How Is the EasyABC Main Window Organized?

Updated

EasyABC's main window is split into either 3 or 4 frames, and all of them are empty when you first start the program. The layout is designed so that the tune list, the musical score, and the ABC code are visible at the same time, with an optional ABC Assist panel for help with notation.

The frame layout

The window divides into a left column and a right column, plus an optional bottom-left panel:

Frame Position What it shows
Tune list Left All tunes in a collection, each with its X: reference number and T: title
Musical score Upper right The rendered notation for the selected tune
ABC code Lower right The ABC source for the selected tune
ABC Assist Bottom left (toggleable) Help for learning and writing ABC notation

How the frames work together

  • Selecting a tune: Clicking any tune in the left-hand tune list displays its musical score in the upper right frame and its ABC code in the lower right frame.
  • Editing updates the score: If you change any note in the ABC code, the corresponding note in the score is updated. The two right-hand frames stay in sync, so you can edit the text and watch the notation change.
  • Playing a tune: Clicking the play icon (a right arrow in a green circle) in the top menu starts playback of the selected tune.

Toggling the ABC Assist frame

The ABC Assist frame sits at the bottom left and can be turned on or off by clicking the light bulb in the top menu. You don't need to know ABC notation in advance to use the program — the guide notes that it is possible to learn the notation using ABC Assist itself.

What you need to know first

EasyABC is an open source ABC music notation editor. To use it, you should know the fundamentals of ABC music notation, though ABC Assist can help you pick those up. The program was originally written in Python 2 and has since been upgraded to run with Python 3, with newer stable versions released on sourceforge.net.