Octave Up Octave Down Original Octave
Original Key:
Transpose from: Transpose to:Shortcut Keys:
| T | Play Tune from start |
| S | Play Selection only |
| L | Play tune or selection in a Loop |
| P | Continue Play from last stop | C | Continue play from last stop |
| Spacebar | Pause play |
| M | Hide or display the left-side blue Menu area |
| Ctrl-P | Print to paper or PDF file |
| H | View the Help window |
| Esc | Close the Edit, Print, Transpose, Help, or Tune List windows |
Play Functions
You can play the current tune by clicking one of the Play buttons, pressing one of the Play shortcut keys,
or RIGHT clicking in the music area to display a Play menu.
To play a selection, left click the starting note, right click the ending note, then press the "S" shortcut key, click the "Selection" button, or RIGHT click the music area, then click "Selection."
To stop playback, press the Spacebar, click any Play button, press any Play key, or left click in the music area.
Tune List
If you open an abc file that contains a collection of tunes, you'll see a tune list which gives you the option
to select a single tune to view and play, or an option to view all tunes.
If you select a single tune, you can transpose, save it as a MIDI file, or save it as a single tune, but you cannot not edit it.
If you select all tunes, you can edit and save the collection, but transpose and MIDI save are not available.
Large collections of 150,000 characters or more cannot be displayed in their entirety due to memory constraints. The "All Tunes" option will not be available, but you will still be able to view and play individual tunes.
Voice Mute
If your ABC file uses multiple voices, you will see a checklist of voices in the blue control area. To play a voice,
check the voice's checkbox. To mute the voice, uncheck its checkbox.
MIDI File Download
The Save MIDI button saves the currently displayed music in MIDI format. It works well with simple music, but
may give inaccurate results with complex music or music that uses unsupported ABC directives.
The saved MIDI file will follow the configuration of the Play block chords checkbox. However, please note that the
MIDI save function does not produce block-style chords, but uses a bass-note/chord pattern instead.
Printing
For the best printing results, set the margins setting to "None."
If you are using Windows and want to print to a PDF file, choose "Save as PDF" in the Destination setting instead of "Microsoft Print to PDF."
Using "Save to PDF" will offer to save your file named named with the song's title. The other setting does not.
Preference File
You can set preferences in playPref.js. Open the file in a text editor to see what settings are available and
for instructions.
Run abcPlay in an App Window
If you using a Windows computer, you can create a shortcut that will run abcPlay in an app window instead
of in a browser. Simply double click the file create_app_shortcut.vbs to create the shortcut.
Credits
The code for abcPlay is based on abc2svg-1.js, edit-1.js, and edit-1.xhtml by Jean-François Moine.
For more information, view http://moinejf.free.fr and
https://chiselapp.com/user/moinejf/repository/abc2svg.
The file transposition and MIDI download functions in abcPlay use abcjs, written by Paul Rosen and Gregory Dyke: https://www.abcjs.net.
The Transpose Helper function is adapted from the mandolintab.net abcConverter webpage Transposing Help function by Simon Becker at http://www.mandolintab.net/abcconverter.php.