Blogev805

I think the keyboard layout you are looking for is 'ABC Extended' on Mac OS X El Capitan (10.11). If you are on an older version of Mac OS X this keyboard layout is called 'US Extended', the rest of this answer uses the most recent name but everything else is the same between versions.

Abc Watch App

There is now a vast array of software (mostly freeware or shareware) which can read or edit abc.It is almost impossible to maintain a list of what software has which functionality on each platform but the following tables may help (N.B. the entries are based on what software developers say about their own programs rather than independent testing).

Recommendations:If you'd rather not read through the whole list, just take a look at my guide to abc software on the abcnotation blog.

1. I highly recommend Allavsoft which can download video from SBS on demand, ABC iView, Tenplay, etc It has both Mac and Windows version. Davidmorr Posted Doesn't do anything.
2. Find free ABCmouse.com apps on the iTunes App Store. Your kids will have fun learning about the letters of the alphabet, the world around us, the animals at the zoo, and much more through the many educational and entertaining apps from ABCmouse.com.

Disclaimer:The software listed on this page is not the responsibility of abcnotation.com and its inclusion here does not represent a recommendation (although there are some excellent programs here).If you have any problems, suggestions or comments on any of the programs listed, please report it to the software developer.

First select your platform:

Software marked with a label has been added to this page within the last three months (although they may have been around for sometime before that).

Web-based software

Windows software

Mac software

Abc Format Excel

Linux/Unix software

Mobile (iPhone, Android, Palm, etc) software

See also Moshe Braner's forum post on handling abc on Palm OS devices.

Command Line software

Multi-platform software

abc software packages

Note that to handle Postscript files (generated by several of these packages including abc2ps and its variants, and abc2mtex)you may need to installGhostscriptandGSView.

Install Abc App

Software list (alphabetic order):-

• ABassC
  ... is a freeware viewer/player from Norman Schmidt which runs on Palm Handhelds and displays music in either treble or bass clef.
• abc2cvm
  ... will translate abc into Colecovision music data for use with the Colecovision utility library. From Philipp Klaus Krause.
• abc2harp
  ... is a Perl script from Gek Low that adds harmonica (harp) tab to abc notation in the form of lyrics text.
• abc2index
  ... is an open source project from Sam Cantrell that indexes an abc file to produce a general tune listing or an index by song category either in plain text or CSV format.
• abc2mma
  ... is a Perl script from Gek Low that reads abc containing chords and produces MMA output.
• abc2mtex
  ... is the original abc package for converting abc into sheet music. It is freeware and should in principle work on any platform (PC, Mac and UNIX). However, you will also need to install all (or at least a large part) of the TeX and MusicTeX packages. These too are freeware but may take considerable efforts to set up (although they are often available in educational establishments).
• abc2notes
  … is a utility from John Keeney which adds the ABC notes to ABC music notation in the form of lyrics text. It can be run as a window application, a Perl script, a webpage plugin, or as JavaScript application using node.js.
• abc2prt
  ... from Guido Gonzato is a simple tool to extract parts from multivoice ABC music files.
• abc2score
  ... is a Windows freeware program from John Layton. It can handle large files with speed and includes many features such as transposition, tune searching, midi saving and appending.
• abc2sco.tcl
  ... from Hudson Lacerda converts ABC to Csound SCO and Scala SEQ formats.

