Squeezebox Studio
Guide

ABC notation for melodeon players

By SGWNI,

ABC is a way of writing music in plain text, with letters for notes. It was made for folk tunes, and thousands of them are online in it. You don't have to learn to read it fluently, but knowing the basics helps you check a tune before you play it.

A tune in ABC

Here's a short exercise, written for this page. For the whole notation, see ABC notation explained.

X:1
T:Up and down in G
M:6/8
L:1/8
K:G
|:"G"GAB cde|"D"fga g3|"G"gfe dcB|"D"A3 "G"G3:|

The lines at the top are the header. Each starts with a letter and a colon:

  • X: a reference number, so a file can hold many tunes.
  • T: the title.
  • M: the time signature, here 6/8, a jig rhythm.
  • L: the default note length. With L:1/8 every letter is a quaver unless it says otherwise.
  • K: the key, G major. The key always comes last; the tune starts on the next line.

Reading the notes

Capital letters are the octave starting at middle C, and small letters the octave above. So G is the G above middle C, which on a standard 21-key D/G is the push on button 3 of the inner row (3′ in tab) and the pull on button 4 of the outer row, and g is the G an octave higher. A comma after a capital drops it another octave, and an apostrophe after a small letter raises it one.

A number after a note multiplies its length: g3 is three quavers long, a dotted crotchet. Because the key is G, every F is played as F♯; that's why the f in bar two is an F♯.

Bar lines are |, and |: and :| mark the start and end of a repeat. Text in double quotes before a note is usually a chord for the accompaniment, so "D" means a D chord there. Quotes that start with ^ or _ are just words printed above or below the music.

Where to find tunes

The Session has thousands of Irish and other traditional tunes in ABC, often with several versions of each, and abcnotation.com searches collections from all over the web.

Treat any ABC as one person's version of a tune. It may differ from the way it's played at your session, and the occasional transcription has a wrong note or a bar that doesn't add up. If something sounds odd, it's usually worth checking another version.

From ABC to tab

To play a tune from ABC you need to know which button gives each note, and which way to move the bellows. Squeezebox Studio does that part. Copy the ABC from a web page and paste it in, or open a saved .abc file, and the tune appears as tab for your own box. A file with a whole book of tunes in it works too.

Sources