projectnotions.com

Summary

July-September 2016
Kenny B

You are bound to have encountered a capella music, from either a musical, barbershop quartets, or perhaps through a chorus group.  I've been exposed to a capella music using the "shape note" method for most of my adult life.  I've even found that learning the "do re mi" shapes is not that hard.

At some point, I wanted to actually convert a song from "normal" shaped notes to the "7 shape note" style.  It was harder than I imagined.  I tried a high end music software package, but I found it very hard to use.

Fast forward to a couple of years ago.  I discovered the "Abc music notation" system.  A simple way to enter music using just a keyboard and typing the note names.  On top of that, there were a lot of "open source," free programs that printed the music, played the music and opened up a world of music notation software that was (and is) free and easy to use!

I thought it would be a great project, but as I tried to create instructions, I realized that it still took a bit of "fiddling" to make everything work.

Recent improvements in web technology (HTML5) and a creative musician and programmer, Jef Moine, changed that.  I was looking for a new programming project anyway, and a lot of hours later, I feel like I have a set of instructions that are truely easy to follow and will enable you to create a shape note music score that you will really be happy with.

That is my goal for this project, and I hope it comes close!

Best wishes in your own musical projects.

Kenny B.

A set of instructions and a web site that lets you easily enter, play, and print musical scores, including scores in the 7 shape note and the 4 shape note traditions.

Navigation for "How to Print Shape Note Music"

• Introduction
• Step 1 - "Hello World"
• Step 2 - Enter the tune header
• Step 3 - Review the basics of the abc tune body
• Step 4 - Enter music for the Soprano voice
• Step 5 - Enter music for the Alto, Tenor, Bass voices
• Step 6 - Enter the lyrics
• Step 7 - Play, Print, and even more resources
• Step 8 (Optional) - Music Basics Referesher and Links

"ABC edit with Shape Notes" web page

Frequently Asked Questions.

• Do you sell music already entered in the abc notation system?
  Answer: No, I'm sorry we do not sell any form of printed music.  We also do not offer services for entering music into the abc notation format.  There are thousands of tunes available through various sites.  Some references are given in Step 7.