[ Mickey Sadler wrote in 031003 MMD:

>... check "abc" in it's various versions.  As a starting
> place see  http://www.gre.ac.uk/~c.walshaw/abc/  ...

I would like to second this recommendation for the open source
'abc' MIDI notation.  The core of the floppy-based MIDI playback box
I showed at the Long Beach MBSI is based on the MIDI to "abc" parser,
modified to work with an 8-bit Atmel microcontroller.

I am in the final stages of testing of the MIDI playback box.  At the
moment the box is playing single-track standard MIDI files (SMFs) as
well as Yamaha ESEQ files.  Stay tuned, as I am working on some of the
final details and will let the MMD know as soon as units are ready to
ship.

Again, I urge readers of MMDigest to become familiar with "abc" notation.
It is a great way to archive songs where one has lyrics and wants to be
able to see them as sheet music.  The music and lyrics can be entered
using Wordpad.  These can be printed as a lead sheet, or converted to
something that can be played like a SMF.

Because it uses simple text representations that can be typed into
Wordpad, it makes it easy to search the music for patterns.  This can
be done with simple database programs or even an Excel spreadsheet.
Fragments of 'abc' notation can also be placed into email where the
recipient can then see what sort of song the sender is describing.
(Much more practical than the UUDDUUU notation mentioned a few weeks
back.)

The notation uses bar symbols '|' keys and meter to represent music the
way it is represented on a musician's lead sheet.  Chords are written
into their own fields.  Rhythm and tempo is determined musically and
not based on engineering clocks.  This makes it easy to print the music
as a score, or to convert a simple score into a simple-to-use,
human-readable searchable format.

Julie Porter