iPod Touch/iPhone app with 4000 tunes in .ABC instantly searchable by name or style… too cool.
Well worth the $1.99
Wow. Is it just for the iPod touch?
Anybody know of an ABC to dots app? I’m a dots guy… This would be perfect for me if it were dots.
[EDIT] This app is so cool I’m gonna figure out how to read ABC directly! It is VERY cool! Every tune I looked up was in the database. Only problem I’m having is that some of the notation is a little more advanced than the tutorial I used…
I second the “well worth the $1.99” comment above!
Pat
I guess us little ol’ non-iPodders are out of luck.
(Seems the world thinks iPod is the only option for personal audio/video. No so!)
It’s not like it’s for any iPod, either.
It’s only for iPhone and the iPod Touch
(which is just an iPhone w/o the phone).
This is because those devices have
operating systems which allow 3rd party
applications and wireless connectivity
which allows you to download such.
Most other MP3 devices lack these.
That is, it’s a technical limitation of the
other devices not short-sightedness…
Or I suppose another way to say it is,
Just because those other devices don’t
allow this sort of 3rd party app isn’t the
fault of the app maker.
Of course, most smart phones can open
any kind of file as text, including ABCs,
so the only thing that’s better with this
is that it includes a bunch of abc files
and is really easy to buy and download…
Yeahbut… I’m a techluddyte. 
Fair enough.
I just didn’t want you to think people
were leaving you out on purpose. 
I might just have to finally learn my ABCs (notation).
t
It’s really easy. If you see a “B” you play a B.
If you see a “b” you play a second octave B.
Nothing to it!
In case you haven’t already found them…
http://abcnotation.org.uk/
http://ecf-guest.mit.edu/~jc/music/abc/ABCsoftware.html
http://www.liestman.com/ABCs_Explained.pdf
I always want to switch the smalls and capitols. I’m a piper and upper octave notes require more pressure and can be louder. Form following function I would give those upper octave notes the capitol with it’s greater presence and gravitas and all.
But that’s just me. Time to reconfigure.
TK
It did seem kind of goofy, when I was explaining
it to someone else the other day, that the upper
octave uses the lower case… and vice versa.
That has always given me trouble as well.
Think: lower=lighter, UPPER=HEAVIER. 
Except … that’s backwards! In ABC: Lower = heavier, bigger letters. Higher = lighter, smaller letters. To go lower than low, add a thingy at the bottom (comma); to go higher than high, add a thingy at the top (apostrophe).
Remember that upper and lower case refer to the physical organization of the letters in the wooden movable type typecases, and not directly to the size of the type. Miniscule letters were kept in the more convenient lower typecase, because they’re more used.
FWIW, its a discussion not a poll, but I always thought it the way MTGuru puts it.
The bit that always throws me is it changing on C not D (yeah I know, white notes and all that)
Yes, that catches me, too. Until you render to standard notation and see all those middle Cs below the staff. Oops. 
BTW, does any musicologist here know why the first note of the ascending major (Ionian) scale - the “ut” or “do” of solfège - came to be labeled as C instead of the presumably more obvious A? I’ve always wondered about that.
After some research, I’m answering my own question … The explanation is both very simple and ridiculously complicated.
The pitch we regard as A (A2 on the piano) was considered the lowest (human vocal) note* in classical Greek music theory. So as adapted in early medieval usage, and using the Latin alphabet, “numbering” did in fact begin with A, B, C, etc.
- The proslambanomenos of the Greater Perfect System.
Then along came Guido d’Arezzo, who extended the range down by one note. He called this note Gamma because it’s an octave below G, but all the Latin letter names were already taken.
Then Guido applied his original solfège syllables (ut re mi fa sol la) to building hexachords up from Gamma: Gamma-ut*, A-re, B-mi, C-fa, and so forth, with the 3 key hexachords at intervals of a 4th. Namely: Gamma or G hexachord (hard), C hexachord (natural), and F hexachord (soft). With this system he could cover and describe the entire range of our piano grand staff (G2 to E5).
- The origin of the word “gamut”.
Later, historically, as Western music theory changed from hexachords and modes to modern octaves and major/minor, it just happens that Guido’s “natural” hexachord on C corresponded to our major scale. This is why we now think of C as the starting note.
It’s just a side effect of the fact that the original Greek and medieval theories behind the note-letter name scheme which we inherited are no longer relevant to our current way of thinking about music.
all the best ones are 