Michael Eskin ABC Tools ????

[Doug Barr]

Hi Michael

 

Was fooling around with the ABC Tools, specifically inserting Gary Coover tabs..... 

Couldn't leave well enough alone. Simple enough to adjust fingerings.....then...

Decided to try and put in accompany and chords without really understanding what I was doing. 

Had to do some wacky things to account for the spacing .  Never could fix the "F" chord symbol in the 3rd measure (what ever I did for the "G" chord in the following measure worked when the fingerings were under staff.  Tried to copy and paste but didn't work.

Anyway would have sent you this in a message but no place to attach a file.

Have fun....

Anyway to make this easier? 

Not really necessary but you might enjoy the challenge.  

Thanks

Doug

Constant Billy14.abc

Edited March 5 by Doug Barr
spelling

[David Barnert]

4 minutes ago, Doug Barr said:

Hi Mike...

 

Hi, Doug.

 

I learned the hard way... Michael prefers not to be called “Mike.”

[Doug Barr]

48 minutes ago, David Barnert said:

 

Hi, Doug.

 

I learned the hard way... Michael prefers not to be called “Mike.”

Thanks

[Michael Eskin]

Chords and Gary Coover style tab don't play well together, for exactly the reason you're seeing because the chords always are above whatever annotations that would be above the staves.

 

I'll play with it, but a better solution is to use one of the other tab options, which co-exist better with chords, for example:

https://michaeleskin.com/abctools/abctools.html?def=eJzdUbFKxEAQ7fcrhoHDMomgnGt1OTWFCiIWdmEvJkeOZPcgsRC2tl_yAyqo_5UvcbLJJRuwtrDaefNm3puZfeQQsMWifK7ypNqLJIXAJyykVLWocyUzJWu4EwUBqTrygcNayaoWlA_zonhh9xx2-Zbdcjj1luyGFOm5prJS7EiLSrOsSvew9JnmGJ-ct68NRhrXiPEZAYPJMWDcmk_LbCGGGFclsYFv6XSsm1IaL7qK1nxYnHUKlmvwCTCy1Julwo6ambbm3cJ0ahkdAK-wLze4OnRSqK3mIDNmHReY7cO13XXcqTee9hnndve21q35sozobzIAsvdCdOf9RYtG8C7RUZyd9Y9GiNwBnPZD2OBGs-EbvvtrHf3D7_8Beq8_eg&format=noten&ssp=10&name=Constant_Billy14_2&editor=1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Michael Eskin]

Interesting, on Firefox your example formats perfectly with the F chord in line with the rest, but on Chrome and Safari, the F drops down.

Let me see if there is a way to force the F back up on Chrome/Safari, but in general the Gary Coover tab really isn't meant to be used along with ABC chords.

(5 minutes later...)

So this works on Chrome/Safari, but not perfect, but if you put a couple of . characters in the annotations you put before the F chords, it will raise it up to align with the rest of the chords:

https://michaeleskin.com/abctools/abctools.html?def=eJzNUk1Lw0AUvOdXPAaKt7bZplKyp6RqDiqIePDUZY1JSGmSQupByI_3vW1MP_QgCOJll52dmTc77HNIvjcaVW9tmbZbm2bkT_ls67rZ2V3Z1HlT7-jBbvhQN3L5FNKyqdudZTwuN5t37zGkdVl49yFdThbeHTvydsu0yq7Zi6l53mZbWky9LoQhPUfSwWitZ8BK-8ASqSJG5oAJGJuhIEPGcZQVkgKiChlWPlKGAwaNqBWyg5WR9apC7swGjmH1KzmW7468JoiHieokjpI4Wa86ysSDWbA_a19CjfUYuEGkBjxA1PUS8VlpGZTsbyO4eEb1EWL6UkHYSUHy-m_zzJCfdeRYgTMMJIo9aVFAu3dyQ0m2ZBLzs6Q3OJH5LC4_uMng5eQahRrc6Hexjn3OY_0klepTJSh6gyP9HC-dd0gWuDIv_v2H0n_zoz4AFnLr2g&format=noten&ssp=10&name=Constant_Billy14&editor=1

 

Edited March 6 by Michael Eskin

[Roger Hare]

8 hours ago, Doug Barr said:

Was fooling around with the ABC Tools, specifically inserting Gary Coover tabs etc...

I think there might be a 'mistake' in that ABC code?

If I strip out all the text strings associated with the tablature, I see this:

 

X: 1
%%musicspace 10
%%annotationfont Palatino 10
T: Constant Billy
R: jig
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
K: Cmaj
%%staffsep 80
|:G|"C"c2 g _ _"Am"ece|"Dm"f2 d "G"B2 G|"C"edc "F"A2 A|"G"GAB "C"c2:|
|:g|"C"efg "F"a2 a|"G/B"def "C/E"g2 g|"C"efg "F"a2 a|"G/B"def "G"gab|
"C"c'2 g _ _"Am"ece|"Dm"f2 d "G"B2 G|"C"edc "F"A2 A|"G"GAB "C"c2:|

 

In the opening bar of the first and third lines of music, there seems to be a '_ _'  (just before the "Am" chord) which (I think?) shouldn't be there?

