5,000 Irish Tunes in Your Pocket
Using "TunePal" software written by Dr. Bryan Duggan of Ireland it's possible to store and access thousands of Irish tunes on a mobile device such as a cell-phone, and each tune can be played on a whim - at various speeds, in subsections and in alternate keys. This turns a mobile device (cell phone, PDA, etc.) into a very handy learning tool capable of playing an extensive selection of tunes at a volume and pace you find comfortable and pitched appropriately for your instrument. Another handy feature offered is that TunePal will listen to a tune played on an instrument and then suggest the proper name for the tune. Very handy for the "What's the name of that?" situation when no one can come up with an answer.
I currently have about 5,000 tunes on my cell phone, including all of the three popular O'Neill's works (the Music of Ireland -1850 tunes, Dance Music of Ireland and Waifs and Strays). Since these are ABC files, they don't take up much space so I'm not taxing the onboard memory of my phone in the slightest with this content. I can literally carry all of O'Neill's works and much more in a shirt pocket and I can select and play any tune in just a few seconds.
If you learn by ear, this software will instantly open the door to learning almost any tune by sound alone and you need know nothing of ABC format. If you already know a tune but need a refresher on how a portion of it goes, select it from an alphabetical list and give it a quick listen, looping it if you want it repeated. If you're a bit weak on by-ear learning and want a peek at the ABC notation, you'll be pleased to know that TunePal displays it on screen for each tune selected.
You wouldn't expect to entertain an audience with the tunes as they are rendered on a mobile device speaker, but as delivered by TunePal they are clear toned and the software offers many MIDI voices to chose from. I find the phone's speaker is just fine for listening and playing along with, but will acknowledge that the tones sound better if you care to use headphones and of course that route offers options such as positioning the headset to feed the tune in one ear while leaving the other open so that you can hear your own instrument clearly.
While TunePal will interpret and play the typical ornaments included in many ABC files, you should realize that it's up to you to apply your experience, expertise and personal taste to come up with whatever additional decoration you might think suitable for individual tunes. The software will faithfully deliver an audio version of an ABC file, but it's not the same as listening to a recording by your favorite artist and won't offer any specific insight into playing techniques for your particular instrument. But that's no different than referring to any music book to find the basics of a tune; the difference here is that this reference is easy to carry and does far more than simply offer an image showing a sequence of notes on a page (or "dots" as some call them).
Dr. Duggan offer versions of Tunepal for Windows Mobile devices as well as iPhone, iPad and Android phones. Refer to his website for details and pricing.
Finally, for those of you that like what you've read about here, but don't consider it likely you'll be acquiring a compatible mobile device anytime in the near future, I'll close this section with a link to a site offering links to ABC software for notebook and desktop computers as well as ABC files:
Chris Walshaw's website offers extensive links to ABC software and ABC tune file collections. It's only one of many such websites, but I've chosen it because it seems quite comprehensive.
For additional insight, try a Google search on the terms "ABC file player" and other such combinations and then explore the results.