Reading music

[colomon]

Oh, so it's not a resolution problem, it's a color depth/aliasing problem. Interesting. What do you use to output greyscale files from abc? I don't see such an option in abcm2ps, which is what I use, because less jaggedness would be lovely.

I use abc2ps to generate a black and white Postscript file; Ghostscript with "pbmraw" output at 112 DPI; then pnmcrop, pnmdepth, and pnmscale to trim the edges, switch to greyscale, and reduce the size by a quarter; and finally convert the end result to PNG.

Sounds kind of horrific, I know, but I figured out how to do it one afternoon with a lot of experimenting, then wrapped the entire thing in a Perl script so I never have to think about it again. Now I run a simple script, and it converts the latest versions of my ABC files to PNG and uploads them to the website completely automatically.

[anniemcu]

I *can* read music, but I am not proficient at it. I learned it years ago in school band, and could do fairly well then, but just am not up to snuffwith it

[anniemcu]

(Colomon: most of my 1-bit black and white gif files run about 7K. Smaller than what you're getting with PNG, but much bigger than ABC to be sure)

I don't use 1-bit black and white, I use grey scale so I can get proper anti-aliasing in there. Which is why my music has far fewer visible jaggies than yours does.

Actually, the PNG files have a much smoother end product. I've taken to using that type of file for my graphics exported to web files... much cleaner.

[michael_coleman]

Do you sight readers notice that if the music is messy you can't sight read as fast? Some tunebooks I've found on the web have the notes so close together I have to get really close to the page to even come close to the correct speed. Also, sometimes the formatting from the concertina.net converter is a bit off. One line will be stretched and this makes my sight reading go down quite a bit also.

That said, its quite handy to be able to pick up a piece of music and play it at speed with rolls and cranns and all. I find this particularly useful when playing with someone who doesn't know a lot of the tunes I know...I just ask them for their book or some music they have learned off of. I find I really memorize tunes when I listen to them a lot. All of a sudden they are under the fingers.

[colomon]

Do you sight readers notice that if the music is messy you can't sight read as fast?

Absolutely. Thus my attempts to get the graphics I stick on the web to look as good as possible.

Also, my sight reading speed depends on the... er... tune? Arrangement? For instance, last night after I posted, I tried a bit of sight-reading, just to see how it went. I started out with the first book I could find, one of my wife's session tunes books. Right away I noticed that the tunes I didn't know in the book were hard to sight-read.

A bit discouraged by this, I switched to Trip to Sligo. And what do you know -- the reels I didn't know in that book are just plain easier for me to sight read. Very noticably so, in fact. I don't know whether this means the transcriber was more in sync with me, or the tunes were more in the style I usually play, or what.

[oskan_oskula]

I have to second (or third or fourth) the relative ease of just memorizing a tune. Once I play something enough times to get it sounding how I want, I usually have it in "muscle memory"-- my hands know the music so I don't have to look. Hell, I even have the intro to Brigadoon committed to memory.

[Bumble]

I always let my hands play the tune for me.
I think it's the only way to play with true feeling.
Then agian, what do I know?

Am I the only lump out here who can't read a note?
I've always played by ear (very tough with the reels...like untangling a tiny knot of thread).
I've studied and tried to read music but I'm a bit dyslexic so even when I try reading simple music to a song that I know, the dots make no sense to me.

I envy you all the ability to just look at paper and read the tune like a book. How wonderful that must be.
Ah well, there is still the joy of playing....

--Walter

[oskan_oskula]

Here here. The sooner I get my eyes off the page, and preferably closed, the better my playing-- and the more organic it feels to play.

...as I gruelingly transpose Brigadoon long into the night.

[Mitch]

I've always played by ear (very tough with the reels...like untangling a tiny knot of thread).

--Walter

Hey Walter don't depair. No matter what method is used for codifying music, it is made of sound, not paper and not software. So no matter how good someone is at reading codes if their ear is not involved it will never be music (specially if you're playing a Gen).

Of course, once music is codified, it can be communicated beyond the time and place of its creation without electronic media. This allows it to be taught, theorised, stored etc etc. The big powerful thing about standard music notation is that it handles polyphony realy well. Codification of some sort is also a must for unravelling realy complex, fast or unusual sequences without having a razor-sharp ear.

Personally, I suspect there is a trade-off when memory gets committed to code - but I couldn't tell you exactly what it is.

[Cynth]

I always let my hands play the tune for me.
I think it's the only way to play with true feeling.
Then agian, what do I know?

Am I the only lump out here who can't read a note?
I've always played by ear (very tough with the reels...like untangling a tiny knot of thread).
I've studied and tried to read music but I'm a bit dyslexic so even when I try reading simple music to a song that I know, the dots make no sense to me.

I envy you all the ability to just look at paper and read the tune like a book. How wonderful that must be.
Ah well, there is still the joy of playing....

