Michael,
as Ulf has pointed out, everything that you're trying to do here can already
be accomplished in abc, mainly by making use of the spaces between notes:
%Example 1 M:2/4 V:- | ab abcd |
GROUPING, CONTINUATION and SUBDIVISION The above measure represents a group of 2 eighth-notes, ab, followed a group of 4 sixteenth notes.
M:2/4 L:1/16 K:C | a2b2 abcd |
%Example 2 M:4/4 V:- | ab a--b abc -efg |
The above measure has 4 beats:
The first, ab, is 2 eighths as in the prior example.
The second, a--b is a dotted-eighth and a sixteenth.
The third, abc, is triplet-sixteenths with the final c
tied to the first (normal) sixteenth of the fourth beat, which concludes
with 3 normal sixteenths.
M:4/4 L:1/8 K:C | ab a>b (3abc- efg |
(that bar doesn't add up, by the way)
%Example 3 M:4/4 V:- | b - ab - | - c - - |
Above we have a half-note b followed by an eighth a and an eighth b tied
to 2 quarters across the bar line followed by a dotted half c (or 3 tied
quarters if you prefer to think of it that way).
M:4/4 L:1/8 K:C | b2 ab- b2- | b2 c6 |
%Example 4 M:4/4 V:- | 2abcde f g |
Above, the first two beats are subdivided into five notes, abcde.
M:4/4 L:1/8 K:C | (5:4:5abcde f2g2 |
SUMMARY
I believe the variant proposed herein covers all rhythms expressible in
conventional notation. Most important, it represents the rhythms as
subdivisions of uniform beats in the same manner as conventional
notation. I think this greatly improves the ease with which one can play
directly from the abc script.
As an extra benefit it is, in many instances, more compact than abc's present conventions.
It might actually be easier to read, but it would take some time and
practice to find out. Meantime, there's a whole corpus of music available
in standard abc, and quite a few people who can already read that just as
it is. Changing it would be an awful lot of work for very little gain.
Phil Taylor
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