• abc2svg
  … from Jef Moine, is a rewrite of abcm2ps into JavaScript and displays abc on a web page as staff notation.
• ABC2Tab
  ... is an abc to Mountain Dulcimer ASCII Tablature convertor from Lyle Melick. It is currently available as a Windows95 & WindowsNT command line program and PERL source code.
• abc2win
  ... was a popular package by Jim Vint which supported the entry of abc notation and viewing the musical notes on PCs. Tunes could also be played as a means of checking the accuracy of the transcription. Although development was suspended in 2005 and it is no longer available, abc2win was a major contributor to the success of abc and is listed here for information.
• abc2xml
  ... is a web service which will convert abc notation into MusicXML.
• abc2xml / xml2abc
  ... are command line utilities from Willem Vree that convert abc to/from MusicXML
• abc4j
  ... is a java based API for abc. It provides a set of basic classes to easily manipulate abc tunes. In particular, the parser provides an object representation of abc notation on which developers can build their own high level features such as tune printing, midi playing, etc.
• Abc Converter
  ... is a web-based abc-to-staff converter which transposes/converts abc tunes to pdf and midi. It also converts MusicXML into abc - just enter the XML into the converter and it will auto-detect and convert it. Originally developed by Jon Freeman at folkinfo.org and now hosted by Simon Becker at mandolintab.net.
• ABCEditor
  ... is a Windows program from Elizabeth Scarlett (hosted at Alf Warnock's site) which allows you to create, edit, play and organise abc files. It can transpose, reformat, adjust beaming, create cheet sheets and search for tunes. It uses abcm2ps for printing music, abc2midi for playing it, ABCTools for reformatting and ABCFind for searching.
• ABCexplorer
  ... is a Windows program which allows you to create, edit, play and organise abc files. It uses abcm2ps for printing music and abc2midi for playing it.
• ABCJ
  ... is a pure Java abc player/editor from Steve Spencer-Jowett which should run on any platform with Java installed. There is also a web-based applet.

• abcjs
  ... is Gregory Dyke and Paul Rosen's javascript engine for rendering abcs on web pages. Can be used to transform a textarea into an abc editor, with scoresheet and audio, or as a plugin, rendering all the abc it finds on a page.
• abclua
  ... is abc parsing for Lua. This library can read and emit (almost all) abc 2.1 and generate Lua tables representing the song structure. It can transform abc source into a token stream, transform a token stream into an abc string, transform a token stream into an event stream (with timing, repeats expanded etc.), and transform these event streams into MIDI.
• abcm2ps
  ... is Jean-François Moine's clone of abc2ps which handles more than one voice per staff. Compiled versions for Windows, Mac & Linux may be found at the abcplus page.
• abcMIDI
  James Allwright's package to convert abc to MIDI and MIDI to abc. Since most standard music packages support MIDI output, this should make it easier to generate abc from commercial software. It is available on the web as C source code. It also contains abc2abc which can be used to transpose abc.
• AbcMode
  ... from Matt Junker is an emacs major mode for editing abc files designed for use with abcm2ps and abc2midi, but easily customisable for other packages.
• abcmus
  Henrik Norbeck's abc player/tunebook manipulator for MSWindows with lots of nice features (search, automatic chordsetting, different import and export options, etc).
• Abc Music Notation Utilities
  … are a collection of TCL scripts from Luis Pablo Gasparotto for working with abc.
• ABCMusiEx
  (ABC Music Sight Reading Exercises Generator) ... is open source software from Rodolfo Alcazar Portillo aimed at creating sight reading exercises which you can read and practise while the audio parts are being played!
• AbcNavigator
  ... is a multi-featured program for handling abc files which can play tunes through your sound card, save them as MIDI files and which includes an abc editor with syntax highlighting.
• abcnwc
  ... is a web-based form from Warren Porter which converts abc to Noteworthy Composer notation.

• ABCp
  ... is an embeddable library for abc notation. Its aim is to take care of all the parsing details for code developers.
• ABCPig
  ... is a web-based abc editor from Barnaby Walters which includes an interface for creating multi-voiced abc tunes.
• abcpp
  ... from Guido Gonzato is a simple yet powerful preprocessor designed for, but not limited to, ABC music files. It provides conditional output, macros, symbol renaming, and file inclusion.
• Abc Session Viewer
  … is an Android/iPad app that displays, plays and transposes the 450+ tunes in Paul Hardy's Session Tunebook
• abctab2ps
  ... is a program from Christoph Dalitz for typesetting music and lute/guitar tablature with abc. It is available for Mac, Windows & Linux platforms.
• abctool
  ... is a python script from Atte André Jensen that manipulates abc files. It relies on external programs (such as abcm2ps) for certain tasks.
• ABC transposer
  … is an online service from Jens Wollschläger for transposing abc tunes.
• abctransposer
  ... is a web-based javascript program from Jens Wollschläger that can transpose abc.
• $ABC_UI
  … is a JavaScript package from Christophe Poudras which allows you to render abc tunes in staff notation on a web page.
• ABCViewer
  ... is an abc viewer from Dave Holland which runs on Palm Pilots.