--Walter

Hold on a minute! There might be some real advanced players who can look at the sheet and play the tune in the correct style so that it sounds like music. But most of us can't. Some of us can pick up the skeleton of the tune from the sheet, but have to listen to it on CD's to hear how it should actually sound. The sheet music doesn't help you with phrasing, ornamentation, etc. So the people that can sight read up to speed and sound good are really super advanced players. I'm talking about Irish trad music here. I don't think there are many that can just look at the sheet and play the tune and sound great. If you can learn by ear, then I don't see that you are at any disadvantage unless there are tunes you want to play that you can't find a recording for or someone to play it for you. Many people think learning by ear is the best way to learn. But let's not get into that controversy, okay?

[canpiper]

Hold on a minute! There might be some real advanced players who can look at the sheet and play the tune in the correct style so that it sounds like music. But most of us can't. Some of us can pick up the skeleton of the tune from the sheet, but have to listen to it on CD's to hear how it should actually sound.

Is that true? That was really a part of my original question. My guess (and the sense I'm getting from the thread so far) is that this might be a little strong. I have no doubt that it is the rare whistle player (or musician of anykind) who can "sight read" in the sense clarified above by burnsbyrne and some others - who can look at a piece and play it flawlessly at a performance level without rehersal - but I've usually understood (perhaps, then, misunderstood) the ability to sightread as a matter of degree, such that it would be meaningful to ask how well one sight reads (as I did earlier). I expect that there are a lot of people, like myself, who are far from being 'really super advanced', but who can play most tunes smoothly and make them sound like music (and, more importantly, the music the notes are meant to represent) after a few run throughs to iron out difficult parts, and to figure out what kind of ornamentation to impose.

No one is claiming, though, that being able to do this reflects how strong a whistler one is. I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that there are a lot of people out there who cannot read music as well as I can, for instance, but who are more musical in their playing; are more technically profficient, and who can pick tunes up by ear better and faster than I - who are, in short, much better than I...just in case anyone was getting offended...

If you can learn by ear, then I don't see that you are at any disadvantage unless there are tunes you want to play that you can't find a recording for or someone to play it for you. Many people think learning by ear is the best way to learn. But let's not get into that controversy, okay?

I agree; yup; and okay.

[canpiper]

The sheet music doesn't help you with phrasing, ornamentation, etc. So the people that can sight read up to speed and sound good are really super advanced players.

Music can convey quite a lot, actually, so again, I'm not sure I completely agree, but I was independently interested about the ornamentaion point. It seems like a lot (if not most) written music for the whistle out there is sans ornamentation. Why? You can write grace notes in most music programs, can't you? I know Bagpipe music includes all of a tunes ornamentations. Why doesn't whistle music? Is it another convenience issue? It's completely understandable if it is, of course. Although, it does impede ones ability to translate the score to music - and may defeat it in some cases, as Cynth suggests.

Could it be that the music should be flexible, or that it is shared by numerous instruments, and so would be inappropriate to add instrument specific ornaments?

Thoughts?

[canpiper]

Out of curiosity, why do you find ABC annoying? All you have to do
is copy it into any abc interpreter, and you get nice, familiar sheet
music...

Lazy, maybe (honestly). I suppose I like opening a file and glancing at it to see if I like the setting. ABC is almost meaningless to me. Though, as you say, copying is a simple matter.

Great answers to the ABC question from everyone though. Helpful. For me at least.

Thanks.

[Screeeech!!!]

So the people that can sight read up to speed and sound good are really super advanced players. I'm talking about Irish trad music here.

I don't understand why you have to make this genre specific? I can't for one moment see that sight reading ITM is any different to sight reading any other genre.

I have no doubt that it is the rare whistle player (or musician of anykind) who can "sight read" in the sense clarified above by burnsbyrne and some others - who can look at a piece and play it flawlessly at a performance level without rehersal - but I've usually understood (perhaps, then, misunderstood) the ability to sightread as a matter of degree, such that it would be meaningful to ask how well one sight reads (as I did earlier). I expect that there are a lot of people, like myself, who are far from being 'really super advanced', but who can play most tunes smoothly and make them sound like music (and, more importantly, the music the notes are meant to represent) after a few run throughs to iron out difficult parts, and to figure out what kind of ornamentation to impose.

If you can't play the tune the first time then you can't sight read it.

The only degree i would say is the complexity of the music that you can do this with. This is fairly easy to distinguish in classical music as the grade exams have tunes with complexity suited to the level that is required of someone of that grade, it only becomes difficult to distinguish ability levels in genres that don't have graded tunes and exams.

Music can convey quite a lot, actually, so again, I'm not sure I completely agree, but I was independently interested about the ornamentaion point. It seems like a lot (if not most) written music for the whistle out there is sans ornamentation. Why?

Thoughts?

Maybe it's because it leaves plenty of scope to the player to ornament the tune how they want to. I don't feel that ornamentation is a set thing in ITM.

[Flyingcursor]

I cannot site read worth a teacup. I wish I had spent more time in my mispent youth. I can play just about anything by ear on the flute though.
I can invent harmonies and improv to chord progressions in all the keys so I guess it's a trade off.