abcmatch - Search for specific sequences of notes in an abc file composed of many tunes.

       This manual page was written by Ross Gammon based on abcmatch.txt by Seymour Shlien.

abcmatch  is  used to  search for specific sequences of notes in an  abc file composed of many tunes. For
       example, if you know a few bars of a tune, you can use this program to find the tune having this sequence
       and perhaps identify the tune.  At a minimum,  abcmatch  requires  two  files.  A  template  file  called
       match.abc  which contains the bars that you are searching for and a large file consisting of a hundred or
       more abc tunes. The program automatically loads up the match.abc file and then scans every  tune  in  the
       large file

       abcmatch - Search for specific sequences of notes in an abc file composed of many tunes.

-vand-c
              mainly used for debugging when the program does not do what was expected.

       -ver   prints version number and then exits

       --norhythm
              Causes the matching algorithm to ignore the length of notes in a bar, thus E3/2F/D GA2 would match
              EFD G2A. The option ignores -r parameter since it is now irrelevant.

       -pitch_table
              Used to produce a interval weighted pitch histogram for each tune in the file. If this is saved in
              an  external  file,  that  file  could  be used as a database for finding tunes with similar pitch
              probability density functions (pdf).

       -r     Controls how the matching criterion handles small rhythm variations in the melody. The  -r  option
              must  be  followed  by  a  number  which specifies the temporal resolution for the match. When the
              number is zero, this indicates that a perfect match should be performed, meaning that the  lengths
              of  each  note  in  the bar must match exactly in order to be reported. For larger values a looser
              match will be performed as described below. Note lengths are converted into temporal units where a
              quarter note normally is assigned a value of 24. Therefore an eight note has  a  value  of  12,  a
              sixteenth  has  a  value  of  6,  a half note has a value of 48 and etc. If you specify a temporal
              resolution of 12, then the pitch values of the notes only need to match at time  units  which  are
              multiples of an eighth note.

       -fixedn
              Causes  the  program  to  disregard  bar lines when does the matching. It allows matching of notes
              between tunes having different time signatures.  n is a number which specifies the exact number of
              notes to match. For example if n is 4, the program could match |C E G E| .. with |C  E|G  E|  Note
              the matcher still starts at a beginning of a given bar for both the tune and template.

       -con   Specifies  contour  matching.  In  this  case, the program uses the key signature only to indicate
              accidentals. The pitch contour is computed from the pitch difference or interval between  adjacent
              notes.

       -qnt   Uses the contour matching algorithm but also quantizes the intervals using the following table:

              unison  and  semitone     0  minor 2nd to major 2nd 1 minor 3rd to major 3rd 2 any larger interval
              3

              Negative numbers are descending intervals.

       -tpfilename,referencenumber
              Substitute any tune for the template match.abc. When using this feature, the entire tune  is  used
              as a template. Abcmatch does not match the template with itself, and only bars which match bars in
              other tunes are reported.

       -brthreshold
              Runs the program in a brief mode designed to identify groups of tunes sharing common bars. In this
              mode, the program counts the numbers of bars in the test tune which are also present in match.abc.
              If the number of common bars is larger or equal to the threshold then the program reports the tune
              and the number of common bars.  The program scans all the tunes in the abc file and returns a list
              of  all  the  tunes  which  have  more than a specific number of bars in common with the template,
              match.abc. In actual use, the program is run repeatedly by a script. For each tune in a abc  file,
              it  creates a template file called match.abc and then executes abcmatch. The outputs are displayed
              on the screen in a form easy to interpret. The user has no control of the matching criterion.  The
              rhythm  must  match exactly and the notes are transposed to suit the key signature. In other words
              the -r parameter is independent of what is specified in the parameter list.

       -pitch_histor-length_hist
              Runs the program in another mode. It produces a histogram of the distribution of the notes in  the
              abc  file.   The  pitch  is  indicated in midi units. Thus middle C is 60 and the pitches go up in
              semitone units. Following the pitch is a count of the number of times that note occurred.

       -pitch_tableor-interval_table
              Used to create a database for a collection of tunes in a file for future analysis.

abc2abc(1), abc2midi(1), mftext(1) ,midi2abc(1) ,midicopy(1) ,yaps(1)

abcmatch  abc file  [-c]  [-v]  [-r] [-con]    [-fixednn] [-qnt] [-lev] [-a] [-ign]    [-br%d] [-tpabcreferencefile] [-ver]    [-pitch_hist] [-wpitch_hist] [-length_hist]    [-interval_hist]  [-pitch_table]
       [-interval_table] reference number

       This man page describes abcmatch version 1.35 from January 15 2006.

                                                                                                     ABCMATCH(1)