Welcome to AbcMusicStudio
Your music practice companion — explore the tools below, no account required
Metronome
Practice with precision using our interactive metronome, fine-tuned for traditional music styles — Irish jigs and reels, Breton fest-noz, Old-Time, Bluegrass, Cajun, and more. Set your tempo, choose your time signature, and keep perfect time with visual and audio feedback.
Backing Machine
Enhance your playing with auto-generated backing tracks tailored to traditional music families: Irish, Breton, North American Old-Time, Bluegrass, Cajun, and more. Backed by real instrument samples — Martin D28 acoustic guitar and acoustic bass — for an authentic, warm sound. Choose from authentic rhythms and styles to accompany your practice sessions.
Register or log in
Save your music sessions and access them from any browser.
- Keep your scores in folders and open them from any browser
- Practise with the Learning Machine, backing tracks and the metronome
- Publish a musician page with your bio, instruments and bands Cloud
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Short demos of the features, from our YouTube channel.
AbcMusicStudio, an overview
Watch on YouTubeCreating your first score
Watch on YouTubeLearning a tune phrase by phrase
Watch on YouTubeRoadmap
Recently improved
- NewFree accountLink a tune to a page of a PDF tune book, a photo or a web page, and open that page beside the drawn score or beside the video while it plays
- FixedFree accountIn the dark theme, scores are drawn in black on a light sheet, so staff lines, bar numbers and repeat endings are easy to read
- FixedFree accountThe first switch to Edit mode shows every button's icon straight away
- FixedFree accountIn a score with several tunes, picking another tune no longer stops the video you are watching
- EasierFree accountTransposing a tune can now keep the original: “Add as a new tune” puts the new key beside it in the same score
- EasierFree accountWhen a tune is playing and you switch to another tab of the score, a Playing · Stop pill lets you stop it from there
- FixedFree accountIn Edit mode the score's tabs are readable in the dark theme, follow the same order as View, and show how many attachments and recordings the score holds
- FixedFree accountThe YouTube panel searches only when you ask, and when the daily search allowance runs out it says so and offers a link to search on YouTube itself
- EasierFree accountTransposing a score while viewing it changes only what you see and hear; your saved tune stays as it is, and one click takes you back to the original key
- EasierFree accountRenaming a score: the name is ready to type, Enter saves it and Escape leaves it as it was
- FixedFree accountOn a phone, the ABC editor uses the whole width of the screen
- FixedFree accountA warning about your ABC now starts with the line and column it is on
- EasierFree accountInside a folder, a path line shows where you are, each folder in it one click away, and the back row says where it takes you
- EasierFree accountThe browser's Back and Forward buttons move between your folders, and a reload brings you back to the folder you were in
- EasierFree accountOpening a score closes the one already open, so a phone shows one score at a time, and folders end with an arrow that says you go into them
- FixedFree accountA tune picked from the search results opens on its folder's whole page, with every tune around it in view
- FixedFree accountThe repository list fits a phone screen, with no sideways scrolling, in View and in Edit mode
- FixedFree accountA warning about your ABC points to the line you actually typed, even below the score's header lines
- EasierFree accountWhen the View / Edit switch at the top of the repository has scrolled out of sight, an open score shows its own, so you no longer scroll back up to start editing it
- FixedThe tuner asks for the real pitch of the five-string banjo's short string in Open G, Double C, Open D, Modal G and Open A
- FixedThe tuner says why it cannot hear you when the microphone is blocked, shows whether sound arrives, lets you pick the input, and no longer flickers on room noise
- NewFree accountBars that hold too many or too few beats are highlighted on the score, and a short bar can be completed with a rest in one click
- FixedFree accountA tune with a pickup loops cleanly: from the second pass on, it starts again on the first full bar
- FixedFree accountThe melody plays every written sharp, flat, natural and octave mark as written
- FixedFree accountLearning mode cuts a tune into phrases that follow its parts and stop at the repeat bars
- NewFree accountWhen a tune has a bass staff written under the melody, the backing bass plays that bass line note for note instead of making one up from the chords
- FixedFree accountThe five-string banjo has its own bright, ringing voice, apart from the tenor banjo
- FixedQuébec and old-time hornpipes are accompanied as hornpipes, at a hornpipe's tempo and lilt
- NewQuébec reels and 6/8 tunes get their own backing: "boom-chick" guitar and bass, podorythmie foot-tapping and a straight drive, while Irish jigs and reels gain their lilt; jigs, polkas and waltzes now have a bass that follows their beat
