Repository Guide
Navigating Folders
Click on a folder row to open it and display its contents. A back arrow row appears at the top of the list to return to the parent folder. The full path is shown in the page breadcrumb.
Finding a score by name
The search box at the top of the repository looks through every score in your whole repertoire, not just the folder on screen — which is the point, since the folder a tune is filed in is usually the thing you have forgotten. Type any part of a title; case and accents are ignored, so "eire" finds "Éirinn". Each result shows the folder path it lives in, and clicking it takes you straight there. Clear the box to go back to browsing.
Score Summary PDF
The summary button on a folder row generates a PDF booklet: for every tune in the folder (including sub-folders) it prints a single staff line showing the opening and closing measures side by side. Use this to create a compact setlist or tune preview sheet.
Printing a Folder
The print button next to it prints full scores rather than a preview: it lists every tune in the folder and its sub-folders, all selected by default, so you can untick the ones you don't want and give the sheet a title. Short tunes share a page automatically. To print just one tune, open it and use the print button in the score toolbar instead — no list is shown there, since opening a tune already selects it.
Shared Folders
A folder marked as shared (shown with a secondary-colour badge) is visible to other users of the same share group. Shared folders appear in the repository of every member of the group. Admins can manage sharing from the folder's action menu.
View / Edit mode
The View / Edit toggle at the top of the page controls whether creation, move, share, export, and delete controls are shown on each row. Any non-read-only account — free, subscribed, or admin — can switch to Edit mode to manage their own content; it is not an admin-only privilege, just a way to hide clutter while browsing.
Creating Folders and Scores (Edit mode)
In Edit mode, an action menu appears on every folder and file row. Use it to add a new sub-folder or a new score file directly inside the current folder. New files are created empty and can immediately be opened for editing.
Moving Items (Edit mode)
Open the action menu on any file or folder and choose Move to select a destination folder. The item and all its contents are moved immediately. This is a server-side operation and cannot be undone from the UI.
Export & Import Chunks (Edit mode)
The export button on any file or folder downloads a portable snapshot of that item and everything inside it — ABC source, comments, tags, and the attachments themselves, not just links to them — so the file is self-contained and can be carried to another device, another account, or another server. It works the same on a free account, where the export is built in the browser. In Edit mode, the import button in the top toolbar reads one back into the current folder, and also accepts a full account backup archive. Importing merges rather than overwrites: a folder whose name is already taken arrives beside the existing one as "Name (2)", so nothing you already have is replaced.
Restore from backup (free accounts)
Free accounts keep their data in this browser's local storage and get an automatic rolling set of local backup snapshots. In Edit mode, use the Restore from backup button in the toolbar to pick one and roll your whole repository back to it — this replaces everything currently there and cannot be undone.
Version history (subscribers)
Subscriber accounts can switch on Historical mode (the Real time / Historical toggle in the toolbar) to show a History button on every tune, folder, and media attachment, opening its full version timeline — browse, compare, restore, name, and annotate past versions. See the Score Versioning Guide for details.
Pin for offline (subscribers)
Subscriber accounts keep their repertoire on the server, so a tune is normally fetched when you open it. Pin one — or a whole folder, with a checkbox deciding whether sub-folders come too — and its notation and attachments are downloaded and kept on this device, readable with no network at all. A folder pin tells you how much it is about to download before it starts. Pinned content is read-only offline and does not refresh by itself: unpin and pin again to pull the current version down.
Preview your public profile (subscribers)
Subscriber accounts see their own name at the top of the page as a clickable button instead of plain text. Click it to preview how your public musician profile looks — set it up and choose what is visible on the Musician page, reached from your avatar in the header.
Opening a Score
Click anywhere on a score row to expand it and display the rendered sheet music. Click again to collapse. Files are loaded from the server on first open — a spinner appears briefly while the content arrives.
