Bagpipe Stuff
Patrick's Stuff
Click HERE to access the BMW to ABC translation tool.
BMW stands for Bagpipe Music Writer. This translation tool, which converts BMW code into ABC code, is still in its infancy. It can only convert, as far as I've tried, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 6/8, 9/8, and 2/2 time signatures. Whether it does more time signatures than those listed (correctly), is for you to try for yourself. Any problems can be reported to me using the email form below. It isn't perfect, I'm not the greatest programmer, and BMW code is weird (hence why I want to be able to convert it to {the better} ABC, that and I use Apple computers {there is no BMW program for Apple computers, though there are Apple programs capable of reading BMW code}). Barfly is a free ABC music notation system for Apple computers. The ABC output is how I would write the ABC code. It is not the simplest or maybe even the standard (if there is such a thing), but it is the format I have developed to ease reading and modifying. To learn more about ABC and its use for bagpipe notation, check out Andrew Lenz's site. Check out Concertina.net for an online ABC to JPEG and PDF graphical conversion and a MIDI sound file.
INSTRUCTIONS!!!!
Here is a version of Scotland the Brave in BMW code. In order for this conversion tool to work better, you must delete all the nonsense at the top. You must also delete the time signature indication from the BMW code and manually input it into the top of the translation tool form. Here is the same Scotland the Brave formatted for translation to ABC. Here is a snapshot of the original BMW file with everything that must be removed prior to translation highlighted in red. Upon execution by pressing the submit button, if the page never loads and you get a time out error, there is some sort of problem with what you have requested a translation of. NOTE: ABC does not ignore blank lines, so delete any blank lines that your ABC program may recognize from the output of this translation tool.