• abcweb
  … from Willem Vree, is a javascript program that runs in the browser to render a score file (MusicXML or ABC) and play a media file (audio or video). It also displays a cursor in the score that is synchronized with the playback.
• ABC WordPress Plugin
  … is a JavaScript plugin for WordPress from Paul Rosen which allows you to easily include music on a WordPress website or blog.
• A La Mode
  … is an Android app from Carl Turner for organising, viewing, playing and transposing abc tunes. It also includes a web-based interface to your data.
• BIABTools
  ... is a Windows program from Alf Warnock which can convert certain types of Band-in-a-Box files to abc.
• Blue Notes
  ... is an iPhone app from Tino Heth that can import abc files into its database of songs. It currently focuses on harmonica players and can display tabs and lyrics. Transposing of tunes is supported.
• BowTIE
  ... is a Windows application from David Randolph designed to help trumpet and horn players learn to transpose which uses abc as its native file format. Euphonium and tuba players may also find BowTIE useful for learning fingerings on instruments in various keys.
• Busker
  ... is Windows shareware from Jos Mass which can play abc files and automatically add accompaniment based on the chords in the abc file. The abc files can also be printed in staff notation.
• Code Sounding
  ... is a bit unusual - using abc, it converts computer source code to sound files. For programmers who want to hear the 'inner breath' of their software. From Roberto Mannai.
• Composer
  … is Python music composition software using deep learning based on ABC notation
• DokuWiki ABC Plugin
  ... is a DokuWiki plugin which will render abc scores inside a DokuWiki site. From Anika Henke.

• EasyABC
  ... by Nils Liberg is an open source program which allows you to edit and play abc files. It supports conversion from MusicXML and MIDI to ABC. The latter uses a custom implementation (midi2abc is not used) in order to produce very readable ABC output. Direct midi input is supported for people with a midi keyboard. It uses abcm2ps for printing music and abc2midi for playing it. Nils' original version is available at nilsliberg.se; the latest Windows & Mac versions, patched and maintained by Seymour Schlien, are available from sourceforge with Linux binaries available from the ABC Plus page.
• elm-abc-player
  ... by John Watson explores the possibilities of playing ABC notation directly in the browser within an Elm (0.18) application.
• eTuneBook
  ... is a web app from Martin Fleischmann which allows you to manage abc tune collections in your browser.
• fiddleabc
  ... is a program from Mike Casey for PCs which plays abc tunes while displaying the notes on a screen fiddle/banjo fingerboard.
• Five Line Skink
  ... is a java application from Wil Macaulay which supports the abc 1.6 standard. It can open, edit, save, and display abc files (and runs on Unix & Linux platforms, as well as Windows & Mac).
• flabc
  ... is an abc editor from Christoph Dalitz based on the cross platform C++ GUI toolkit FLTK. It is available for Windows, MacOS X and Linux platforms.
• GTKSourceView abc
  … from Björn Petersen, is a language file for abc syntax highlighting in GEdit or any other editor using GtkSourceView
• Harmony Assistant
  ... is a full-scale score editor that speaks abc and the commercial version of Melody Assistant. It can print, play and even create guitar tablature and runs on both PCs and Macs.
• Haskell abcnotation package
  … is a a Haskell representation and parser for abc notation from Hans Hoglund.
• iPABC
  ... is an abc player/editor from Steve Spencer-Jowett which runs on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Although the full version is not free, there is a Lite version that stores a limited number of tunes which is free.

