This package contains classes for parsing tunes in abc notation. It needs both scanner and abc.notation packages to work. The purpose of classes from this package is to extract from the abc notation all the necessary information needed to represent the music with objects belonging to the abc.notation.

abc4j propose several classes to instantiate abc parsers : Beside those standard ways to use parser, another class provides a more high level abstraction :
Some specific points should be pointed out during the translation from abc music notation to "standard" music notation :
  1. Several different ways to express music using abc can lead to the same music.
    For instance, the two following tunes :
    X:1
    T:dots example
    L:1/8
    K:D
    d3d
    
    X:2
    T:dots example
    L:1/4
    K:D
    d>d
    
    describe the same melody : a dotted quarter note followed by eighth note. The consequence of this is that their representation in Note objects will be the same : the first note is a Note instance whose strict duration is Note.QUARTER and its countDots() will return 1.
    The second note is a Note.EIGHTH without any dot.

  2. Some abc note lengths may be impossible to translate into standard music notation.
    For instance, let's consider the following tune :
    X:1
    T:impossible duration
    L:1/8
    K:D
    d5
    
    In such tune, the first note has a duration equals to 5 x eighth note. Such duration cannot be expressed in standard music notation with one single note : a quarter note is 4 times a eighth note, and a dotted quarter is 6 times a eighth note.
    For now, the resulting note will be an instance of the Note class but with an "exotic" duration. One possible alternative would be to decompose this duration into several notes, but for now, the translation sticks to the approach "one abc note -> one Note instance".