Automatic generation of 10-hole diatonic harmonica tab for tunes in ABC format

Theory
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Michael Eskin here, thank you for adding me to the group.

ABC is a way to notate tunes in simple text format that has been used for over 20 years, primarily for the sharing of traditional Irish and Scottish music.

Since 2022, I’ve been developing a totally free web-based tool for building tunebooks and playing/practicing tunes written in ABC format.

This tool produces standard music notation from the ABC, and can also automatically create stringed instrument tablatures, whistle and recorder tablature, as well as diatonic half-step Irish button accordion, Anglo Concertina, and now 10-hole diatonic harmonica tablature for multiple systems (Standard Richter, Paddy Richter, and “Easy Thirds”) in multiple harp keys.

The tune databases built into the tool and many of the features of the tool are really for those working on Irish session music with over 65,000 dance tunes available in the tool itself, but there are many sources for ABC tunes on the web. There is a link at the top of the tool labeled “Tune Sources” that has many links to a vast number of websites that all have free ABC tunes.

Everything about the tool is free. It’s free to use, it’s free to export interactive PDF files and website, everything is open source and you can even get the entire source code for the tool from the tool’s GitHub repo.

I’m not doing this to make money, this is a gift from me (I’m a retired software engineer) to the music community. While those using the tool and getting value out of it might send me a tip via PayPal or Venmo, it costs nothing to use, and always will be free.

Additionally, the editor, while it will run on a mobile phone or tablet, really is best run on a desktop browser. Most people using the tool on their phone are playing tunes from PDF tunebooks, not authoring tunebooks. And no, I’m not planning on making it any easier to author tunes on phones or create some iOS or Android app version of it.

With all that in the open, I hope some of you might find it useful.

All the best,

Michael Eskin

Demo video

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Link to the tool:

User guide:

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Added additional 10-hole diatonic harmonica tuning styles:

Tool now supports:

Standard Richter, Paddy Richter, Easy Thirds, Melody Maker, Country (Major 7th), and Natural Minor

in all keys.

A huge thank you Cathal Johnny Johnson and De Sparou for their advice and support that made it possible to quickly add these new tuning styles.

These new tuning styles are in version 2283_012825_1000 or later. Check the version at the lower left of the “Settings” dialog. If earlier, click the version number to update the tool.

2 Likes
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I’ll definitely give this a look I’m autistic have a devil of a time with Tab

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I’ve added support for editing, saving, and loading custom harmonica tunings to my ABC Transcription Tools.

A huge thank you again to Cathal Johnny Johnson and De Sparou for their advice on all things related to harmonica tunings.

Support for custom harmonica tunings is in version 2284_012925_1000 or later.

Check the version at the lower left of the “Settings” dialog. If earlier, click the version number to update the tool.

Demo video:

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