The four sections
An opened score is split into four collapsible sections, each with its own bar you click to fold or unfold. Comments holds your own notes and remarks about the tune, written in Markdown. ABC notation is the rendered sheet music together with the playback and practice tools. Score attachments holds images and PDF files of the tune. Audio & video holds the recordings and links you have saved. A section whose bar is greyed out simply has nothing in it yet.
Multi-Tune Files
An ABC file can contain several tunes (each starting with X:). When more than one tune is present, a selector appears above the score so you can switch between them. The selected tune index is remembered per file.
Playback
Press the Play button in the score toolbar to hear the tune. The melody is played via a soundfont synthesiser. If a backing style is configured, the full accompaniment (percussion, guitar, bass) plays alongside. Press Stop to end playback at any time.
Tempo
Adjust the playback speed with the BPM slider in the toolbar. Five preset buttons below the slider let you jump to standard speeds: Very Slow, Slow, Practice, Near, and Session. The presets adapt to the tune type — a jig uses dotted-quarter beats while a reel uses quarter beats.
Finding a recording
The Audio & video section can search YouTube for you without leaving the score — it seeds the search from the tune's title and rhythm, so most of the time the first results are already the tune you are looking at. Save one and it is attached to the score for good; there is no need to switch into Edit mode to keep it. You can also attach a recording of your own, and each take you upload is kept rather than replacing the last one.
Turning a recording into a score
Every audio attachment carries a Transcribe to ABC button in its player bar. It listens to the recording and writes out the notes it hears as ABC, shown as a rendered score with its ABC source underneath and placed on your clipboard so you can paste it straight into a new tune. The result is a starting point rather than a finished transcription. It follows a single instrument playing one note at a time, so a solo whistle, flute or fiddle comes out far closer to the truth than a band, a guitar chord or a noisy recording made in a session. A Local account gets three transcriptions in total; a Cloud account has no limit.
Reading a PDF attachment
A PDF in Score attachments opens in a reader with page controls and a search box — useful when the attachment is a whole tunebook rather than a single tune. Searching shows you every hit rather than jumping blindly to the first, and the page controls stay reachable whether or not you are in fullscreen.
Printing
The print button in the toolbar sends the tune you are currently viewing straight to the browser print dialog as a PDF — no tune picker, since opening a tune already selects it. Multi-page scores are split across pages automatically, and displayed tablature is printed too. To print several tunes at once, use the print button on a folder row instead: it lists every tune in that folder so you can choose which ones go on the sheet.
Tablature
A tablature staff can be shown beneath the standard notation, with the fingering positions for your instrument. Open the tablature settings from the score toolbar to switch it on and to pick the instrument and capo; the choice is remembered per score, so a tune you read on the mandolin keeps its tab while the rest of your repertoire does not. The tablature is computed from the ABC source and follows every edit. How it is laid out — measures per line, which side the toolbox sits on — is set once in Configuration.
ABC Source Editor
Click the Edit button in the toolbar to open the ABC source editor directly beneath the score. Edit the notation and the score re-renders as you type; clicking a note in the score jumps to its position in the source. Your work is saved automatically as you go, so nothing is lost if you navigate away. For subscribers, one editing session publishes one version in the score's history — the automatic saves in between publish nothing, so the history stays readable.
Header Fields
Every tune starts with a block of one-letter header fields, each on its own line. The essentials: X: a tune number (required, must be unique within the file), T: the title, M: the meter (e.g. 4/4, 6/8), L: the default note length (e.g. 1/8), K: the key (e.g. Dmaj, Gmix, Ador) — always the last header line, since everything after it is the tune itself. R: names the rhythm (reel, jig, waltz…) and also steers chord and harmonic-style suggestions elsewhere in this editor. Other common fields: C: composer, Q: tempo, O: origin.
Decorations, Repeats & Bar Lines
Decorations are written inside single exclamation marks right before the note they apply to, e.g. !fermata! !trill! !p! !f! !accent!. A tilde ~ before a note requests a roll (an idiomatic ornament in Irish trad). Grace notes go in curly braces before the main note, e.g. {A}B. Repeat a section with |: at the start and :| at the end; first/second endings use [1 … [2 right after a repeat mark. A double bar || simply marks a section break with no repeat.
