style. Perhaps better than some of the others there. It was unfortunate we had so few tunes in common beyond the very common though. PM me some tune lists and I’ll look into picking up some of your stuff. I liked some of it quite well.
ABC is several things.
It can be used in place of standard notation and some can sight read it. Fine and dandy if that is your thing.
It can be used as an efficient, standard way to convey notation. The standards are used by several different programs and can be easily read. It is the text version of sheet music and can be read and edited on any computer and easily edited. For an example of its usefulness, think about how easy it is to post and copy tunes on this form compared to even the “standard” PDF.
It is a useful user interface. It has a short learning curve, and compared to the click and drag method will become much quicker to use within a short period of time. If you need to enter notes, the ABC notation seems to be a simple and intuitive method.
Paper and pencil exist and so do typewriters, both fill a role and there are advocates of both but they can be complimentary. Overall, ABC notation is well documented and as close to universal in the electronic world as paper and pencil is in the more tangible world.