 

Maybe those '_ _'s are having a deleterious effect on what you are trying to do? Maybe I muffed the deletion of the tab strings, but I did it twice and got the same result...

Edited March 6 by Roger Hare

[Michael Eskin]

Yes, those probably aren't valid, but they aren't causing the issue that I came up with a workaround for Doug.

[RAc]

in a private conversation with Michael, we discussed a strange problem with the abcjs transposition engine that would only show up in a very specific scenario (only with one source key and one possible way to express the K: field and with stray spaces before certain syntactic elemens), so it was originally a bug in abcjs but could be addressed by Michel's utility preprocessing the abcs.

 

The number of components involved is large enough for all permutations of combinations to be untestable. To make things more interesting, the abc spec leaves lots of room to realize the same music in many different ways, so even if two abcs scores *should* in theory yield the same output, the same rendition engine make make them look very different, and likewise, two rendition engines may make the same abc file come out very differently (my direct comparion is between Michaels tool and Mike Zubers MSP where I see that happen more often than not). I would not even want to think about custom extensions like tabs, they add another dimension to the already vast matrix of components that must somehow work together.

 

So chapeau to Michael for making his tool work as well as it does. I am sure there are many more hidden issues that we just haven't found yet. I'm very happy I am in systems development where more or less all we have to talk to it the hardware...

[Roger Hare]

1 hour ago, RAc said:

[1]...The number of components involved is large enough for all permutations of combinations to be untestable...

[2]...two rendition engines may make the same abc file come out very differently...

[3]...So chapeau to Michael for making his tool work as well as it does.

[1] Yup! I limit myself to a restricted sub-set of the possible permutations of (say) K: in my own (very modest) programs - it's the only way to stay sane!

 

[2] Yup! That 'dodgy' code I posted barfed big-time using EasyABC, but worked perfectly using Michael's Transcription Tool.

 

[3] Absolutement!

 

Edited March 6 by Roger Hare

[Doug Barr]

Not an expert but it seem that the code for the tab uses the same "  " as you would use in a simple ABC transcription to add chord symbols.     Not me to decide.

 

My main goal is to be able to enter fingerings (not just single melody notes) for a "Gary Coover" arrangement to show what  the left hand is doing.

 

Maybe Gary will chime in and let us know how he does it for his books.  I can't believe it is done in the printing process.

 

I want to thank Michael for all the work he has done on his ABC tool.   An amazing job!

 

Doug

 

[Doug Barr]

I just found this:

I agree with Gary, I am not looking for an automatic app to fill in fingerings, more the ability to easy enter fingerings for melody and accompaniment of my own making. 

 

Edited March 6 by Doug Barr

[David Barnert]

2 hours ago, Doug Barr said:

Maybe Gary will chime in and let us know how he does it for his books.

 

The best way to attract his attention to this thread is to tag him: @gcoover

[Michael Eskin]

6 hours ago, Doug Barr said:

Not an expert but it seem that the code for the tab uses the same "  " as you would use in a simple ABC transcription to add chord symbols.     Not me to decide.

 

My main goal is to be able to enter fingerings (not just single melody notes) for a "Gary Coover" arrangement to show what  the left hand is doing.

 

Maybe Gary will chime in and let us know how he does it for his books.  I can't believe it is done in the printing process.

 

I want to thank Michael for all the work he has done on his ABC tool.   An amazing job!

 

Doug

 

No, the code that handles ABC text annotations and chords are completely different for lots of reasons as described in section 4.19 of the ABC 2.1 spec.

 

Did you try my recommended workaround for your F chord issue?

 

As I've stated, manually mixing ABC chords and "above the staff" ABC annotations as required for Gary Coover style tab may require some extra work and even some minor tradeoffs like my suggested workaround for your F chords to keep the chord indications at the same level. 
 

When I do automatic generation of Gary Coover concertina tab, which supports only single line melodies with no harmony, I strip the chords.

Edited March 6 by Michael Eskin

[Michael Eskin]

Here's another way to do it by marking each of the F chords that were too low with a

!mark1!

marker and then using custom CSS at the top of the ABC to target those specific elements and adjust their vertical positions to match the other chord marks.

