Editor ABC for Melodeon

Hi,
How i can enter a tune in the ABC and get my music in Melodeon in D?

Thanks in advance,
Rejean

Not sure what you mean… Are you looking for some kind of Melodeon tablature?

Trouble with tab for melodeons is that the keyboard layout is variable (not least 3rd/4th button start) and the numerous ways people numer the buttons and bellow directions.

My thoughts exactly…

I want to enter a note like a D in the ABC software and this give me to push the third button? I can print it for easier way to learn the tune?

Certainly something I could add to my ABC converter in the future.

This site does have something like what you are looking for, just takes a bit to figure out how to get it to do what you want:

https://folktab.com

Looks like you first go to the “Edit ABC” subpage to enter your ABC. It will generate notation.

Then you click “Done” and it will go to an “Actions” page, where you will find a “Diatonic Accordion Fingering” option. You can then try and find a configuration that works for your instrument. Looks like there are primarily two-row configurations, but I was able to choose “23 button Erica D/G” and then have it “D row 2” as the preferred row. Then click “Submit”. It will generate the file and give you an option to “View” it. Save the PDF that it displays.

Looks like this:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3zjit0yat6r68qw/The-Kesh-CGEe-23Button-DG.pdf?dl=0

Also, TablEdit can be used for that sort of thing, is extremely flexible, but has a bit of a learning curve:

https://tabledit.com/

Thanks to Michael Eskin to understand what i need!!!

Great stuff to look at.
I hope i can achieve my work to be able to learn the session tunes.

Again many thanks,
Regards,
Rejean

Works really well for B/C too:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9z7mozl57fl12pe/The-Kesh-N6yr-Modern-BC.pdf?dl=0

I’m likely misunderstanding this whole thread—if so, please disregard. But wouldn’t it be better to learn the note names of the buttons on your melodeon? Then you could learn tunes from any type of notation, including abcs and standard staff notation, and know what to do when someone tells you, “The next note is D.”

Seems to me the learning curve would be shorter than that needed to use an app to create tab, and the result—knowing the notes on your instrument—would apply across a far wider span of usefulness.

I understand your point of view but has i am newer player, i just want to not waste my time in this kind of details.
Maybe i’m wrong too!!

Maybe he wants to use tab to initially understand the mapping of the buttons to the notes as part of starting to learn to play the instrument. Or maybe he’s teaching a small child who might do better just with button numbers and directions.

But learning the note names now means you can use that knowledge in so many ways for all the years to come.

How many rows is your melodeon? How many melody (right-hand) buttons? It’s just not that big a task, and the payoff is huge.

Michael, that’s precisely my point. Why ask for button tab when learning the layout of your instrument will apply to everything else you do?

And why use tab to map your buttons? Why not simply map the buttons? Countless charts of this can be found online, or make your own.

Sorry, I don’t mean to sound preachy or exasperated. I’m genuinely just confused why anyone would want to avoid learning where the notes are on their chosen instrument in favor of a labyrinthian system. Reminds me of a fiddler I know who made up his own notation system using two numbers for every note—one for the string, and one for the finger. So “21” was the B on the A string, and “32” was the F on the D string. So a simple phrase like |GABG cGBG| looked like: 33 20 21 33 22 33 21 33. He had no way to account for flats and sharps. To make matters worse, he was teaching this system to his fiddle students.

I own a Hohner 1040 one row in D with 4 buttons in the left hand and 10 in the right one.
Thanks,

I just want to learn the accordion before i pass away!!!

For serious, all comments are welcome,
Thanks to all to take a moment to read my post.
Rejean

Sincerely, best wishes to you on your musical journey, Rejean. All I’m suggesting is a simple chart like the following (which is for a G 10-button box), in D.
http://forum.melodeon.net/files/site/keyboards/1%20Row%204%20Bass%20-%20G.jpg

Il y a fort à parier que Réjean est québécois ou franco-canadien d’origine. 🙂

In that part of the world, tunes for the one-row melodeon are very commonly taught or passed on using button numbers (with a circle or underline to indicate that a button is played on the pull rather than on the press). Very quick and simple to produce by hand for the teacher, and very quick and simple for the student to follow once you get used to it.

It seems then that Réjean is merely looking for a way to produce notation in the manner he is accustomed to.

Sure, knowing note names would be useful in many situations, but given the limitations of the one-row button box, if that’s the only instrument you want to play, you can do just fine without any clue about note names or other theory. Thousands of very proficient one-row players would back me up on this I reckon.

There is also another complication: the question of having to translate English note names (C, D, E) into French (do ré mi), or vice versa.

That’s an interesting question OP, and welcome.

Another option, and there are many. I believe there is an AI like ChatGPT but it’s an AI graphics program that will be able to translate a melodeon button chart to another one while replacing non-standard buttons on your melodeon (if I understood that that’s what you want to do).

Basically if you give it the source code for any app then the AI can work out what the app was trying to do and then modify it’s behaviour with your verbal instructions.

It’s reassuring, I’m quite old now, but when I see kids today I marvel at how different (and also wonderful) their world will be. It’s a comfort.

After all the reasons offered I’m still convinced that the best route would be to learn which note on traditional staff notation equates to which button on the melodeon (also known as ‘learning to read music’).

