ABC key

Label

Required

Single

Remarks

X X-number yes yes Magic X number. The first line of an ABC tune must be one of these. Originally it had some kind of indexing purpose, I'm not sure anyone uses it very much these days but it's an obligatory part of the format (it can be got out of the way in displays here, see 'Configure display')
T Title yes no the Title(s) of a tune. The second line of an ABC tune must be one of these (it's not possible to write one without a title. This is a good thing from the point of view of displaying them in lists)
A Area no no the Area a tune comes from. This is slightly odd, in that it depends on the O: (Country) field, which it's a kind of modifier for. This is the only instance of this kind of hierarchical relationship in standard ABC, this site doesn't handle it in any special way
B Bibliography no no Any published collections you're aware of that include it, or perhaps reference it in some way. Bibliography
C Composer no no Who made it
D Discography no no Any published recordings you're aware of that include it. Catalogue numbers would be a nice helpful touch
E E no no I think the original abc2mtex used this for controlling spacing in some way, but I forget the details. I'm not sure if any other programs use it at all ?
F File no no The file this tune was originally a part of. Distinct from %%File, which is specific to tunes uploaded to this site
G Groups no no  
H History no no  
I I no no  
J J no no  
L Length no yes Default notelength - 1/4, 1/8, etc. The length that the numbers after ABC notes are multiples of
M Time-Signature no yes  
N Notes no no Any remarks you might want to make that don't fit into any of the other categories
O Country no no ("country of Origin") - where a tune comes from. See also 'A'
P Part-Order no yes Used in conjunction with 'P' markings inside the body of the tune to show what order to play parts in - "AABBAACC" sort of thing
Q Tempo no yes Speed. Will affect midi playback, if set, and also print
R Rhythm no no What sort of rhythm it has - ie, what you could dance to it, what sort of tune it is; Jig, Polska, Waltz, sort of thing
S Source no no Who you learnt it from, sort of thing
U U no no  
V V no no  
W Words no no The words, of a song. See an ABC primer for the rules of this
Y Y no no  
Z Transcriber no no Who did this ABC transcription. See also %%TranscriptionNotes
w words no no The words, of a song. See an ABC primer for the rules of this
%%Collection Collection no no Assign a tune to 1 or more "collections". Intended to be the main way of structuring a list of tunes here, the site has some extra display facilities, special handling, for this field. See the help page for details.
%%Copyright Copyright no no Copyright details. This field receives a bit of special handling here - when an image is generated the contents of this field is printed below it, thus keeping this info firmly attached to the tune in all formats (if the field includes the word 'Copyright' or the 'copyright' symbol, it will be printed 'as-is', otherwise the word 'Copyright' will be placed in front. Be aware that there may be character-set isuues with the special symbol
%%Dancenotes Dancenotes no no Every now and then there are tunes which come with a note on what to dance to it.
%%File UploadFile no no Used by this site to record the name of the file the user uploaded this tune from
%%Link Link no no An all-purpose bodge. Supply the full text for a HTML link - ie, something like '<a href="http://sitename/whatsit.html">text</a>' - and it will be presented as such on the "View tune" page. Intended to point to something specific to that tune, eg, a photocopy from which it was transcribed, or maybe a recording, or something like that.
%%Page Page no no Page number. To work along with %%Collection, Bibliography, etc
%%TranscriptionNotes TranscriptionNotes no no Any comments you may have about the transcription.
K Key-Signature yes yes Key signature. The header part of an ABC tune must end with one of these

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