[abcusers] Re: To tell the dancer from the dance
John Walsh - One basis of misunderstanding here may be an assumption that instrument-specific notation must be carved in stone in the language--as u and v for upbow and downbow are now, for instance. It doesn't. (It can't, really, for abc doesn't have the resources. In my own case, I have to invent notation which would be quite useless to almost anyone else, and I certainly don't want to saddle others with it.) I agree wholeheartedly. What I don't want is to be told You can't use character such-and-such in your new abc extension, even though it would be of enormous benefit to all users, because I'm already using it to indicate forked F on the oboe. (It's a slightly different pitch so it is musically relevant.) I think a distinction has to be made between private and public abc. If you are just using abc as an input format for your own typesetting software, then obviously you can do what you like. It doesn't affect anybody else. If you are exchanging tunes with a group of people with the same specialist interest, again, no problem. as long as you've all got access to software that will handle it. The problem comes when you go public and try to distribute tunes to a wider audience. Then I think restrictions should apply. I figured you'd shown that that line of reasoning led to the outlawing of instrument-specific notation in abc. Well, it didn't take much figuring since that is what I stated explicitly but it is the public aspect of abc that I was referring to. I'm not sure why you consider this mislistthropic. I want to be able to exchange tunes with everybody, regardless of what instrument they play or what software they are using. I love you all! Bryan Creer To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
[abcusers] Re: The new BarFly
Phil Sauve wrote: 2. When I replay a tune in the split screen mode, the music play always goes back to the first tune entered and then I have to manualy go to the tune I want repeated. Phil Taylor wrote: When you play a tune in BarFly, the tune which plays is the one where the text insertion point is located. If you move the insertion point yourself you may find a different tune plays than the one whose music is on display. Is that what's happening here? Phil Sauve wrote: As far as the second problem, your advice did solve it. If I am not mistaken, this is slightly different behavior from previous versions of BarFly. When a tune is selected for display/play in split screen mode, the insertion point doesn't move to that tune, so after playing it once, a second attempt to play it will jump back to the (different) tune where the insertion point is. This is usually the first tune in the file because when you first open a file, that is where the insertion point is. It is very disconcerting, and I never noticed it happening in previous versions (which I no longer have for experimenting). __ /\/\/\/\ __ | | | | | David Barnert __ | | | | | [EMAIL PROTECTED] __ | | | | | Albany, N.Y. __ \/\/\/\/ Ventilator Concertina Bellows Bellows (Vocation) (Avocation) To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [abcusers] Re: The F F (and F F2) problems
James Allwright [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: What and gives you in abc2midi is a notation for tunes in 6/8 masquerading as tunes in 4/4. This covers hornpipes and probably strathspays (though I can't tell since I don't get to hear very many of those). This is not a mistake. Yes it is, as far as strathspeys are concerned. Many people play »« stuff in strathspeys tending towards 7:1 rather than 3:1 (that is, »AA« sounds like »AA« rather than »(3A2A«) but very few people if any consider strathspeys pseudo-12/8. The »« notation is so useful for strathspeys, many of which consist of nothing but »XY« and »XY«, that insisting that it is just for hornpipes strikes me as very impractical indeed. Look at, say, any volume of Kerr's Collection to see that »« (and »«) is just what the doctor ordered. Anselm -- Anselm Lingnau .. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Caveat: untested, so there may be typos, or even thoughtos. -- Donald Arseneau To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [abcusers] Re: To tell the dancer from the dance
Bryan Creer writes: Well, it didn't take much figuring since that is what I stated explicitly but it is the public aspect of abc that I was referring to. I'm not sure why you consider this mislistthropic. I don't at all---I was just referring to your statement that: There was no intention of sarcasm but perhaps my dealings with this list have left me a little bitter and twisted. ...What I don't want is to be told You can't use character such-and-such in your new abc extension, even though it would be of enormous benefit to all users, because I'm already using it to indicate forked F on the oboe. (It's a slightly different pitch so it is musically relevant.) This brings up a problem I've noticed in some of the abc2ps clones, tho it's probably more general: some of the characters H--Z are permanently bound to notation---J to a slide, H to a fermata, S to a segno, P to a pralltriller... (The first three don't bother me, since I use the same characters for the same things, but the fourth does, since I don't.) According to the standard, these characters are supposed to be free, but they are rapidly being taken up. I have no real quarrel with this---I use most of the characters the same way myself, and I'm glad for the extra notation---*as long as there is a way to turn it off*. (!) Or even better, to redefine the binding. It could be an entry in the fmt file, for instance. In other applications, it could be in preferences. Or...it could even be a formal part of abc... Cheers, John Walsh To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
