Tune Collections :

[See below for a discussion of the abc tune format.]

• JC's ABC Tune Finder
  - Find almost any Irish tune in ABC format.
• Henrik Norbeck's abc Tunes
  - A very large collection of Irish music in ABC format.
• The Session
  - A wonderful site for tunes, and exchanging information.
• Slowplayers.org - Music List
  - A great list of some easy tunes.

Another good way to find a tune, if you know its name, is to use a search engine (like Google) and search for the tune name followed by the word "abc". For example, if you are looking for The Rolling Wave, type in :

You should get a list of locations where The Rolling Wave can be found as an abc file.

Most of these tune collection sites provide the tunes in several different file formats: ABC (see below); GIF, PDF (a graphic representation of the sheet music); and sometimes MIDI (a simple music file). If you find a tune only in abc format, and you would like to see the sheet music, the concertina.net site has an online conversion utility:

Simply copy the text version of a single abc tune into the box, and press "Submit". The utility resolves the abc file into sheet music which you can then print.

Tunes in abc Format :

"abc" is a character notation for writing tunes in a portable and easy way, and is used for sending tunes via e-mail, for putting tune books on the internet, and for typesetting tunes. More information about the abc format is available at Chris Walshaw's

In addition to the description of the abc format itself, this site also has a huge list of other tune collections, as well as links to software designed to manage abc files.