abc tune collections

There are now a large number of abc-notated tune collections available on the internet (mostly folk & traditional). Have a look at the following (and let me know if you would like a collection included on this page).

Collection categories:

• abc versions of historical tunebooks & manuscripts
• early & classical music in abc
• song collections
• large abc collections
• LOTRO abc music - pop / rock and other genres
• abc compilations
• other abc collections
• session tunes in abc
• band repertoires in abc
• original music in abc

the collections

abc versions of historical tunebooks & manuscripts

• The Village Music Project (traditional English music from original manuscripts)
• Jack Campin's tunes (various)
• A Handbook of Morris Dances ("The Black Book") by Lionel Bacon, provided by Vaughan Hully & John Maher of The Morris Ring
• Scottish music collections from Soft Flute
• John Chambers' online music books (including O'Neill's books)
• The Old Music Project
• Playford tunes
• Tunes from the Winders of Wyresdale, compiled by Andy Hornby

early & classical music in abc

• Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, Movement 2, coded by Steve Allen
• Renaissance polyphony from Laura Conrad
• Eric Forgeot's collection of traditional & ancient music
• Ali Corbin's transcriptions of medieval music (some in abc)
• An archive of lute and ensemble music from Taco Walstra
• Arbeau's Orchesographie from Nicholas Graner
• Transcriptions of (mainly) organ pieces from Jef Moine, author of abcm2ps

song collections

• The Digital Tradition (hosted by the Mudcat Cafe) is a large collection of folk songs with abc versions of many of the tunes
• A large collection of folk songs from folkinfo.org
• The Essen Folk Song Database - a huge collection converted into abc by Seymour Shlien
• Cantaria - a library of traditional & contemporary folk songs, some with abcs
• Songs from John Atchley
• Christmas songs from Kevin Goess

large abc collections

• The Ceolas tune archive
• Steve Allen's Morris library
• Henrik Norbeck's ABC tunes
• James Allwright's abc version of the Nottingham Music Database
• Sylvain Piron's French Trad abc collection
• abc tunes from Cranford Publications
• Dan Cobb's Irish Tunes
• Simon Wascher's Tune Collection
• Favourite English dance tunes from the Lewes sessions, Sussex
• Tunes from Christoph Zeiler's diatonic button accordion page
• Tunes from Alf Warnock & Bruce Osborne
• Bill Black's WebABC Collection of Irish Tunes
• Nigel Gatherer's abc collection
• Peter Doyle's fiddle tunes
• A variety of abc projects from folkinfo.org
• Andrew Kuntz's massive Fiddler's Companion
• The Traditional Music and Dance Wiki
• Tunes from the Wednesday night session at O'Regans in Montreal
• Paul Slater's abc tunes
• Steve Mansfield's abc tunes from Le Grand Session de Manchester, the woodenflute mailing list and others
• Irish & German music from the German concertina pages
• Concertina.net
• Tunes from Roaring Jelly (Boston)
• Richard Robinson's Tunebook
• The Session - an online tune exchange with a huge collection of tunes (mostly Irish) and a vibrant community of users.
• A Big Bunch O'Tunes from the Arkansas Celtic Music Society
• Cape Breton tunes from Paul Fackler
• Wikimusica - Irish & Scandinavian tunes plus songs

LOTRO abc music - pop / rock and other genres

Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) is a multiplayer online role-playing game which has adopted abc as its music system. The collections of abcs generated by users are highly eclectic and include rock and pop classics as well as classical and folk. However, some of them are derived from quantized midi files, so although the playback is OK, the staff notation looks a little odd (e.g. no bar lines, strange time signatures, etc).

