Play ABC tunes with synchronized notation, 12-hole ocarina tablature, and live ocarina fingerings.
Preparing notation…
Export the current notation pane. Complete stave and tablature systems stay together on the same page.
The PDF tune title will link to the ABC Transcription Tools Player.
Getting Started
Open an .abc or .txt file with Browse, paste a single ABC tune in the editor, or open a tune sent from ABC Transcription Tools.
Choose a tune from the Tune menu when your file contains more than one tune. Edits to a tune are retained when switching between tunes.
Choose Notation Only or Notation + Ocarina Tab with the Notation display menu. The latter shows fingering diagrams beneath the notes.
The ABC editor is intended for editing one tune at a time. Open multi-tune collections as files rather than pasting them into the editor.
Choosing Your Ocarina
Select an Ocarina Model from the ten soprano, alto, and bass models. Alto C is the default. Choose the model that matches your instrument.
Octave Shift sets which octave is used for the fingerings and playback. Choose 0 for the upper-octave fingering or -1 for the fingering one octave lower. The instrument model also determines the sounding register.
The ABC music notation and large note name always show the original written note; they do not move when you change the model or Octave Shift.
A large × means the selected note is outside the fingerings supported by the chosen model and octave setting.
Fingering Display and Navigation
Click a note in the notation to display its fingering and select the corresponding ABC text. Use the ← and → buttons beneath the fingering pane to step through notes without playback.
When no note is selected, the fingering pane shows an ocarina with all holes open. The note name and small staff note appear only when a note is selected.
Leave Use arrow keys? checked to step with the Left and Right Arrow keys, or use Home and End to jump to the first or last note. These shortcuts also work with compatible Bluetooth keyboard controllers. Uncheck the option to use the keys normally.
Show note displays the selected written pitch on a small staff below its note name. This preference is remembered in your browser.
Hide temporarily conceals the fingering pane contents for practice. Uncheck it to show them again. Your normal preference is remembered; students may change it temporarily during lessons.
The ABC text-size selector (Small, Medium, Large, Largest) changes only the editor text size. Use the pane dividers to resize the display on a wide screen, or Full-Page View to enlarge any pane.
Playback Range
Select one or more notes in the ABC editor, or click a note in the rendered notation to select it.
The previous and next note buttons can also select notes without rebuilding the player until you click Set Playback Range.
The Set Playback Range button in the ABC editor header becomes available when your selection includes notes.
Restore becomes available whenever a playback range or Phrase Builder result is active.
Click Set Playback Range to temporarily replace the visible ABC, notation, and audio with the selected passage while retaining the tune's complete header and preceding comments, directives, and ABC fields.
Any part of the selection within the tune header is ignored.
Use the normal Play and Loop controls to practice just that passage.
To narrow the passage further, select notes within the currently displayed range and click Set Playback Range again.
You can repeat this process to create smaller nested playback ranges without changing the preserved original tune.
You can edit the temporary ABC while a range is active, and its notation and audio will update as you type.
Any changes you make to the ABC within a playback range are temporary and are not saved when the full tune is restored.
Click Restore to discard temporary Playback Range or Phrase Builder edits and restore the entire original tune, not just the previous range.
Saving ABC, creating share or lesson links, and opening tunes in ABC Transcription Tools always use the preserved full tune rather than the temporary range.
Clicking the main Export PDF button automatically discards any temporary Playback Range or Phrase Builder result and restores the full tune before preparing the PDF.
Changing tunes or loading another ABC file also discards any temporary Playback Range or Phrase Builder result and its edits.
Changing the ocarina key or playback octave clears the playback range and discards temporary edits.
Phrase Builder
Phrase Builder creates a temporary call-and-response practice version of the ABC currently shown.
Choose the phrase length, extra rest measures, and number of times to repeat each phrase.
Your Phrase Builder settings are saved in this browser and are not included in share or lesson links.
Chord symbols are removed from the result.
You can first use Set Playback Range to select part of a tune, then use Phrase Builder on that passage.
After building phrases, Phrase Builder is disabled until you click Restore.
