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Author Topic: abcmelodeon - annotate abc tunes with button numbers  (Read 5259 times)

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David

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abcmelodeon - annotate abc tunes with button numbers
« on: August 07, 2017, 08:38:09 PM »

I was getting tired of writing the button numbers under the notes on tunes I'm trying to learn, so I've written a Python script to add Ed Rennie style numbers to abctunes.

It can be downloaded from here:

https://github.com/mawds/abcmelodeon

Posting it in the hope it's useful to others; feel free to suggest modifications/improvements (or to modify it yourself)
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Martin P

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Re: abcmelodeon - annotate abc tunes with button numbers
« Reply #1 on: August 08, 2017, 08:56:27 PM »

To really benefit from Ed's system, could you make push notes red, pull notes blue and chords black? Mind you, best thing as a learner is get rib of tabs and learn to sight read notes. You will progress a lot faster. Even better, learn the tune and forgo the written score altogether.
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David

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Re: abcmelodeon - annotate abc tunes with button numbers
« Reply #2 on: August 08, 2017, 09:46:12 PM »

I couldn't work out how to get the numbers in colour; I'm not sure if it's possible or not. The numbers are printed as lyric lines in the ABC file.  I guess there's not normally much call for colour.   

I know it's a bad habit looking at the tabs; I'm slowly weaning myself of them  (:)
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Re: abcmelodeon - annotate abc tunes with button numbers
« Reply #3 on: August 09, 2017, 02:01:16 AM »

Mind you, best thing as a learner is get rib of tabs and learn to sight read notes. You will progress a lot faster. Even better, learn the tune and forgo the written score altogether.
Totally agree with this. Relying on button numbers of whatever system is a burdensome prop. It might be useful at a very early stage but the sooner you can do away with it, the faster you will learn and retain the tunes. If you can sing or hum the tune from memory, then you can play it on the melodeon, because you will have made the all-important step of internalising the tune in your head.

If I have a new or complex tune to learn, I sometimes find it useful to first play the tune on the whistle or recorder. Having been a wind-instrument player since childhood, I am fortunate in being able to sight-read on those instruments easily, which helps me with the internalisation process which I can then transfer to the melodeon.

If you don't play any other instruments, you can use the ABC play-back facility to listen to the tune numerous times to get it fixed in your head before even attempting to play it on the melodeon. If necessary, break the tune into small fragments, say 2 - 4 bars at a time, rather than trying to memorise the whole tune all at once.
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Ed Rennie

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Re: abcmelodeon - annotate abc tunes with button numbers
« Reply #4 on: September 27, 2017, 10:58:32 PM »

My word David, that's a very clever thing!

Yes it can be tiresome writing the numbers in, even if you're using Sibelius. Believe me, I know  ;)
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Roger Hare

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Re: abcmelodeon - annotate abc tunes with button numbers
« Reply #5 on: September 28, 2017, 07:03:00 AM »

...so I've written a Python script to add Ed Rennie style numbers to abctunes...
feel free to suggest modifications/improvements (or to modify it yourself)
Fascinating.

Any thoughts about how easy/difficult it would be to modify the script to do the same job for a concertina?

I don't speak Python but I've been thinking about learning - this might be a good 'starter' project.

Thank you.

Roger
« Last Edit: September 28, 2017, 07:05:34 AM by lachenal74693 »
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voyager

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Re: abcmelodeon - annotate abc tunes with button numbers
« Reply #6 on: September 28, 2017, 07:25:43 PM »

Would this PDF Help It's a system I have used with Concertina Players, rather than have every note with the "correct" button a simple print out of the keyboard layout for the particular instrument. For melodeon's available from from here on the forum

!) It can help a new player learn the dots
2) The size can be changed to suit people with eyesight problems

I have taken the Abc from Lester's brilliant Tune A Day site and as our local supermarket has already got Xmas stuff in I hope
this will not be out of place.

Any thoughts on this method are very welcome

Regards Dave

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voyager

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Re: abcmelodeon - annotate abc tunes with button numbers
« Reply #7 on: September 28, 2017, 07:35:51 PM »

Sorry I sent the wrong attachment hopefully this is correct

Dave
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vof

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Re: abcmelodeon - annotate abc tunes with button numbers
« Reply #8 on: September 28, 2017, 10:05:49 PM »

...so I've written a Python script to add Ed Rennie style numbers to abctunes...
feel free to suggest modifications/improvements (or to modify it yourself)
Fascinating.

Any thoughts about how easy/difficult it would be to modify the script to do the same job for a concertina?

I don't speak Python but I've been thinking about learning - this might be a good 'starter' project.