[abcusers] re : slurs and ties
| brackets for slurs when it's possible. If not (if it may confuse) | I'll use - instead. In any case, most musicians don't consider them to be different. This one does. :-) Some folk musicians may not consider them to be different, but I'd argue that most classical musicians do. Oh, didn't I say that I do only the difference when it comes to copy written partitions to abc format ? I don't want to betray the original partition, or at least to loose the fewer informations so I write them. But when I play I don't bother longer with slurs or ties... :) For example in some partitions there is no slurs noted but the notes are obviously legato (especially on fiddle), but most of the time I don't read if there is slurs, one can feel is they are needed or not. And last but not least, it's faster to slur more than 2 notes than to tie them : I'd never think to write for example : c2-B-B-| G-B-F-B | instead of (c2B B | G B F B) | ___ Do You Yahoo!? -- Une adresse yahoo.fr gratuite et en français ! Yahoo! Mail : http://fr.mail.yahoo.com To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
[abcusers] Fingering for instruments... (was : To tell the dancer from the dance)
I've just been transcribing some tunes from Ryan's/Coles for John Chambers' project. These include fingering for the fiddle on some notes. I had to use guitar chords to stick this in, and, to be charitable, it looks awful. The numbers are too far from the notes, and often conflict with other markings on the same notes. abcm2ps allows !0!C!1!D !2!E!3!F !4!G!5!A !+!B c to display nice numbers above staff and the w: field to display them below... simple, easy, efficient... ___ Do You Yahoo!? -- Une adresse yahoo.fr gratuite et en français ! Yahoo! Mail : http://fr.mail.yahoo.com To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [abcusers] Fingering for instruments... (was : To tell the dancer from the dance)
abcm2ps allows !0!C!1!D !2!E!3!F !4!G!5!A !+!B c to display nice numbers above staff and the w: field to display them below... The above looks pretty hideous and if you put the fingerings in w:, where do you put the words? Laurie To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [abcusers] Defining the non-note letters
John Chambers wrote: As I (sorta) understand the suggestions, they amount to defining a list of standard musical terms, possibly in the !...! form. This would give us a list of things like !fermata!, !mf!, !sfz!, !trill!, !roll!, and so on. These could be used, but the result would be cluttered and not very readable. So then we define the macros as something like: m: T !trill! m: ~ !roll! m: H !fermata! Here we go again. Once more I will try to explain the difference between redefinable symbols and macros. They are not the same. Macros substitute one piece of text for another, while redefinable symbols change the binding between the finite set of characters 'H'..'Z' and a (potentially) infinite set of musical symbols. Macros can be implemented in a preprocessor (or a separate program), redefinable symbols can't be, because you have to write the code to draw the new symbol. If your program doesn't know how to draw an inverted fermata, no amount of text substitution in the abc input is going to persuade it to do that. So forget macros for the moment - they are not what you need here. Suppose I want to add a new symbol to the list which my program supports. I'm doing guitar transcriptions and I need an arpeggio symbol. First I have to write the necessary code to draw a vertical jagged line to the left of a chord. Then I have to give it a name: arpeggio. To invoke it from the abc I then have to define one of the 19 letters which the standard provides for this purpose to mean arpeggio like this: U: R = arpeggio and in the abc I can write R[CEG], and have the chord drawn in the staff display with an arpeggio symbol before it. The default meaning for R is a medium length phrase mark, so a user who wanted to use both of these symbols in the same music would have to use a different letter for the purpose, or define another letter to mean medium phrase mark. Of course you could go on to define a macro which would substitute the symbol R for the word arpeggio, or if you insist !arpeggio!, and then write !arpeggio![CEG] in the abc, but then you've lost all compatibility with the existing standard and cluttered up the abc by adding nine extra characters to invoke a single musical symbol. Phil Taylor To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