• The Fat Lute - a large abc song book for LOTRO
• lotro-abc.com - a large abc song book for LOTRO
• The LOTRO ABC Songbook - a large community-based forum with lots of abcs from LOTRO players
• LOTRO vault - contributed songs in abc

abc compilations

these are collections of tunes, compiled from various sources all over the web; usually they are huge, typically with 20,000 tunes or more

• John Chambers' abc collection
• John Layton's big list, a single file containing many of the collections listed here
• Joop Coolegem
• French and other tunes from Michel Bellon
• A huge collection of abcs compiled by Antonio (Nil)
• Redhawk.org - (mostly) Celtic tunes
• Bagpipe tunes from Corneymusers

other abc collections

• James Allwright's abc tunes
• Ronan Keryell's Breton tunes
• Stephen Klein's fiddle tunes
• Chris Falt's fiddle tunes
• Seymour Shlien's Balkan & Israeli Dances
• Robert Blakeley's Irish Music
• Jean-Marc Henry's tunes
• Bernard Loffet's abcs and diatonic accordion tablature
• Lesl's Welsh Collection
• Bill Anderson's collection of Macedonian, Bulgarian, Greek, Turkish and Kurdish tunes
• Welsh Traditional Music from Dafydd Llywelyn
• English Country Dance Tunes from Mickie & Elizabeth Zekley
• FolkWiki - a wiki site with Swedish / Nordic folk music
• Irish traditional music from Greg Dahms
• Aubrey Jaffer's tune collection
• Luis Miguel Escalona's Music from Huesca in Aragon
• Captain Kidd's music collected by David Kidd
• Bonanzaville Old Time Family Jam
• Tunes collected by John Relph
• Some morris tunes from American Morris News
• ConcertinaMusic.com - the Chemnizter concertina website
• Tunes from José João A. G. Dias de Almeida
• Australian dance music
• Dance tunes from Hermann Fritz
• Dexter N. Muir's abc tunes
• Contradancers of Hawaii
• Tunes from the American Nyckelharpa Association
• Donegal fiddlers pages
• Tunes from Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann
• Scottish & Irish tunes
• Tunes from Mark Kenneth
• Irish fiddle tunes from Doug Lowder
• Tunes from Mandozine
• Tunes from the New Mexico Folk Dance & Song Society
• Irish tunes from Hiroyuki Yamada
• Sheffield University's Ceilidh Soc
• Briezh Partitions - free Celtic sheet music

session tunes in abc

• Tunes from the Irish Heather session
• Tunes from Mitchell's Famous Irish Session
• Tunes from the Pinecone Beginners Irish Session
• Tunes from SessioNite
• Tunes from the Celtic Arts Center of Southern California slow session
• Tunes from slowplayers.org

band repertoires in abc

• Scottish, Irish & Welsh Tunes from the band Wild Dismay
• Tunes from The Cat's Whiskers Barn Dance Band
• Tunes from The Geckoes
• Les Infants du Catiau
• Standing Stones
• Tunes from SPUDS, a pickup band from Philadelphia
• Contradance tunes from the band Amazon Creek
• The Bassett Street Hounds Tunebook
• The Big Round Band from Cambridge
• Tunes from The Delivery Boys
• Contradance tunes from Good Parking
• Tunes from "The Irish Band" of Columbia, Missouri
• Tunes from the Oxford Fiddle Group
• Pat Palmer's tunes
• Tunes from Roaring Jelly (New Mexico)
• Tunes from the San Diego Folk Heritage Community Band
• Tunes from Shelta
• Tunes from the Sydney Scottish Fiddlers

original music in abc

• Contemporary compositions in abc
• Stephen McNally's Tunes
• Fiddle tunes from Harry Bolick
• Tunes from Aidan Crossey
• Tunes from Mickie & Elizabeth Zekley
• Tunes from Paul Gitlitz
• Tunes Online: Bill Black's Original Irish Tunes
• Julia West's songs
• Andy Hornby's tunes
• Greg Anderson's Original Contradance Tunes
• Original tunes from Contranella
• Tunes from The Kaubells
• Tunes from Kiwi Folk, New Zealand
• Paul Rosen's tunes
• Tunes from Andrew Swaine
• The Stephen Foster abc fakebook

Contact me if you want to add your collection to this list.