My biggest problem in a session is getting the second and third tune started (lots of discussions about this around the site). What I’d like to see is an app that can display just the first two or three bars of several tunes on one page. I guess maybe I’ll crank up ABC and manually do that but an app would be easier.
The irishtune.info site has this facility . You build a playlist, shows just a couple of bars of each tune. I’m not sure how interactive it can be as I’ve only played about with it briefly .
I was recently shown A LaMode which I think does this.
Both BarFly and EasyABC can produce incipits (lists of the initial bars of a tune in “dots” notation) from your abc files.
edit:I went back & reviewed the FAQs. I have never registered w/Ng’s site. Apparently he has set up a
‘Practice Machine’; I’m guessing this is where the scored incipits are available for individual practice.
https://www.irishtune.info/faq/practice.html#whatismachine
~ Original Post ~
Hey, Walt. If you can start a tune after hearing about 12 seconds and can think of an album which has some of the tunes you want to play in a set then irishtune.info might work.
Here is Bothy Band’s 1st album; just click on a tune & it plays the 1st bit of the tune.
https://www.irishtune.info/album/BB+1/
It’s not terribly difficult in an abc editor like EasyABC. Put all of the tunes in one file, comment out all of the “X:” fields except the very first one using “%”. Comment out any blank lines with the percent sign “%” as well and then comment out every line you don’t want to show up with that percent sign yet again. If you want to view it on your smart phone, EasyABC can export it a pdf file. Example below:
X:4
T:Gaelic Club, The
Z:slainte
R:Jig
M:6/8
L:1/8
K:Amin
P:A
(A/B/) | “Am”cBA AGE | “Am”ABA ABc | “G”BAG BdG | “G”Bdg GAB |
“Am”cBA AGE | “Am”ABA c2d | “Am”efe dcB | “Am”cAA A2 :|]
%P:B
%B | “C”ceg gec | “C”ceg “G”dBG | “C”ceg gec | “G”BGG G2(A/B/) |
%“Am”cBA AGE | “Am”ABA c2d | “Am”efe dcB | “Am”cAA A2 :|]
%%
%X:2
T:Mist on the Mountain, The
M:6/8
L:1/8
C:Junior Crehan
S:O’Flaherty Book 1
R:Jig
K:Ador
P:A
“Am”EAA ABd|e2A AGE|“G”~G3 GAB|dBA GED|
“Am”EAA ABd|e2A AGE|“G”efg dBG|1“Am”BAG A2G:|2 “Am”BAG A2a||
%P:B
%“Am”age a2b|age edB|“G”AGE G2A|BAB GED|
%“Am”age a2b|age edB|“G”AGE G2A|BAG A2a|
%“Am”age a2b|age edB|“G”AGE G2A|BAB GED|
%“F”EDE G2A|BAG Bcd|“G”efg dBG|“Am”BAG A2G|]
%%
%X:3
T:Dusty Windowsills
R:Jig
E:12
M:6/8
L:1/8
K:G
P:A
|: “Am”A2 B cBA | eAB cBA | “G”GAG EGG | DGG EGG |
“Am”A2 B cBA | e2 d efg | “Em”age dBG | BAG A3 :|
%P:B
%“Am”a2 a age | dBd g3 | “G”gag gfe | dBA GAG |
%“Am”EGG DGG | EGG ABc | “Em”Bed BAG | BAG A3 :|
%P:C
%“Am”ABA gAf | ABA gAf | “G”GAG eGd | GAG eGd |
%“Am”ABA gAf | ABA efg | “Em”age dBG | BAG A3 :|
The A la Mode app for Android lets you create sets easily. If you then open one of your sets, it displays the first bar of each tune in the set.
Only one bar though, I would prefer at least two. Apart from that the app works really well.
Hi folks,
I’m the developer of À La Mode (Android only I’m afraid), and can confirm that if you create a set then it shows the first bar (plus any upbeats) in the set list. However someone kindly just messaged me to draw my attention to this thread and asked if I might be able to change to display variable amounts of the tune, which I’ll hopefully get done at the weekend.
Hope this is of some use! 🙂
Cheers,
Carl
How is this discussion viewed by those who don’t like the practice of using written music at sessions? Personally, while I prefer to play from memory as far as I can, I do use music on a tablet for other players’ tunes I’d like to join in with, or for those that I haven’t yet fixed in my head and under my fingers. There seems little difference between using a screen discreetly for incipits or for whole tunes (though I’m not keen on the music-stand-and-manuscript-book business at a session). However, my reading of past threads suggests that some sessioneers are averse to anything other than learning by ear and playing from memory.
“How is this discussion viewed by those who don’t like the practice of using written music at sessions?”
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I don’t think there is any harm in using a phone app for incipits as long as it doesn’t break the flow of a session where everyone else is working from memory. That would mean not asking everyone to wait while you look something up, and doing your best to memorize a tune that comes up frequently so you don’t have to dig out the phone every time.
It could be annoying if you needed it for every tune. As an infrequent aid I don’t see the harm, but that’s just me. I can think of two or three local sessions where it would be no big deal, and maybe one where it might be frowned on. As usual, get to know the lay of the land before assuming that use of the phone in a sessions is okay.
Ugg, this again…
I think there must be sessions that are much more organised than ours.
We don’t really discuss what we’ll play: someone starts a set and we join in; if they change it, tune to tune, you try and follow.
Do other folk stick to a programme?
@ Carl Turner
Thanks for the quick reaction!
I use A la Mode to organize my tunes and for practising (not at sessions!).
@Allan21
I think a lot of players, myself included, find it hard to make up sets on the fly, due to a lack of experience/routine/confidence.
So I tend to practise tunes in sets and like to play those combinations when I’m leading.
I hope someday I will be able to relax more and just let it happen!
@stringy No problem! I’ve just submitted an update for the app, so once you have managed to update to v1.0.24 you should find under Settings -> Music Display that there are some options for controlling how much of the tune to use in the previews.
Thanks Collision. That ABC thing is the way I’m headed and you made it look easy. Aside from the big session at The Black Sheep Pub smaller groups sometimes have informal private sessions around the kitchen and that’s when I would like to have a visual cue as to the next tune. For some reason I get a block about that. I know lots of tunes and have been playing/performing for decades but I just have a hard time stringing them together in the middle of a session set. It might have something to do with all the other genres and sessions I routinely play: Quebecois, French Trad, Bluegrass…. I’m going to look into A La Mode also. Thanks all!
Again, EasyABC will produce incipits (the initial bars) of abc files. You can order the tunes into sets you play or any other sequence. You can set the number of bars and the number of incipits per page. Very simple to use. Same can be done using BarFly.