How to notate alternate/secondary melody in ABC
I'm not able to find any indication that you can do this in ABC, and I was able to use a couple of Ideographic Space characters in the lyrics to make it kinda work and get the lyrics to align, but thought I'd ask anyway. Is there a way to notate the alternate notes for the melody of the second verse?
This is the sheet music I'm trying to replicate:
(3)3 Comments
Sorted by latest first Latest Oldest Best
The answer you seek I believe is here, in section 4.6.3 abcnotation.com/wiki/abc:standard:v2.1:proposals:clefs_voice_parameters:v2 Just in case it helps anyone else:
This is called a different 'voice'. The origin of this is harmony (chords) originate in people singing together. Chord literally means in accord - with one another in French. Usually the top voice is 1 and any addtional voices are 2, 3 or etc. By ABC notation do you mean tradition sheet music?
This works on www.mandolintab.net/abcconverter.php but not in FiveLineSkink 2.0 Beta, so it might depend on the software you use:
[| A2 A4- GF &
A2 A2 AAGF|]
The & is what allows us to express multiple voices.
You can come fairly close:
X:0
T:lyrics alignment
K:none
M:none
%%score (V1 V2)
[V:V1] A2 A4 y/8 GF
[V:V2] A2 y/8 A2- AAGF
w: joke kid, __ it's a
w: joke kid, _ for what you
The required code segment is
%%score (V1 V2)
[V:V1] A2 A4 y/8 GF
[V:V2] A2 y/8 A2- AAGF
w: joke kid, __ it's a
w: joke kid, _ for what you
I tried using grace-notes to finesse the small-font notes, but they don't allow for a quarter-note, can't control the stem direction, and can't align lyrics to them.
Terms of Use Privacy policy Contact About Cancellation policy © freshhoot.com2026 All Rights reserved.