I was wondering if it would be feasible to have a rating system for the tunes so I could easily see if they were for beginners, intermediate or experienced players. Or a difficulty rating 1-10 or something.

The way I do it (not being a music reader) is to look at the dots. If there are lots of them very close together, it's going to be a tricky one to play. If there aren't that many and they're well spaced-out, it's going to be much easier. Crude, but it works for me.

I think any sort of rating system is going to be too subjective to be of much use (plus an awful lot of work for somebody to undertake).

I think we all find it easier to play tunes we like , so I'd use the midi-player feature on Tune-o-tron to find the ones you like and start there. Perhaps choose just two, that are quite different from each other to start with?
All the best
Samantha

Some tunes are easy on one type of concertina and hard (or unplayable) on another. Sometimes you can adapt a tune to your instrument to make it easier to play by leaving out a small number of notes or substituting others or playing it in a different key. And since the tunes, as they appear in the tune-o-tron, are really just the notes (and therefore the least important part of the tunes), how you play them can be the determining factor in how difficult they are.

Maybe this is a daft question but I'm new to the Tune -O-Tron as of yesterday.

Can I enter an ABC from somewhere else direct eg The Session so I can hear it. Is that encouraged or forbidden? Or would I have to type it in (I'm still not very clued up on ABC formatting, I just use my own limited method for working from dots to ABC to concertina buttons)
Could I play an ABC from The Session direct through my media player That site doesn't seem to have the facility.

As I say I'm new to all this but it would be very helpful in learning new tunes.

The tune a tron is a great utility. You're not entering anything permanently, so no problems with using it to see some ABC in a different form.

Form the session ABC's you can just cut and paste into the Tune a tron box. (IN windows, highlight the tex, and Ctrl-C or pull down an Edit->Copy from the top of your browser. Open the Tune a tron page and click on the entry box, then Ctrl-V or Edit->paste.

If the conversion doesn't work, check that ... there's an X: line in the ABC and no blank lines
You need a minimum in the headers of a K: and an X:
The ABC's in the tune comments section of the session, which can often be a better version for what you want sometimes leaves some of the headers out, assuming that you'll fill them in yourself.
(The meter will default to 4/4 if you leave that out and the note length to 1/8 (ie quaver)

... and bookmark the page, because it's so useful, you'll keep coming back to it :-)

Thanks I'll try that and let you know how I get on
Mike

I'm not sure if I'm telling you anything you haven't already figured out yet, but here goes:

To use the tune-o-tron to process abc without actually creating a new listing in the tune-o-tron, use this link:



To learn more than you ever wanted to know about abc, start here (the abc home page):

is there a site anywhere with how to learn to read music?
Coz I tried to workout what buttons to press from the music pdf for a song and got totally confused...it ended up looking much more complicated than I thought it would be.
Is there a 'dot generator' even? That would be useful.

Hi
I managed the cut and paste and played the tunes on the media player, thanks for the advice . I used ABC from Alan Ng's Irish site. The Session won't let me log on although i has loads of tunes. I am a member and enter my username and password. Is it overworked?

Also how do I create a personal tunebook on Concertina net, so I can save them? Or is it all expalined somewhere I can't find?
I'm some old technophobe.

Hi Michael

The main page is here: http://www.concertina.net/

On the left about one page down is the menu for the tune-o-tron. Lots of information there in the beginning page.

It is also the parent page to the forum. You will have to have a separate register to log in, in addition to the forum to save information, then you can have your own tune book.

Thanks
Leo

Go to google and type in "how to read music" (without the quotes). Ignore the commercial links that come at the top trying to sell you software to help. Scan the links below. There must be something there that will help. Here's one I found:

http://www.howtodothings.com/hobbies/a2683...heet-music.html


Not sure what you're asking for here. Generate dots from what? Audio input? That would be tricky. I've heard claims for programs that work reasonably well, but I've never seen one, and I can't imagine it wouldn't require a great deal of "post-production" editing.


I would strongly suggest you download one of the abc software packages listed on the abc homepage linked in my previous post in this thread and keep your abc files on your own computer, where you can listen to them and work with them even when you're not on line. I have a Macintosh and use BarFly as my abc software.

I was thinking from the abc format if it can convert to notation then would it be able to convert to dots or some form of tabulature?

My BIG problem is how do you get from what's written down to what button to use? It's infuriatingly impossible! Everytime I try I just get angry because I CAN'T do it!
What is the trick? Is there a secret code or something I'm missing?

Many folks use the word "dots" to mean music notation. That's what I thought you meant. If you're asking for tablature, you need to specify what instrument (anglo?) and how the buttons are layed out (there are many varieties of anglo concertina).

If you're seriously trying to learn to play a musical instrument, learning to read music would be effort well spent. Either that or develop a good enough ear so you can hear a tune and be able to play it. I've done both. It can be done, and the rewards are life-long.

answer to first question its and anglo answer to 2nd question..I have no idea I'll have to look it up.


learning by ear escapes me...I admire anyone who can do it.
This is the extent of my knowledge:


and I have a (photocopy out of a book) which I can use to check what note it is by what line on the stave it is.
That is all I understand of that kind of notation anything else on the stave I'm kinda guessing.

But its relating the notes to the buttons which I can't get.

I've tried to find a simple layout for 30 buttons. This is the best I could find; 40 buttons, with the core 30 button instrument highlighted by a pencil line (page 12):

http://www.concertina.com/jones/Jones-Anglo-tutor-1946.pdf

I found Mick Cranich's tutor book from Mally Music very helpful (Google it) I understand tour frstration, start with Doh Ray Mee etc then you can start on any useful note eg C,D,G and work out a scale both up and down ,by ear That'll help to makie sense of it. It's how I got my 5 kids going and I can't read music!,

I may be misunderstanding you, but I fear you may be looking for a shortcut where there is none.

Go to the link PeterT gave you. It is for an old tutor book which has the advantage of assuming you know nothing about either the concertina or reading music. The introduction on page 4 is nice, but you need to start on page 5, I think, and pretend you know nothing at all. Progress slowly and step by step through that page and the ones that follow. In a few weeks, you will know quite a bit about "the dots." The difference between the notes you listed is not actually as vague as you make out; they are in a precise mathematical relationship and make a lot of sense once you get the hang of it. Really, go try it out.

Standard musical notation is the universal "tabulature," because you can take what learn of it here and apply it to any instrument anywhere. As someone in this thread has already mentioned, it is a very worthwhile thing to learn. If you can master the software to generate "emoticons," an ancient and logical system like standard notation won't be a mystery to you for very long!

Plus, the tutor does a good job of linking those little dots on the page to those buttons on your concertina! But you start with the dots.

Right, there are no shortcuts. Especially not to be found here on the net.
There are just years of tipping along and sudden bursts of inspiration.
You work to get to a plateau, stay there a while and then reach for another plateau.
LDT, what you need to do is to get together with other musicians.
You need to take a workshop as soon as you can, or take a lesson with a gifted teacher asap.
Nobody here can teach you where you want to go. You need a hands-on approach.
Somebody who will say, put this finger on this button.
If all else fails come to visit us in Co Clare for a weekend.
We'll put you up and feed you. Just mow the grass is all we ask.
I'll show you how to play cross-row Irish style.
And teach you how to read the dots.
PM if you want to continue....