- NewFree accountExport a tune as MusicXML, to open it straight in Sibelius, Finale, Dorico, MuseScore or any other notation software
- EasierFree accountWhile learning a phrase, the score shows only the lines that phrase is on, right under the title, instead of a page of empty staves
- FixedThe metronome and the backing play again after a Bluetooth speaker drops out and comes back
- FixedFree accountThe melody instruments shape each note by the tune's rhythm, with lighter off-beats and a jig's lilt
- EasierFree accountA Back up button at the top of your repository saves your whole repertoire in one file; in Edit mode it becomes Restore
- FixedFree accountA tune with a subtitle under its title shows its real key and mode, and plays every note in that key
- EasierFree accountMove a tune or a folder by dragging it onto another folder in the list, or onto the back row to bring it up one level
Coming Soon
Current
- Composer — write a brand-new tune in any tradition and dance form the app knows, from an Irish jig to a Breton andro or a Balkan 7/8, and add it to your score
- Music repository — browse, organise and manage your ABC scores in folders
- User accounts — sign in to save your work and access it from anywhere
- More backing styles and rhythm patterns
- AbcMusicStudio Cloud — a paid tier with permanent, cross-device server storage
- Score history — every save is versioned, with restore, compare and named snapshots
- Offline mode — keep viewing and practicing your scores without an internet connection
- Bands & Courses — shared spaces with a common repertoire for your band or students
- Public musician profile — a shareable page showcasing your bio and tunes
- In-app contextual help and a docked ABC notation quick reference
- Export folders and scores as print-ready PDF summaries
- Progressive tempo ramps in Learning Mode, based on each tune's traditional speed levels
- Attach audio, PDF and image files directly to your scores
- Print the tune you are viewing in one click, or pick tunes to print from any folder
- Rich text descriptions for your profile, instruments, bands and courses, with ready-made templates
- Search inside an attached PDF — every match highlighted on the page, and listed page by page
- Start a composition from a tune you already have — the score you are on, one from your repertoire, or one fetched from thesession.org
- Listen to a composed tune before you keep it, and discard it without touching your score
- Record the instruments you play and how you tune them, including old-time cross-tunings for fiddle, mandolin and tenor banjo
- Choose field by field what your public musician page shows, including whether to publish your contact details
- Introduce your bands and courses on your public page, each with its own full description — separate from what you write for your members
- Strip every chord from a tune in one click, straight from the chord grid, and start the harmony over
- Play a tune on a real tin whistle voice, in its own octave, with notes that breathe out instead of being cut off
- Backing tracks now recognise klezmer, Balkan, Latin-American and Nordic tunes from the rhythm you wrote, instead of treating them as Irish reels
- Read a tune in tablature while you learn it, switching between violin, guitar, DADGAD, mandolin and tenor banjo without leaving Learning Mode
- Put the name of every note under the staff while you practise, spelled for the key you are in
- See where a tune invites rolls, cuts and grace notes, highlighted on the score for the instrument you play
- A tune's history now records one entry per editing session, instead of one for every chord, tempo change or automatic tweak
- Find a tune by name anywhere in your repertoire, without remembering which folder you filed it in
- Take any past version of a tune and keep working on it as a separate arrangement, leaving the original untouched
- Keep every take of a recording you replace, and put an earlier one back, the same way you can with a tune
- Play your tunes over the sound of the sea, a background you can bring in and set to taste alongside the guitar and bass
- Play a tune on the oboe, the clarinet, a Celtic harp or a wire-strung Irish bardic harp
- Watch short demo videos of the features, in each page's help and on the welcome page, and browse the AbcMusicStudio YouTube channel where they are all gathered
- Turn a recording of a single instrument into a score, straight from the audio attached to a tune
- Québec reels and 6/8 tunes get their own backing: "boom-chick" guitar and bass, podorythmie foot-tapping and a straight drive, while Irish jigs and reels gain their lilt; jigs, polkas and waltzes now have a bass that follows their beat
- Export a tune as MusicXML, to open it straight in Sibelius, Finale, Dorico, MuseScore or any other notation software
- When a tune has a bass staff written under the melody, the backing bass plays that bass line note for note instead of making one up from the chords
- Bars that hold too many or too few beats are highlighted on the score, and a short bar can be completed with a rest in one click
- Link a tune to a page of a PDF tune book, a photo or a web page, and open that page beside the drawn score or beside the video while it plays
Legacy
News and community
Follow the page for release news, and join the group to talk with other players.