IFR and ABC Music Notation

[DavidW]

@mem

What drew me to IFR was the simple way it lays out melody and harmony using the numbers, and I have been combining ABC notation and IFR numbers when notating some of tunes I’ve been learning.

@slingaya , what @mem writes above pretty much describes my situation too. I’m not seeking for fancy multi-dimensional analysis.

My ideal would be a straightforward way (& ABC style notation fits that bill) to prepare IFR number based melody contour diagrams as a better version of what I currently draw by hand (neater, easier to organise, archive , share, etc.,).

[jessevoostrum]

Hi all,
This weekend @ImproviseForReal brought this thread under my attention. For the past few years I have been developing a tool that converts conventional sheet music to IFR notation, which is I think similar to the stuff you have been discussing here. Currently the output of the tool looks like this:

I have uploaded all the songs I have converted so far to IFR notation to this website: integerbook.com

There is also the possibility of converting your own sheets to IFR format. This does however require some basic programming skills like installing python packages and using a command line interface. have a look at my github page: https://github.com/jessevoostrum/music-visualisation if you are interested.

I am very curious to hear what you think, and if you have any questions, suggestions for improvements or other comments please let me know!

[DavidW]

@jessevoostrum

Since this is actually no longer about the ABC notation I requested to open a new thread for questions and comments about my program there. I suggest that we discuss future comments and questions there. I will however reply to your previous comments below.

That is a very good idea @jessevoostrum .

The topic ‘Tool for converting sheet music to IFR notation’ can be found here.

[DavidW]

N.B. The responses to @jessevoostrum 's original post, and @jessevoostrum 's reply have been moved to the new topic * Tool for converting sheet music to IFR notation *

[CyCosta]

This is a dream come true Jesse. I’ve played with a plug-in on MuseScore for a while using Jianpu (numbered musical notation). But the results were nothing like what you have. You did an awesome job!

[slingaya]

Hello IFR friends,

Based on the several comments and suggestions I have received in the past weeks, I have decided to “simplify” my STCN module
This IFR module does NOT do any any automatic analysis of the Melody with respect to the current Key, and even less, does NOT do any decoding of the Melody w.r.t. th current Chord/Harmony.

Although IFR uses the Standard ABC-Notation as far as possible, I have had to minimally extend the ABC Chord-Notation which is then displayed ad verbatim in the Chord-Line above the Standard Staff.
The first section expresses the Basic Harmony (Triad/Tetrad) as letter-names.
The optional second Section (Prefixed by a colon lists any extensions/alterations numerically. Finally a third Section (optional - prefixed by a slash /) to list the Bass note.
This chord specification is then translated to David Reed’s IFR-Notation.

I have put together a minuscule User’s Guide (this preliminary version attached here).
IFR_STCN_UsersGuide_V.0.1.pdf (910.0 KB)

Furthermore, I have packaged the whole collection to run as a stand-alone app under Windows 10 and the Firefox Browser. The User’s Guide has a section detailing the installation of this package.
Link to my Dropbox:

ABC_IFR_STCN

Please let me know about any errors and let me have your suggestions for improvements.
But for now and the next months, it’s back to the practice corner for me -
as the gurus always say: to learn Guitar Playing, you have to PLAY the guitar…
Regards,
S.L.

[DavidW]

@slingaya

, I have packaged the whole collection to run as a stand-alone app under Windows 10 and the Firefox Browser. The User’s Guide has a section detailing the installation of this package

Thank you very much @slingaya . I followed those instruction, loaded in an unmodified ABC file I had handy and it came up just fine (including the option to ‘play’ it).

I am now trying to get to understand what I need to do to adapt the unmodified file. I already have some of it worked out, thanks to your documentation.

I was getting an error stack at first and no analysis, but I discovered that was because my file didn’t have any chords defined! As soon as I added a chord that error went away.

Thanks again.

I now need to go & do some real playing practice you mention.

Tagging David Reed @ImproviseForReal

[DavidW]

@slingaya

suggestions for improvements.

@slingaya I think it would be good to mention in the documentation that ‘IFR’ & ‘STCN’ style abc files for the Clare De Lune examples are available in the ‘ABC_Trad’ folder (ClaireDeLune_IFR.abc & ClaireDeLune_STCN.abc).

Are you aware that if a lyric line (i.e. w:) is included in the STCN version the lyrics clash with (i.e. occupy the same space as) the ‘D’ & ‘Q’ data?

WIth IFR style lyric lines seem to be okay, other than that they are duplicated (as they are with STCN). It would be nice if there was a mechanism to allow for the lyrics to be present for just one of the voices?

I’ve had the occasional error stack after an edit. Typically that has disappeared if I save, close the page, then restart. I’ve not noticed anything repeatable I can report.

I appreciate you are busy with other things, but you did ask for reactions.

Overall I think it look like a very useful & flexible system.