Any automated or AI system is unlikely to be able to take account of cross-rowing. You’ve also got the tedious process of generating this ‘melodeon tab’ for every new tune that comes along. You’ve also got the basics of a language with which you can easily communicate with other musicians - anyone might say `this one’ s in D and starts on the F#`. Nobody is ever going to say `this one’s in the scale of Inner Row 3u 3d 4u 4d 5u 5d 6d 6u and starts on the 4u`.

It really won’t take long to learn to read the dots to a basic level, and the OP will have a musical skill they can use for life (even if the OP eventually learns to pick tunes up by ear).

Again thank you to all the persons for your time.

I undertsand that my way is maybe wrong?
Since many years i tried to learn the accordion 1 row, my firts one wasd in C and now i own one in D, because in Quebec, this key is more in use in Folk music.

I’m looking for a method to learn fastly but with progress?

I’tried to learn with a couple of mens but unsuccesful, maybe someone can be a great player but unable to teach to another.

I like the session and look at it weekly.

Sorry for disturbing anyone by my proposal,
Wishing to all a great week-end all in music!!

Regards,
Rejean

Tablature has a long pedigree and can be very useful. Whereas standard notation tells you what to play, tab tells you how to play it. This can be very useful, especially on instruments where there may be several different ways to finger a phrase (although I doubt the ability of computer-generated tab to find the most efficient patterns, which can depend not only on the notes in the phrase but the preceding and following phrases as well).

Tab is widely used by melodeon players in France where there are a couple of standard systems which have also been adopted elsewhere. I can take a piece of French tab written for a G/C instrument and immediately play it on my D/G, although it will come out in a different key - a lot of French music is in Am will be Em on D/G. The tune would probably not be playable in the original key. so to play this from notation would mean transposing it note by note and chord by chord. Tab simply shows the appropriate buttons regardless of which notes they play. If you play diatonic instruments, this is important.

Playing from music is of course a useful skill, but is not necessarily more straightforward when you have several choices of how to play the same note (admittedly, tab is less useful for one-rows, although the point about transposing still applies).

I’d say learn whichever way you find most accessible. If you want to play traditional music that’s usually learned by ear, any type of notation is fine. Learning an instrument is hard enough by itself.

As a child I learned from an old fella who was an amazing player, but struggled even with reading text. The symbols on staff notation jump around in front of my eyes, and the reason I asked him to teach me was that I’d never seen printed music in their house. I wish I was better at it, but it’s not the end of the world.

If you do want to learn staff notation but find it overwhelming at the moment, you could hold back until you’re more familiar with your instrument. After all, people need to learn the basics of driving a car or riding a bicycle before they can free up enough brain bandwidth to have a conversation at the same time.

Learning by ear is not easy but if it is the only way to success, i’ll do for sure.

Thanks

There are many paths to success, try them all until you find one that works for you.

Stiamh’s post above makes a lot of sense. A great old friend of mine (RIP) played one-row and two-row melodeons at a high level. His wonderful pulse and lift were welcome at any session, and he knew many tunes. He did not know the names of the notes, not just on his buttons but at all, no language for D, G, C, or do re mi. He played completely by ear, and denied any knowledge of music theory whatsoever.

Of course, over a lifetime of playing by ear, he was a master at it. He didn’t need any form of written notation. (Though he did occasionally come to me with a piece of sheet music in hand, asking if I’d play it for him so he could learn it. More than happy to do so.)

Rejean, it sounds as if you’re struggling to learn to play. I think everyone here wants to help, and none of us wants you to feel badly about your struggles. If anything, we can all sympathize. Anyone who’s learned to play an instrument has gone through a frustrating phase where you can’t seem to do anything right, where “how to play” seems a mystery, and you hunger for the “secret” or the magic key that will unlock the music and make everything easier.

One advantage of working with a good teacher is that they can provide many different tools and concepts to help you learn. Some of those tools/concepts may not seem helpful to you, but other tools/concepts may just click, like a light coming on, and that sudden understanding will help you make real progress in playing your melodeon. It might be worthwhile to keep looking for the right teacher or mentor for you.

In the meantime, I hope you find or figure out a tab system that helps you understand the layout of your melodeon.

Thanks to Gimpy for positive comment!

Here is a new method from Le Carrefour Mondial de l’Accordéon, Province of Quebec.
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Here is a picture of my melodeon

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qsf57ziaxjp2cwf/1040%20R%C3%89.jpg?dl=0
Thanks

Chart:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kdfzyqjq9mn2j80/1140-D.pdf?dl=0

Thanks

In case the first link isn’t working.
https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Flisebc3232%2Fposts%2Fpfbid02hxyrUpwY98ndQt2gwQJH3fcZs7ZwxPGQaDR2xL8NFE7JppQ1iU8CRv6wxecY4SnNl

Nice, an ABC editor for melodeon! That would make my life much much much easier. Little background: never learned to play an instrument when I was young, started at 43. Can’t read ‘real’ sheet music, so I really need the melodeon music sheets, and do a lot by ear.
In the Netherlands melodeon sheet music is notes with melodeon knob numbers under the staffs. (Look for instantie at ggms.nl)