• jcabc2ps
  ... is John Chambers' clone of abc2ps. It implements a number of extensions to handle the variants of abc that the abc tune finder finds on the web. These include several syntaxes for clefs, multiple voices, endings past the second, and non-classical key signatures.
• JedABC
  ... from Guido Gonzato is an extension to the Jed editor that turns it into a powerful and easy to use IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for ABC files, with full integration with converters, players and previewers.
• m2g
  ... is a WIndows program from Jerry Dallal which can add guitar or mandolin tablature to abc files.
• MAIDENS
  … is a free composition tool from Claudius Iacob, which allows musicians to generate music based on algorithms. The base application allows you to edit, save, playback and export the score using a graphical interface.
• mc musiceditor
  ... is a music editor from Reinier Maliepaard which speaks standard abc (as well as its own modification of abc). It also contains a number of utilities including transposition, extracting parts and file management.
• MediaWiki Score
  ... is an extension for MediaWiki which will render abc scores inside a MediaWiki site.
• MEFA
  ... is a Windows program (previously known as ABCedit) from Joop Coolegem that can be used for writing, printing and playing abc files. It also has a number of other features including fingering charts, transposition, calculation of chords, etc. (NB Users will need to install abcm2ps and abc2midi separately).
• Melody Assistant
  ... is a full-scale shareware score editor that speaks abc and the shareware version of Harmony Assistant. It can print, play and even create guitar tablature and runs on both PCs and Macs.
• microabc
  ... is free software from Hudson Lacerda which generates macros to represent microtonal music in ABC notation.
• MidiZyx2abc
  ... is a program from Alexander Scheutzow which converts midi to abc and will work with multi-part scores and lyrics. It is written in Java so should run on any platform in principle.

• ModPlug XMMS
  ... is abc plugin for XMMS under linux. Peter Grootswagers recommends libmodplug which can be obtained from the CVS tree.
• Mozart
  … is fully featured music notation software from David Webber which can import and export abc.
• music21
  ... is a set of tools for helping scholars and other active listeners answer questions about music quickly and simply. It can read abc, display music (via MusicXML), play MIDI sound and transpose, as well as offering many other utilities.
• MusiCAD
  ... is a fully featured score editor from Musys Software which can import and export abc. Although MusiCAD is not freeware, it's use with abc does not require payment.
• MusicEase
  ... is a full-featured editor which imports abc and SongWright files. Edits, transposes, prints and plays. Features include automatic conversion to tablature, automatic addition of chord fret diagrams, and general MIDI instrument support.
• musicJSON2abc
  … is a command line tool from Lukas Lamm to convert musicJSON to abc notation.
• Music Markdown
  … is a Web App which supports abc notation and that renders markdown with embedded music from files in GitHub
• Mxml2abc
  ... is a command line tool from Steve Merrony which converts single and multiple voice MusicXML files into ABC files.
• Norman Schmidt's abc converter
  ... a web-based abc-to-staff converter from normanschmidt.net which converts abc tunes to staff notation.
• P4 Music
  … is a chat/blogging platform to share & save content which now supports abc

• PalmABC
  ... is an abc player/editor from Steve Spencer-Jowett which runs on Palm Pilots.
• playabc
  ... is a program by Don Ward which will play abc files through the speaker of most UNIX systems.
• PmWiki AbcMusic
  ... is a PmWiki cookbook recipe which will render abc scores inside a PmWiki site. From Patrick Michaud.
• PocketABC
  ... is an abc player/editor from Steve Spencer-Jowett which runs on Pocket PC 2002 devices such as the iPaq.
• react-abc2svg
  … is a react.js component that uses abc2svg to display ABC notation
• Runabc.tcl
  ... is a Tcl/Tk GUI (graphical user interface) for abc2ps & abc2midi from Seymour Shlien which helps you manage a database of abc tunes. Requires Tcl/Tk 8.0 or higher.
• ScoreRender
  ... is a plugin, from Abel Cheung, for the popular blogging system WordPress, which renders sheet music fragments into images. It supports abc as well as several other notation systems.
• Sfortzando
  … is a set of Sublime Text syntax definitions for ABC notation (a rewrite of Sublime ABC and an advanced ABC notation plugin)
• Songs2See
  … is a gaming environment from Songquito for learning to play a musical instrument. The Songs2See Editor now includes support for abc notation.
• Stack Edit
  … is a full-featured, open-source Markdown editor from Benoit Schweblin that supports abc notation

