Alternative Chord 'profiles' In Abc...

[lachenal74693]

I guess this is one for the ABC experts.

 

As an aid to learning the tunes, I'm transposing some Playford tunes into ABC, and am including chords (these are from

another players 'personal' scores).

 

In ABC terms, the tunes are M:C| or M:6/4. The default chord profile for M:C| seems to be %%MIDI gchord fzczfzcz.

There doesn't seem to be a default profile for M:6/4 so I have cribbed a profile of %%MIDI gchord fzcfzc from

somewhere (*).

 

Both of these profiles produce an 'oom-pah' style chord accompaniment when played back through my ABC editor/player

(I am using EasyABC). As I'm only learning the tunes, this is OK, but I'd like to try and vary the accompaniment to make

the playback a bit more 'interesting'. However, despite having studied the relevant part of Guido Gonzato's manual (p.88-ish),

I really can't get my head around these MIDI fbcz sequences which control the sound of the chordal accompaniment.

 

Can any kind person out there suggest alternative sequences for M:C| or M:6/4 which might make my playbacks sound a

little more interesting? I don't really know if this is even possible, but my own attempts have been abysmal.

 

Thank you.

 

Roger

 

(*) I was quite surprised that what I thought of as common time signatures do not seem to have default chord profiles defined

as an integral part of the abc2midi program.

[David Barnert]

I've been using abc for nearly 30 years, and never ran across this kind of concern. I have no idea how to answer your question, but if you're using it to learn tunes, playback of the chords should not be important.

 

BTW, in your 2nd sentence, I believe you mean "transcribing" rather than "transposing" unless in the process, you are changing the key, in which case you are doing both.

[lachenal74693]

I've been using abc for nearly 30 years, and never ran across this kind of concern. I have no idea how to answer your question, but if you're using it to learn tunes, playback of the chords should not be important.

 

BTW, in your 2nd sentence, I believe you mean "transcribing" rather than "transposing" unless in the process, you are changing the key, in which case you are doing both.

 

David, thank you.

 

Yes, I realised I was being a bit pernickity, I was just curious is all (that's the sort of sad git I am, I'm afraid, I always have to know).

 

In my 2nd sentence, I believe you are quite right, I meant transcribing - sloppy, sloppy...

 

Roger

[adrian brown]

Roger,

 

You can mess around with the rhythmical coding a lot, but the midi playback always sounds pretty crappy to me. It can be effective to add bass notes to the chords to indicate inversions or bass runs (for example "G/D" or "G/B"), and I find these helpful when reading the notation, especially if it's in unfamiliar keys. But as David has implied, the important thing is what you do on the instrument, not what it sounds like as a midi file!

 

Adrian

[Paul_Hardy]

Can any kind person out there suggest alternative sequences for M:C| or M:6/4 which might make my playbacks sound a

little more interesting? I don't really know if this is even possible, but my own attempts have been abysmal.

 

I too was rather surprised that the inbuilt set of rythms in abcmidi do not include ones for 3/2 (triple hornpipes) and 4/6 (many old dances), but they don't.

 

If you download the abc for "Paul Hardy's Session Tunebook", and search it for gchord, then you'll find examples like

%%MIDI beatstring fpppmpmpmppp
%%MIDI gchord czfzczfzczfz

for 3/2, which may help you (or not).

[lachenal74693]

...I too was rather surprised that the inbuilt set of rythms in abcmidi do not include ones for 3/2 (triple hornpipes) and 4/6 (many old dances), but they don't.

 

If you download the abc for "Paul Hardy's Session Tunebook", and search it for gchord, then you'll find examples like

%%MIDI beatstring fpppmpmpmppp
%%MIDI gchord czfzczfzczfz

for 3/2, which may help you (or not).

 

 

Paul, thank you - I will try that.

 

Actually, I think I may have got the %%MIDI gchord fzcfzc for 6/4 from your Session Tune Book...

 

Thanks again.

 

Roger

[adrian brown]

 

Can any kind person out there suggest alternative sequences for M:C| or M:6/4 which might make my playbacks sound a

little more interesting? I don't really know if this is even possible, but my own attempts have been abysmal.

 

I too was rather surprised that the inbuilt set of rythms in abcmidi do not include ones for 3/2 (triple hornpipes) and 4/6 (many old dances), but they don't.

 

If you download the abc for "Paul Hardy's Session Tunebook", and search it for gchord, then you'll find examples like

%%MIDI beatstring fpppmpmpmppp
%%MIDI gchord czfzczfzczfz

for 3/2, which may help you (or not).

 

 

Paul,

 

I can only imagine that this is because of the ambiguous nature of these tunes, where the stress you give a particular measure will depend largely on how you perceive the underlying harmony. At least that's the way I feel about the 3/2 hornpipes in Playford's Apollo's Banquet. Perhaps some might argue that since they were intended for the fiddle, one should not be worried by the niceties of harmonic progression, but I would counter that even having no indication, they were written with a structure all the same. On the other hand, it's the very ambiguity brought by this lack of any bass indication that I find fascinating, so I think I'd feel it a shame to learn them already straightjacketed into someone else's oom-pa preferences, let alone their harmonic choices.

 

Adrian

[lachenal74693]

...the midi playback always sounds pretty crappy to me...

 

Agreed! It's very subjective, of course, but the inclusion of the accompaniment makes it a little

less crappy - say a 7 (on the scale of 1-10 which I just invented) as opposed to a 9-10.

 

...I'd feel it a shame to learn them already straightjacketed into someone else's oom-pa preferences, let alone their harmonic choices.

 

Which is why I'd like to replace those oom-pa accompaniments with something a little

different, they are sorta 'hypnotic'...

 

I need all the help I can get! Even something as artificial as these midi files is a little help.

 

As I said - all very subjective - different strokes for different folks, if you prefer.

 

R

Edited September 24, 2017 by lachenal74693

[adrian brown]

 

...the midi playback always sounds pretty crappy to me...

 

Agreed! It's very subjective, of course, but the inclusion of the accompaniment makes it a little

less crappy - say a 7 (on the scale of 1-10 which I just invented) as opposed to a 9-10.

 

...I'd feel it a shame to learn them already straightjacketed into someone else's oom-pa preferences, let alone their harmonic choices.

 

Which is why I'd like to replace those oom-pa accompaniments with something a little

different, they are sorta 'hypnotic'...

 

I need all the help I can get! Even something as artificial as these midi files is a little help.

 

As I said - all very subjective - different strokes for different folks, if you prefer.

 

R

 

 

If you want something hypnotic try something like this - it's a lot more fun than abc...:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgapFaHRVcs

 

Cheers

 

Adrian