Multi-Tune Files
When a file contains several tunes (each starting with X:), a tune selector appears at the top of the panel. Select a tune to display and edit it. Each tune has its own chord grid and playback state. Adding a new tune to the ABC source and saving makes it available in the selector automatically.
Zoom & Fullscreen
Use the Zoom In and Zoom Out buttons to scale the score notation up or down for easier reading or editing. The Fullscreen button expands the editor to fill the entire browser window — press it again or press Escape to exit.
Print & Export
The print button sends the tune currently displayed straight to the browser print dialog as a PDF — multi-page scores are split automatically. In a file holding several tunes, it prints the one selected in the tune list, not all of them. The MuseScore button exports the ABC source to MusicXML for import into notation software such as MuseScore or Finale.
Transpose
Use the Transpose buttons (+ and −) to shift the key of the tune up or down by semitones. The K: header and all accidentals are updated in the ABC source automatically. Transposing also updates the chord grid to the new key.
Chord Suggestions & Chord Grid
Click a note in the score to select it, then use the chord suggestion button to see chord options for that beat. The selected chord is inserted into the chord grid at the correct bar and beat. Toggle the chord grid (strum score) with the grid button to see and edit all chords across the tune. Its two buttons write the grid's chords into the ABC source or remove every chord from it again. Use Undo to remove the last inserted chord.
Harmonic Style
The harmonic style selector controls which chord families are weighted when generating suggestions. Auto detects the style from the key and rhythm. Other options include Folk, Jazz, Classical, and modal styles (Dorian, Mixolydian…). The detected style and confidence level are shown next to the selector.
Tablature
Open the tablature settings from the score toolbar to show a tablature staff beneath the standard notation, and to pick the instrument and capo. The choice is remembered per score, so only the tunes you actually read from tab get one. The tablature is computed from the ABC source and updates live as you edit; its layout — measures per line, which side the toolbox sits on, whether the computed staff sits above or below — is set once in Configuration.
MIDI Player
The MIDI player button opens a standard playback control bar with a progress scrubber and note-by-note navigation. It uses the abcjs built-in MIDI synthesiser and is useful for quickly checking a score without engaging the full backing machine.
Import ABC
The import button lets you paste or load an ABC string from the clipboard or a file and replace the current score source. This is useful for quickly loading a tune found online without leaving the editor. The existing file metadata (title, comments, media) is preserved.
Warnings and Try to fix
When the notation cannot be read cleanly, a warning appears above the score saying which line is at fault. Two common ones have a Try to fix button beside them, which rewrites the source for you and saves it: a tune copied from an online collection where a stray "!" is really a line break — left alone, whole bars silently disappear from the rendered score — and a header that heads no music, which happens when a tune is pasted below a header that was already there and leaves the score showing an empty tune. If the button does not recognise the problem it changes nothing, so pressing it is always safe.
Composer
The Composer writes a brand-new tune for you, in a tradition, dance form and key you choose, and adds it to the current score as an extra tune without replacing anything. You are shown the tune as notation and can listen to it before deciding, so a generation you do not like costs you nothing. Open it from the Compose button in the score toolbar; the full guide is behind the ? inside that panel.
What is the Learning Machine?
The Learning Machine guides you through a structured practice workflow for any ABC tune. It focuses on two main stages — Listen and Phrase — plus an optional Ornamentation stage for Irish tunes.
Stage 1 — Listen
In the Listen stage, the tune plays at your chosen tempo so you can absorb the melody before attempting to play it. You can also enable the backing here to practise with accompaniment while keeping the full tune flow. Use the tempo slider (40–120 % of the original BPM) to slow the tune down for careful listening.
