Another good way to find a tune, if you know its name,
is to use a search engine (like Google)
and search for the tune name followed by the word "abc".
For example, if you are looking for The Rolling Wave,
type in :
rolling wave abc
You should get a list of locations where The Rolling Wave
can be found as an abc file.
Most of these tune collection sites provide the tunes in several
different file formats:
ABC (see below);
GIF, PDF (a graphic representation of the sheet music);
and sometimes MIDI (a simple music file).
If you find a tune only in abc format, and you would like to
see the sheet music, here are a few conversion applications:
EasyABC
(available for both Windows and Mac computers)
ABCExplorer
(for Windows computers only)
Tunes in abc Format :
"abc" is a character notation
for writing tunes in a portable and easy way,
and is used for sending tunes via e-mail,
for putting tune books on the internet,
and for typesetting tunes.
More information about the abc format is
available at Chris Walshaw's
In addition to the description of the abc format itself,
this site also has a huge list of other tune collections,
as well as links to software designed to manage abc files.