Thank you.

Roger
I'm part way through modifying David's Python source file for my fourth button start G-scale Pokerwork. It is fairly straightforward since Ed Rennie's button numbering scheme - buttons even numbered on the inside row and odd numbered on the outside row - can be used for all two row boxes so the job is mainly changing the table which maps from abc-style note names to button numbers with a preceding character to indicate bellows direction. For your concertina, you would need to first design your button numbering scheme. There may well be a standard one already you could adopt or create your own based for example on the RH/LH split but not being a 'tina player, I don't know anything about button notation on these instruments.

David has been helpful to me about his existing code so if you have further questions, I'm happy to help as would be David I suspect. PM me or him since the subject is definitely off-topic in a melodeon forum in a number of ways :)
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Jack Campin

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Re: abcmelodeon - annotate abc tunes with button numbers
« Reply #9 on: September 29, 2017, 01:00:49 AM »

I suspect it would be much more useful to implement annotations using emojis and then define these numbers as a kind of emoji.  That could have very much wider applications.
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Roger Hare

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Re: abcmelodeon - annotate abc tunes with button numbers
« Reply #10 on: September 29, 2017, 06:54:23 AM »

I'm part way through modifying David's Python source file for my fourth button start G-scale Pokerwork. It is fairly straightforward since Ed Rennie's button numbering scheme - buttons even numbered on the inside row and odd numbered on the outside row - can be used for all two row boxes so the job is mainly changing the table which maps from abc-style note names to button numbers with a preceding character to indicate bellows direction. For your concertina, you would need to first design your button numbering scheme. There may well be a standard one already you could adopt or create your own based for example on the RH/LH split but not being a 'tina player, I don't know anything about button notation on these instruments.

David has been helpful to me about his existing code so if you have further questions, I'm happy to help as would be David I suspect. PM me or him since the subject is definitely off-topic in a melodeon forum in a number of ways :)

Thanks. That's extremely helpful. You have confirmed my thoughts about how to re-map the tables of abc notes/melodeon buttons
to abc notes/concertina buttons (the 'standard' numbering system I use is different, and is based on a LH/RH split). I'll also need
to add a third mapping for the buttons on the 'accidentals' row of a 30-button 'tina...

Back-burner for a week or so but definitely looks feasible.

As you say, strictly, OT for melodeons, but your thoughts are very helpful.

Thank you once again.

Roger
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David

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Re: abcmelodeon - annotate abc tunes with button numbers
« Reply #11 on: October 05, 2017, 10:14:30 PM »

David has been helpful to me about his existing code so if you have further questions, I'm happy to help as would be David I suspect. PM me or him since the subject is definitely off-topic in a melodeon forum in a number of ways :)

Thanks. That's extremely helpful. You have confirmed my thoughts about how to re-map the tables of abc notes/melodeon buttons
to abc notes/concertina buttons (the 'standard' numbering system I use is different, and is based on a LH/RH split). I'll also need
to add a third mapping for the buttons on the 'accidentals' row of a 30-button 'tina...

Back-burner for a week or so but definitely looks feasible.

As you say, strictly, OT for melodeons, but your thoughts are very helpful.

Thank you once again.

Roger

Hi

Sorry for the slow reply - only just saw the thread had sprung to life again.

I think (though I don't know much about concertinas) you should just need to write a single mapping.  The only reason there are two for the melodeon is because we've (sometimes) got a choice of buttons for the same note. 

A mapping links notes (in abc notation, i.e. ^C is c#) to something; for the gRow and dRow mappings these are melodeon button numbers, but they could be anything. There's actually a note names mapping built in too (noteNames).  If you've only got one choice of button for a note you'll only need one mapping.

You probably will need to alter the applykeysig function - at the moment this only handles D and G, which are hard coded in. I don't know enough music theory to easily generalise this to other keys.   That function needs to convert sharpen / flatten the "raw" note according to the key given (i.e. "f" -> "^f" if key == G).

Feel free to PM me if I can be of any help.   I'm happy (and keen) to merge any improvements into the script.

David

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Ebor_fiddler

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Re: abcmelodeon - annotate abc tunes with button numbers
« Reply #12 on: October 05, 2017, 11:47:14 PM »

A simple way to get printed fingering, can be found AbcEdit.
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Re: abcmelodeon - annotate abc tunes with button numbers
« Reply #13 on: October 06, 2017, 06:54:00 AM »

Hi

Sorry for the slow reply - only just saw the thread had sprung to life again.

I think (though I don't know much about concertinas) you should just need to write a single mapping.  The only reason there are two for the melodeon is because we've (sometimes) got a choice of buttons for the same note. 

