ABC notation/Notes

This chapter explains basic description of notes and melody.

Notes

The musical notes are expressed by alphabets like c, d and e. Middle C is expressed by the capital C. C Dur scale from middle C is as below.

CDEFGABc

Here the lower-case letter c denotes C one octave above middle C. One octave above C to B is expressed by lower-case letters from c to b. Higher notes are expressed by a number of apostrophes ('). Lower notes below middle C is expressed by a number of commas ',' with capital letters. A rest is denoted by 'z'.

% cat sample02.abc
X:1
K:G
L:1/4
C,,D,,E,,F,,G,,A,,B,,|C,D,E,F,G,A,B,|CDEFGAB|
cdefgab|c'd'e'f'g'a'b'|c''d''e''f''g''a''b''|

sample02

Sharp, flat and natural is expressed by '^', '_' and '='.

% cat sample03.abc
X:1
K:G
L:1/4
c^c^^c_c__c=c|f^f^^f_f__f=f|

sample03

As described above, sharp, flat and natural is independent from key notes.

Length

Note length header 'L:' determines the default length of notes. Here 'L:1/4' means default notes is crotchet. Note lengths are expressed as a multiple of the default length. Triplet is described '(3' and following notes. Others tuplets are same. The example is below.

% cat sample04.abc
X:1
K:C
L:1/4
M:C
[|c4c3c2c1|c c1/2 c3/4 c2/4 c1/4|c7/8 c6/8 c4/8 c3/8 c2/8 c1/8|
(2c1/2d1/2 (3c1/2d1/2e1/2 (3e/d/c/ (7c/d/e/f/g/a/b/ (6c/d/e/(f/f/)g/ |]

sample04

In special case, Z denotes multi-bar rests. 'Z12' means twelve-bar multi rests.

Beaming

Notes without spaces are beamed together if possible. An example is below.

% cat sample05.abc
X:1
K:G
L:1/8
M:6/8
GAB cde|GA Bc de| G A B c d e|

Sample05

Bar lines

Bar lines and repeats are described in the following table.

symbol	meaning
|	simple bar line
||	double bar line
[|	thick and thin bar line
|]	thin and thick bar line
|:	start of repeat
:|	end of repeat
|1	start of first ending
|2	start of second ending

Ties and slurs

Ties are expressed by hyphen '-' after the first note. Slurs are expressed by parentheses.

X:1
K:C
L:1/4
M:C
G-G(AB|cdef)|

Ornaments

Some common ornaments are described in the following table.

symbol	explanation
.	staccato
L	accent
T	trill
H	fermata
u	up-bow
v	down-bow

Complicated ones are expressed by a letter bounded by exclamation marks '!'.

symbol	explanation
!tenuto!	tenuto
!marcato!	marcato
!pp!	pianissimo
!ff!	fortissimo
!sfz!	sforzando
!crescendo(!	start of crescendo
!crescendo)!	end of crescendo

We can insert text by a letter bounded by double quotations.

symbol	explanation
"..."	text
"^..."	above staff
"_..."	below staff
"<..."	left of note
">..."	right of note

An example is below.

% cat sample06.abc 
X:1
K:G
L:1/8
M:C
.GLATB!tenuto!c Hduevf!marcato!g | !pp!!crescendo(!GAB!crescendo)!!ff!c !+!d!+!e"^above text"f"_below text"g |

sample06

Grace notes

Grace notes are denoted by braces '{}' as below.

% cat sample07.abc 
X:1
K:G
L:1/4
M:C
{EF}G4| {GABcdef}g4|

sample07