New concertina fingering command-line tool

[Chuck McCallum]

I've just released a command-line tool to help find good fingerings for tunes provided in ABC notation:

https://github.com/mccalluc/concertina-helper

 

There are several other packages out there, but I think this offers something new by making it possible to choose different weights for different strategies (ie, avoiding change in bellows direction vs. avoiding finger moves between rows), and there is also a documented API which should make it possible for this to be used as a dependency in other projects. Hope it can be useful.

[Michael Eskin]

Very cool! Also enjoying the other page you cite:

https://jvandonsel.github.io/fingering/fingering.html

 

[Leah Velleman]

Oh, I like this. I've been wanting for a while to make a flashcard app that asks things like "how do you play B-C-D-E without changing bellows," and I think this with the bellows-change constraint cranked way up would take care of the hard part of that job.

[Roger Hare]

5 hours ago, eskin said:

Very cool! Also enjoying the other page you cite:

https://jvandonsel.github.io/fingering/fingering.html

That was one of the two programs which inspired me to develop my own fingering generator(s) starting ~5 years ago. Currently I can add basic fingering tabs (melody only), and ABC note-names to large ABC files. I use hard-wired 'along-the-row' or 'cross-row' mapping of notes to buttons. The program(s) generate tabs for G/D, Bb/F and C/G concertinas and D/G Hohner Pokerwork melodeon. The next step is to optimise the mappings so that the note-button choices are a little more 'player-friendly'.

 

It's very un-cool and old-fashioned because it runs locally rather than remotely, and runs in a simple command-window without an ASAD window-based user-interface, but that's the way I prefer to work.

Edited May 16, 2023 by lachenal74693

[Roger Hare]

On 5/15/2023 at 6:37 PM, Chuck McCallum said:

I've just released a command-line tool to help find good fingerings for tunes provided in ABC notation etc...

Any chance of seeing a sample input file and the output it generates? There may be one in the github repository, but I'm afraid I missed it. Thanks.

Edited May 17, 2023 by lachenal74693

[Chuck McCallum]

Quote

Any chance of seeing a sample input file and the output it generates?

Sure. So it takes ABC files as input:
 

$ cat tests/g-major.abc
X: 1
T: G major scale
M: 4/4
L: 1/4
K: Gmaj
GABc|defg||

Its default output looks like:
 

$ concertina-helper tests/g-major.abc --layout_name 30_wheatstone_cg | head
Measure 1 - G4
PUSH:
--- --- --- --- ---    --- --- --- --- ---
--- --- --- --- ---    --- --- --- --- ---
--- --- G4  --- ---    --- --- --- --- ---
Measure 1 - A4
PUSH:
--- --- --- A4  ---    --- --- --- --- ---
--- --- --- --- ---    --- --- --- --- ---
--- --- --- --- ---    --- --- --- --- ---

But there are more options: You can define your own layout, and provide it instead. (Just using an example I have checked in, but you could use any file with this structure.)
 

$ cat concertina_helper/layouts/30_wheatstone_cg.yaml
push:
  left:
    - E3 A3 C#4 A4 G#4
    - C3 G3 C4  E4 G4
    - B3 D4 G4  B4 D5
  right:
    - C#5 A5 G#5 C#6 A6
    - C5  E5 G5  C6  E6
    - G5  B5 D6  G6  B6
pull:
  left:
    - F3 Bb3 D#4 G4 Bb4
    - G3 B3  D4  F4 A4
    - A3 F#4 A4  C5 E5
  right:
    - D#5 G5 Bb5 D#6 F6
    - B4  D5 F5  A5  B5
    - F#5 A5 C6  E6  F#6

And then you can transpose the layout, choose a more concise output mode, and weight the fingering strategies differently:

$ concertina-helper tests/g-major.abc \
   --layout_path concertina_helper/layouts/30_jefferies_cg.yaml \
   --layout_transpose 2 \
   --format ascii \
   --bellows_change_cost 3 \
   --finger_in_same_column_cost 6 | head
Measure 1 - G4
PULL:
.....   .....
...@.   .....
.....   .....
Measure 1 - A4
PUSH:
.....   .....
....@   .....
.....   .....

And if you need more flexibility than that, there's the API: https://mccalluc.github.io/concertina-helper/concertina_helper.html

Edited May 18, 2023 by Chuck McCallum

[Roger Hare]

1 hour ago, Chuck McCallum said:

Sure. So it takes ABC files as input:
 

$ cat tests/g-major.abc
X: 1
T: G major scale
M: 4/4
L: 1/4
K: Gmaj
GABc|defg||

Its default output looks like: etc...

OK, that's helpful. Thanks