abcmusiex

ABCMusiEx generates sight reading exercises: ABCs, printable PS/PDFs, audio WAV/MP3. Student read and practice generated scores while abcmusiex backing track follows at different speeds. Highly configurable and easy.

Based upon ABC Music Notation Standard, the executable generates an ABC file, which is converted to printable PS (and optionally) PDF files. (Optionally) WAV and MP3 are also created to allow student play the exercises on a audio player (CD, PC) while he plays the printed exercises on his own instrument.

Output is highly configurable: allows triplets, rests, dotted notes, note ranges, notes dispersion (on some instruments very distant notes are difficult to follow), score key, clefs, different times and metrics (4/4, 6/8, you say). Programmed in GNU C. Shoud be portable to other platforms: Unix, OsX, Windows, Solaris, BSD...

Includes a simple GUI.

Installing

A) GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS

Yum fixes all dependencies, I hope (please find the packages on the sourceforge ABCMusiEX site).

Just in case, you need this executables on your path: - abc2midi (http://abc.sourceforge.net/abcMIDI/) - abc2abc (http://abc.sourceforge.net/abcMIDI/)

    - timidity++    (http://timidity.sourceforge.net/)
    - lame          (http://lame.sourceforge.net/) * Be aware that mp3 files converting process would be subjectable to a fee.
    - evince        (http://www.gnome.org/projects/evince/)

B) TARBALL

If you downloaded a tar file, untar it with

# tar xvfz abcmusiex-x.x-x.tz (replace x's with the right version numbers)
# cd abcmusiex-x.x-x
# ./configure
# make
# make install

test it with

# abcmusiex --version

C) RPM FILE

# rpm -ivh abcmusiex-x.x-x.i686.rpm

D) BINARY FILES

Just copy executables to a bin directory on you path, say /usr/bin/local/ (must be logged as root)

# cp abc* /usr/bin/local

Using: Learn Music reading

Search the gnome menu, in the "Education" folder. There you can find the graphic interface.

Or, you can call the gui with

$ abcmusiex-gui

Generate some exercises and start practicing. What are you for in this life?

$ abcmusiex --t 50 --k G --n 150 --l 3 --triplets --rests --min 7 --max 21 --T "My First Musical Studying Lesson" --C "John Doe" --W "Many, many thanks to free software."

That will generate a studying lesson. If you want audio (wav and mp3) and printable parts (postscript ps and PDF), use "--stage 7". The generated exercise has this characteristics: tempo 50, G key, 150 bars of reading, --l 3 stands for only use halves, fourths and eights, triplets, rests, from low C (7) to high C (21) with the title "My First Musical Studying Lesson", author "John Doe", and final comments "Many, many thanks to free software.".

Probably you will see something like:

-rw-rw-r--   1 rodolfoap rodolfoap  46K Aug 26 13:28 exercise.ps
-rw-rw-r--   1 rodolfoap rodolfoap 4.3K Aug 26 13:28 exercise.abc
-rw-rw-r--   1 rodolfoap rodolfoap  70K Aug 26 13:28 exercise.pdf
-rw-rw-r--   1 rodolfoap rodolfoap  11K Aug 26 13:28 exercise.mid
-rw-r--r--   1 rodolfoap rodolfoap 3.2M Aug 26 13:28 exercise.wav
-rw-rw-r--   1 rodolfoap rodolfoap  28K Aug 26 13:28 exercise.mp3

See more options with

# abcmusiex --help

Another way of using it:

$ abcmusiex --stage 1

That line generates only .abc and .mid files. Then you can use ABC note editor or Finale for Windows and start practicing easily, no printing and mp3 playing. If you use linux... Did you know Finale 2006 installs fine on Wine? You can use any score player: Rosegarden, ABC Noteedit...

You can see all options:

# man abcmusiex

Notes

Notes on fifth release 1.0-7.fc13

• Fifth release signed 1.0-7
• Fixes: minor bugs in system command

•    Spec file with some Willy Cat <siamwilly@yahoo.com.ar> suggestions
  

• Adds: Graphic user interface

Notes on fourth release 0.9-2:

• Fixes: A couple of bugs
• Uses evince instead of acroread, timidity as player, not needed wav or mp3 files for exercises starting
• Faster generation and action
• Fedora 8 ready, avoid many dependences, rpm process generation improved
• Stages generation improved
• Pulseaudio not fixed in timidity, but abcmusiex now working fine with default device.

Notes on third release 0.8-2:

• Third release signed 0.8-2
• Sharps and flats generation;
• Ties (legatos) generation.

Notes on second release 0.8:

• Second release signed 0.8

Just some very useful fixes:

• Controlling generation stages;
• Updated documentation and manpage;
• Better generation tools;
• Metronom optional;
• Randomizer bug fixed;
• Dispersion fixed;
• Interface standardization.

Notes on first release 0.7-1:

• This release is created on C so then it can be appended with some open code from other abc suite software.
• Must have bugs. Just tested with some examples.
• Code does not validate any parameter entry.
• The program make some shell calls to other abc software, xpdf viewer and audio converters.
• The program just generates an abc file which then is converted to many formats. It is really simple.

Thanks to ABC standard writers and ABCPlus codemakers. Thanks to SourceForge, as always. If you have any doubt or wanna help me improve this work, just drop me a line.

TODO

• Sharps and Flats? Are they necessary?
• Is getopt really necessary? If so, parse options with it.

RodolfoAP (http://ydor.org)