A mapping links notes (in abc notation, i.e. ^C is c#) to something; for the gRow and dRow mappings these are melodeon button numbers, but they could be anything. There's actually a note names mapping built in too (noteNames).  If you've only got one choice of button for a note you'll only need one mapping.

You probably will need to alter the applykeysig function - at the moment this only handles D and G, which are hard coded in. I don't know enough music theory to easily generalise this to other keys.   That function needs to convert sharpen / flatten the "raw" note according to the key given (i.e. "f" -> "^f" if key == G).

Feel free to PM me if I can be of any help.   I'm happy (and keen) to merge any improvements into the script.

David

Thank you for those extra hints. FWIW, there are 'duplicated' notes on an Anglo concertina, so two mappings
will probably be called for - perhaps three mappings to allow for the 'accidental' row on a 30-button instrument.

As it happens, I'm planning to try and install Python on one of my machines on Saturday, so maybe I can give
it a try.

I presume that (on a Windoze machine) I have to run the Python script from within a 'command' prompt window?

Thanks.

Roger.
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David

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Re: abcmelodeon - annotate abc tunes with button numbers
« Reply #14 on: October 06, 2017, 05:12:28 PM »


Thank you for those extra hints. FWIW, there are 'duplicated' notes on an Anglo concertina, so two mappings
will probably be called for - perhaps three mappings to allow for the 'accidental' row on a 30-button instrument.


Ah! I hadn't realised that.  Yes - you'll need as many mappings as there are ways you can make the same note.

Quote
As it happens, I'm planning to try and install Python on one of my machines on Saturday, so maybe I can give
it a try.

I presume that (on a Windoze machine) I have to run the Python script from within a 'command' prompt window?


Yes - that's right.  Anaconda Python seems to be a popular choice. After installing it you should get an icon in the start menu for a python command line.  From memory, this sets up the paths, so it can find the python executable (I'm not a Windows user myself, so my memory is a bit hazy).  Good luck!
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Roger Hare

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Re: abcmelodeon - annotate abc tunes with button numbers
« Reply #15 on: September 29, 2019, 07:42:57 PM »

I'm reviving this one because finally, 2 years down the road, I've managed to get Python
going, and have re-engineered this script for a G/D concertina.  I use a different tabbing
system for the concertina, and the layout of the notes is different. All that was needed
was simply to re-map the existing allocations and to add a third mapping for the accidentals
row. By sneaky manipulation of these mappings, I think I can see a way to make this program
do a couple of things which (I guess) the original designer had not intended.

What I'd like to ask is, has the OP done any development work on the Python script since the
original post in 2017? There is a sort of implied TODO list embedded in the Python script.
I don't even know if the OP still reads this forum...

This is 'interesting' to me, because I've also developed my own completely different program
for writing concertina tabs to an ABC file (it uses the same tabbing system, but is not in Python).

Whatever, I'd like to do a rough qualitative comparison between the two programs and want to
be as sure as I can that I have the most recent version of the Python script...

Ta.
« Last Edit: September 29, 2019, 07:49:06 PM by Roger Hare »
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Re: abcmelodeon - annotate abc tunes with button numbers
« Reply #16 on: September 30, 2019, 07:20:08 AM »

You can see the history of changes in GitHub:
https://github.com/mawds/abcmelodeon/commits/master
The last chance was quite recent, so it appears the script on GitHub is the most up to date version.
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Roger Hare

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Re: abcmelodeon - annotate abc tunes with button numbers
« Reply #17 on: September 30, 2019, 10:05:09 AM »

You can see the history of changes in GitHub...

Aah! Thanks for that. I now have the most up-to-date version to work with...

I should perhaps add that I got this working on a W10 machine. I think the original script
was aimed at a Linux/Unix machine? This is only relevant because the installation/use of
Python is a little different on Windoze...
« Last Edit: September 30, 2019, 11:20:53 AM by Roger Hare »
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David

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Re: abcmelodeon - annotate abc tunes with button numbers
« Reply #18 on: October 08, 2019, 07:44:44 PM »

Hi

Apologies for the slow reply; I was on holiday.   I wrote the original script, but hadn't done much with it until a few months ago when I got it working with a few more tunes (though it still trips up on some tunes).   Good to know you've got it working on Windows 10; I developed it on Linux.

The version on github is the most up to date.   Is the source for your concertina program online anywhere? Would be interesting to compare the two.

David
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Re: abcmelodeon - annotate abc tunes with button numbers
« Reply #19 on: October 08, 2019, 08:43:21 PM »

As an ear player, I'd be interested to see what this looks like in print

SJ
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