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Welcome to abcnotation.com, home of abc notation - the text-based music notation system and the de facto standard for folk and traditional music.




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Here is just a taste of what you can find, either at this site or via a link:

So how does it work? As an example, the well-known tune Speed the Plough could be written in abc as

X:1
T:Speed the Plough
M:4/4
C:Trad.
K:G
|:GABc dedB|dedB dedB|c2ec B2dB|c2A2 A2BA|
  GABc dedB|dedB dedB|c2ec B2dB|A2F2 G4:|
|:g2gf gdBd|g2f2 e2d2|c2ec B2dB|c2A2 A2df|
  g2gf g2Bd|g2f2 e2d2|c2ec B2dB|A2F2 G4:|

After processing a typical result might look like this:

staff notation for Speed the Plough