Live in the tool (file attached below):

https://michaeleskin.com/abctools/abctools.html?def=eJzNksFu00AQhu_7FNORLKAiTe0kqLJPSSA5QCVEOcAl1tpeO07s3Si7pUWEd2dmY5I0cEBCSFzW3pl_vvl3NAGIAKb31pkWpnd34AzIpq40uKWCGeRLsy2sCEg0Lgq4aOV2HV5ApkqzVaBkvgRTsrZ9CdKCXZoHTdnGPHBNkKmq1rm1on8Jt3KtPNUzQDWqVdpZatdA1sh8DZd9cbVPfhMAZd00sU8k4rsHmC9HgCo6b3C_YdOtdOSFs1tl3QnqSmb5yva8mLFuK7Ul9228_22kU5-f9wY3m8cXyWm-l5nH2LvgP_YQBEoX_BrxKYaQru29rXO7kbmC8JruUmvjpKuNLo128F4SvNaGkx9jmBptnaT4hJhfxYcYVnUlbmN41b8R74hIn7cka-WKWCQtS6s2EA6uxS7GFJIRzneYJkkyQFwkIeIU8wgoMkJMhxQbYAUppF4TSRZFiOMWFS5CzCk8pGDK1RGqIyrl83WLpYcdNClVF-BVob_SOcfJoWP0xE7EdlRXdeKJGlPB_p6EErsVwhmOo0NiiONdV8OgRcKd5vvsGL2_NOo8TOCXGcQ7nhA__7eGBlieDcmrhh5I5wzlkzFyUO5JvinwZ96f0Lt4cOiL0p-TK480bjztv8EqOtDg72ydcs5t_YmrqHM1x6oDnNSPMNuJo7OhH-az_36jkvOV4n35R2v1AxYgUkA&format=noten&ssp=10&name=Constant_Billy_Fixed&editor=1

Constant Billy Custom CSS.abc

Edited March 6 by Michael Eskin

[Michael Eskin]

17 hours ago, Roger Hare said:

I think there might be a 'mistake' in that ABC code?

If I strip out all the text strings associated with the tablature, I see this:

 

X: 1
%%musicspace 10
%%annotationfont Palatino 10
T: Constant Billy
R: jig
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
K: Cmaj
%%staffsep 80
|:G|"C"c2 g _ _"Am"ece|"Dm"f2 d "G"B2 G|"C"edc "F"A2 A|"G"GAB "C"c2:|
|:g|"C"efg "F"a2 a|"G/B"def "C/E"g2 g|"C"efg "F"a2 a|"G/B"def "G"gab|
"C"c'2 g _ _"Am"ece|"Dm"f2 d "G"B2 G|"C"edc "F"A2 A|"G"GAB "C"c2:|

 

In the opening bar of the first and third lines of music, there seems to be a '_ _'  (just before the "Am" chord) which (I think?) shouldn't be there?

 

Maybe those '_ _'s are having a deleterious effect on what you are trying to do? Maybe I muffed the deletion of the tab strings, but I did it twice and got the same result...

FYI, to validate any ABC as far as parsing errors (which may or may not actually effect the rendering or playback), you can either turn on the ABC syntax validation pane in the tool's Advanced Settings panel.

Or, even easier, click the Sharing button to open the Sharing Controls dialog, click the "Open ABC in External Tool" icon at the top right of that dialog and then open the ABC in the "abcjs Quick Editor".

That tool has a validation pane always enabled that will show you the errors.

It (and my tool's validation panel as well) catches the extra _ characters which don't appear to break anything but probably best removed. 

[Doug Barr]

I have been working on it with Musescore 4

Learning and working out the bugs

My previous details Gary's process. 

Edited March 7 by Doug Barr

[Michael Eskin]

Doug, did you get a chance to try any of the solutions I recommended?
 

[Roger Hare]

On 3/6/2026 at 11:41 PM, Michael Eskin said:

FYI, to validate any ABC as far as parsing errors (which may or may not actually effect the rendering or playback), you can either turn on the ABC syntax validation pane in the tool's Advanced Settings panel.

Or, even easier, click the Sharing button to open the Sharing Controls dialog, click the "Open ABC in External Tool" icon at the top right of that dialog and then open the ABC in the "abcjs Quick Editor".

That tool has a validation pane always enabled that will show you the errors.

It (and my tool's validation panel as well) catches the extra _ characters which don't appear to break anything but probably best removed. 

Yes, I have ABC syntax validation turned on all the time (and jolly useful it is too!). Even if I'm eventually going to use the ABC in EasyABC, I usually run new code past that syntax checker to detect any schoolboy howlers I may have committed while transcribing/editing the code.

 

More by good luck than good management, I usually manage to get it right ("no issues found"). If there is a problem, it's (mostly) easy to fix, but if it doesn't look right, I have also sometimes gone deeper into it by using "abcjs Quick Editor".

 

The goal (as far as I have one) is to try to create (fairly 'basic') ABC code which works in both the Transcription Tool and EasyABC...

_____________

Later edit: By 'works', I mean both plays back OK (bearing in mind that ABC doesn't really accommodate stuff like 'D.C.', etc.), and produces an acceptable score...

 

in the past three years, it's become apparent that the Transcription Tool is something of a 'game-changer', and some existing EasyABC users will migrate, either fully or partially, to the Tool. New ABC users are likely to start with either EasyABC or the Transcription Tool. Configuring ABC code so that it 'works in both the Transcription Tool and EasyABC' is simply planning ahead (or 'getting my retaliation in first', if you prefer...🙂).

Edited March 8 by Roger Hare