You can still use Set Playback Range as many times as you like on the phrase-built ABC.
Restore discards all temporary changes and brings back the complete original tune.
Saving, sharing, creating lessons, and opening a tune in ABC Transcription Tools always use the original tune.
Changing tunes or using the main Export PDF also restores the original ABC.
Phrase Builder cannot process tunes with V: voices or unsupported body-level ABC fields other than K:.
Cancelling Phrase Builder or entering invalid settings leaves the ABC unchanged.
Playback and Tempo
The playback Loop setting is remembered in this browser and restored when you reopen the player (off by default).
Press Play in the Notation pane to hear the tune. The highlighted notation and live fingering display follow the melody as it plays.
The audio uses an ocarina-like instrument sound. The selected ocarina model and Octave Shift determine the sounding register; changing either does not transpose the printed notation.
Tempo changes the playing speed from 10% to 200%. You can also use the tempo percentage box in the playback bar.
Check Metronome for a metronome click and Count in? for a five-second countdown before starting playback from a stopped position.
Solve Missing Notes is available when one or more notes in the current tune have no playable ocarina fingering (shown as an X when tablature is displayed).
It tries moving each unavailable note up one octave, then down one octave, then down two octaves, then up two octaves, stopping at the first playable fingering. It preserves the intended sharps, flats, and naturals.
Already-playable notes keep their pitches, although the tool may add an explicit accidental to preserve a pitch.
If some unavailable notes cannot be moved into range, the playable corrections are still made and an alert explains that the tune is not completely solved.
Review the modified ABC before saving or sharing; these edits change the written notes and are limited to the selected tune.
Mute Melody silences the melody for practice. Click Unmute Melody to hear it again. Accompaniment, when available, can continue playing.
Saving and Sharing
Use Save to download the loaded ABC tunes with your edits. On some mobile browsers, the saved file uses a .txt extension.
Click Share to share the current tune or all loaded tunes. The link dialog lets you copy the link, save it as a text file, or open it for testing. You can also open the ABC in ABC Transcription Tools.
Shortcut: Option/Alt-click Share to open the current tune directly in ABC Transcription Tools in a new browser tab, without opening the sharing dialogs.
Shared tunes carry the Notation display, Ocarina Model, and Octave Shift choices. Settings from an incoming share link do not overwrite your saved preferences unless you change a player setting.
If playback is initially disabled after opening a shared link, click Click to Enable Playback to allow sound in your browser.
Practice with the ABC Transcription Tools Tune Trainer
To practice the current tune in the ABC Transcription Tools, first click Share in this player, choose Share Current Tune, and then click Open in ABCTT in the Share Link dialog. The tune opens in the ABC Transcription Tools in a new browser tab. Alternatively, Option/Alt-click Share to open the current tune directly in ABC Transcription Tools, skipping the Share dialogs.
Once the tune is loaded, click Train above the ABC editor pane to start the Tune Trainer. To practice the tune phrase-by-phrase, click Phrase Builder in the Tune Trainer.
To export an MP3 audio file of the tune, click Play in the ABC Transcription Tools, then click the Export Audio, Image, or PDF button in its Player and select the MP3 audio export option.
Export PDF
Use Export PDF to save the current tune as a PDF containing the notation and any displayed tablature.
If a Playback Range or Phrase Builder result is active, clicking the main Export PDF button first discards the temporary ABC and restores the full tune before preparing the PDF.
The tune title in the main notation PDF is clickable. Click it to open this tune in the ABC Transcription Tools Player with the current playback instrument settings. The separate All Fingerings PDF export is unchanged.
Choose Letter or A4 paper and Portrait or Landscape orientation.
By default, the PDF includes a centered Click the title to play instruction in the top margin of its first page. Uncheck Add "Click the title to play" on the first page header to omit it; the tune title and music do not move.
Each complete staff/tablature system stays together, with systems that do not fit moving to the next page.
For multipage tunes, page numbers appear centered at the bottom of each page.
A status dialog shows progress while the PDF is generated.