Stage 2 — Phrase
In the Phrase stage the score is split into named sections (A1, A2, B1 …). Select one or more phrases to isolate and loop them. Enable Append Phrases to practice multiple sections back-to-back. Use Call & Response to leave a silence after each loop so you can respond on your instrument.
Stage 3 — Potential Ornaments
A third stage appears when the tune is one that takes ornaments — Irish and related repertoire. It reads the melody and shows where a long roll, a short roll, a cut, a grace note from below or a triplet would sit naturally, counted by kind: "4× Long roll", "7× Cut". Click a kind to hear only those, so you can work on one ornament at a time instead of everything at once. These are suggestions on top of the tune, never changes to it — your notation is untouched.
Phrase Complexity Indicators
Each phrase button shows a small coloured dot that indicates its difficulty: green (easy), orange (moderate), red (hard). The score is calculated from four axes — note density, rhythmic variation, melodic intervals, and ornamentation — and weighted for your selected instrument. Use this to decide which phrases to practise first.
Instrument Profile
The Instrument selector (visible in the Phrase stage) adjusts how complexity is weighted for your instrument. Fiddle emphasises bowing patterns and ornaments. Guitar weights chord-change density. Flute accounts for breath cost on large leaps. Tenor Banjo (Irish/jazz melody) weights melodic intervals and ornaments; 5-String Banjo (Scruggs/bluegrass) weights roll density. For accordion, Chromatic has full range so only bellows cost on leaps is penalised; the three diatonic systems (B/C, G/C, C#/D) heavily penalise accidentals and bellows direction changes, since chromatic notes require awkward fingerings on a bisonoric instrument. Changing the instrument instantly updates the difficulty dots on all phrase buttons.
Playability Warning & Transposition Hint
Some instruments cannot play every chromatic note. When the selected instrument has a restricted range, a warning appears listing the notes absent from the instrument and suggesting the smallest transposition (in semitones) that would make the tune fully playable. The standard 2-row Diatonic G/C accordion, for example, has no C#, D#/Eb, G#/Ab, or Bb keys — a tune containing any of these notes will trigger the warning. B/C and C#/D diatonic systems are fully chromatic and never trigger this warning.
Score Complexity
The Complexity setting controls how much of the score is shown. Skeleton shows only the most important notes (long, unornamented beats), making the tune easier to read and learn. Outline adds more rhythmic detail. Full shows the complete score. Progress through the levels as your confidence grows.
Metronome & Cursor
Enable the Metronome to hear a click track during playback. Enable Cursor to see a moving highlight on the score that follows the current note. A Tablature checkbox here shows the tab staff for this tune, exactly as the tablature settings in the score toolbar do — the two are the same switch. All three can be toggled independently at any time.
Tune Tempo Presets
When a backing style is active, five tempo presets appear in the Tempo section: Very Slow (~40 % of session speed — for very complex passages or absolute beginners), Slow (~55 % — ideal for first learning), Practice (~70 %), Near (~85 %), and Session (100 % — the standard speed for that tune type). All BPM values are adapted to the tune's beat unit (quarter note for reels/hornpipes, dotted quarter for jigs). Click any preset to set the tempo instantly.
Tempo Progression
Enable Tempo Progression (in the Phrase stage, when a backing style is active) to have the tempo advance automatically as you practice. Enabling it resets the tempo to the Very Slow preset. After the configured number of repetitions (1–10), the tempo increases by the chosen BPM step. Progression stops at each preset boundary (Very Slow → Slow → Practice → Near → Session) rather than skipping past it. The visual rail shows your current position, the five preset markers, and a chip indicating the next step. A loop counter below the rail shows how many repetitions remain before the next advance.
Standard Session Speed
The Session preset (the last of the five tempo presets) locks the tempo to the tune's standard session BPM and is equivalent to enabling Standard Session Speed. Use it for a final full-speed run-through before playing with others. Note: enabling Tempo Progression overrides this setting and resets the tempo to the Very Slow preset.
In video
Creating your first score
Watch on YouTube