Abcmouse App For Mac

• Sublime ABC
  … is a set of Sublime Text 2 syntax definitions for ABC notation
• SublimeLinter-contrib-abcm2ps
  … is a SublimeLinter plugin for ABC Notation error checking, using abcm2ps
• TablEdit
  ... is a Windows program for creating, editing, printing and listening to tablature and sheet music (standard notation) for guitar and other fretted, stringed instruments (including 5 string banjo) as well as harmonica, diatonic accordion, drums and violin. TablEdit can both read & write ascii, MIDI & abc files (and read Bucket O' Tab & Tabestry).
• The Craic
  ... is an iOS app from Wil Macaulay that enables you to find, edit and view abc tunes on iPhones and iPads.
• tonal-abc-notation
  … is an npm JavaScript package, part of the tonal music theory library, which converts abc notation to / from scientific notation
• TradMusician
  … is an Android app from Nicolas Jouve which can display abc in standard notation, play it with midi and synchronize with an online tunebook.
• TradTunes
  ... is an iPhone app that holds a database of over 4,000 (mainly) Irish Trad tunes.
• TuneBook
  ... is an iPhone app from Jerry Huxtable for viewing abc tunes in staff notation.
• TunePal
  ... is an abc player and query-by-playing search engine from Bryan Duggan which runs on iPhone, iPod touch, iPad & android devices. Also a free online service.
• VexABC
  ... from Mikael Nousiainen, is an abc notation parser and renderer for VexFlow

• xml2abc-js
  … from Willem Vree, is a javascript program that runs in the browser to convert selected MusicXML files to abc code. It also shows a preview of the score next to the abc translation.
• YAPS
  (yet another abc to PostScript converter) ... is James Allwright's merge of the abcMIDI parser and the library of PostScript routines from abc2ps.
• Zap's abc
  ... is an Android app from Jonas Petersson for displaying and playing abc tunes.
• Zupfnoter
  … is is an open source, web based tool from Bernhard Weichel to create scores for Table harps

A few folks have asked me recently for recommendations of abc software …

Abc App Free Download

In the past I have been reluctant to answer this question – there are so many apps out there and I certainly haven’t tried them all.

However, nowadays it seems like some of the abc software trends have resolved somewhat so here’s a list of the abc software I use and love.

Abc Formation Rhymes

1. For day-to-day usage, my favourite bit of abc software is EasyABC, a really well designed and mature abc editor. You can
   • type a tune in – it can automatically guess which octave you want (i.e. capitals or lower) and put in barlines
   • see the tune in staff notation and play it – the player follows the score, with the current note highlighted in red
   • export your entire abc file or individual tunes to pdf, midi and/or MusicXML.
2. For transpositions (which I have to do quite often) you can currently use %%transpose for the score and %%MIDI transpose for the playback (although see the new transposition features in abc 2.2). However, if you want the actual abc code transposed then look no further than the online AbcConverter hosted at mandolintab.net. Just tick the “show transposed output” checkbox and you’re good to go.
3. If you have a website and you want to process abc tunes, for example to show the score or play the sound as well as the abc code, I can highly recommend abcjs. It’s smart enough to find and process abc code embedded in a web page and there is even a variant which allows you to easily create an online abc editor. The TuneGraph feature on the abcnotation website makes heavy use of abcjs and it also featured in the (now defunct) forums.
4. If you use other formats and you want to import/export abc tunes, probably the most useful format is MusicXML – the lingua franca of the notation world. It’s very verbose and designed only for computers to read but most music notation software can read/write it. If you’re just using the aforementioned EasyABC then you don’t need anything else … it can already import/export to MusicXML. However, if you want a dedicated conversion utility (the same one as used by EasyABC) then grab a copy of Willem Vree’s abc2xml / xml2abc.
5. Two other utilities that are definitely worth considering are abcm2ps and abcMIDI. You may not even need to install them as several abc apps, including EasyABC, use them in the background. However, they are arguably the most important bits of abc software out there and for years have set the de facto standard of what is possible using abc notation.
6. Last but not least, TunePal is one of the most interesting abc apps around – a “search-by-playing search engine for traditional Irish, Welsh, Scottish, Breton, American marching band and Canadian tunes”. Available as a mobile app and a web service, it is the Shazam of traditional music.

Enjoy!

Chris