On an iPhone or iPad, tap Save PDF when the file is ready to open the iOS share sheet.
Choose Save to Files or another destination from that sheet.
On other devices, the PDF downloads automatically.
PDF export settings are saved locally and are not included in share or lesson links.
Printing Limitations
While running this tool, you can use your browser's Print feature to print the music notation displayed in the notation pane.
Tunes that are longer than one page may be cut off or clipped in the printout.
The browser's print scaling controls will not affect the size of the printed notation.
Experimenting with other paper sizes, such as Tabloid instead of Letter, may allow a longer tune to fit on a single page.
Manually setting larger left and right margins in the browser's Print dialog can often allow more staves to fit on a single page or possibly help with cleaner pagination.
Lessons for Teachers
Click Share and choose Configure Lesson… to create, edit, save, load, or share a lesson with your students.
A lesson contains the currently selected tune only, so choose the tune you want to teach before opening Configure Lesson.
Enter a Lesson title and Instructions for the student. Your title and instructions are remembered in this browser while you prepare the lesson and are available when you reopen Configure Lesson.
Save Lesson Configuration downloads a reusable text file containing the tune, lesson title, instructions, and selected player settings.
The lesson settings include Notation display, Ocarina Model, Octave Shift, and the initial Hide setting for the fingering display.
Load Lesson Configuration can open a previously saved lesson configuration or a Lesson Link saved as a text file, allowing you to continue editing or prepare another link.
If tunes are already loaded, you will be asked to confirm before a saved lesson replaces them. Loading a lesson configuration also restores its saved player settings for your own future use.
You can alternatively open a saved lesson configuration or lesson-link text file using the main Browse control. This loads only the ABC tune, not the lesson title, instructions, or saved player settings.
Create Lesson Link makes a link containing the selected tune, lesson title, instructions, and lesson settings.
The resulting Lesson Share Link dialog lets you Copy Link, Save Link as Text File, Test Link in a new browser tab, or Open in ABCTT without the lesson-only information.
Click Back to return from the Lesson Share Link dialog to Configure Lesson.
If a lesson is too large for a share link, save it as a Lesson Configuration file instead.
Check Hide beside Show note before creating the lesson link if you want students to begin practicing without seeing the fingering display. The initial Hide setting is included in lesson links and configuration files, and students can change it during the lesson.
Students can view but cannot change the lesson's Ocarina Model, Octave Shift, or Notation display settings. Test the link to confirm that the tune, instructions, and settings are what you intend before sending it.
Lessons for Students
Your teacher may give you an ABC Ocarina Fingering Player lesson link.
Open the link in your web browser to load the tune, the teacher's instructions, and the player settings chosen for the lesson.
Read the lesson information that appears, then click Start Lesson when you are ready.
If prompted, click Click to Enable Playback to activate the audio controls in your browser.
The Ocarina Model, Octave Shift, and Notation display controls remain visible but are disabled so the teacher's setup cannot be changed.
The Browse and Save controls remain available, but Share is hidden while you are using a lesson.
You can use the usual notation, fingering diagrams, playback, tempo, metronome, count-in, note navigation, and full-page views while practicing.
Click individual notes in the notation or use the previous/next note buttons to study the fingerings without playing the entire tune.
Show note controls the small staff-note display, and Hide lets you practice without seeing the fingering display.
Your teacher may have selected Hide to start the lesson with fingerings concealed. Uncheck Hide to reveal them, or check it again when you want to practice without hints. Changing Hide during the lesson does not alter your saved normal-player preference.
You can edit the ABC notation if your teacher asks you to make changes, then click Save to download your edited tune.
Use Browse to reopen a saved ABC file or open another ABC file. The teacher's model, octave, and notation settings remain locked.
After loading another ABC file, the Tune selector becomes available so you can choose any tune in that file without changing the lesson's other settings.
Credits
Fingering data/font diagrams adapted from Mathias Panzenböck's 12-Hole Ocarina.
The ocarina fonts are SIL Open Font License 1.1.
About
This tool was created by
Michael Eskin
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