This is a brief intro to the abc music notation. 1. Headers and tunes. Each "tune" consists of a sequence of "header" lines that give information about the tune as a whole. They header lines come first, followed by the tune, ending with a blank line. You can use '%' to indicate comments. For example: X: 3 % Sequence number - tune 3 of a set. T: Fubar's Jig % Title. C: Joe Smith % Composer O: Armenia % Origin N: Random text. % Notes. W: Song lyrics. % Placed below the tune. Z: Bill Smith % Transcriber. M: 3/4 % Meter. M:C and M:C| have their obvious meanings. L: 1/8 % Basic length of notes. P: A2B3C % Play order for the parts. K: Gm % Key. Modes (ADorian) are recognized. A tune's header must have either an X: or a T: as its first line, and the K: must be the last line in the header. (The standard states that all three of these lines are required, but you often see ABC that has no X: line, and the T: line is sometimes omitted or replaced by P: to get the title positioned at the left edge of a page. Some of the header lines can be used inside the tune. K: and M: are common examples. Also, P: is used within a tune to label a part (at the upper left). Some software now accepts w: lines that appear in the tune, with notes lined up with the music, but this is rather new. 2. Bars The symbols | and || mean just what you expect. You can use |: ... :| to indicate repeats. A bar with repeats on both sides can be indicated by just ::, though you can use :|: or :||: if you like. First and second endings can bin indicated as: |: ... |1 ... :|2 ... || Notation for repeats isn't quite complete, and will probably be extended in the near future. 2. Notes The letters CDEFGAB represent the notes on the bottom half of the staff; the letters cdefgab represent the notes on the upper half of the staff. If you add a comma (",") to the upper-case notes, it lowers them by an octave. If you add an apostrophe ("'") to the lower-case notes, it raises them by an octave. So abc can represent four octaves on a staff: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C D E F G A B c d e f g a b c' d' e' f' g' a' b' ^ ^ ^ below staff middle above staff 3. Accidentals. A note can be preceded by three accidentals: _A is A-flat =A is A-natural ^A is A-sharp In Key signatures, the letter 'b' is used for flats, so K:Bb means a key of B-flat, and K:F#m is F-sharp minor. 4. Time values. A single letter represents whatever the basic L: time unit says. If there's no L: in the header, the default is L:1/4 for M:3/4 or greater, and L:1/8 for smaller time signatures. For other time values, simply follow the note by a multiplier. Thus A3 represents a note three times as long as the L: value. With L:1/8, A3 is a dotted quarter note. Similarly, c3/2 means a note 1.5 times as long as the L: value, so with L:1/8, it means a dotted eighth note. Due to the limits of standard music notation, you should only use time values with a denominator that is a power of two. While abc can represent other ratios, a value like F5/7 can't be represented in standard notation, and should be avoided. Most software will reject such things, anyway. A special case notation uses '<' and '>' to transfer half the value of the note on the small end to the note on the large end. Thus c>d means that half of the d's time value is transferred to the c. This is a shorthand for "dotted" notation. With L:1/4, c>d would make the c a dotted quarter note, and the d an eighth note. Similarly, c>G and F<