How to create simple sheet with chords and lyrics in ABC?

Question

How to create a simple song sheet containing only lyrics and chords with ABC notation? For example, the result could look as follows:

Am                    G
Hello darkness my old friend
                           Am
I've come to talk with you again.

Is it possible to not display any staff with ABC? I want to be able to render the song in a pdf and want to keep the option to add some lead melody later, that is why I want to stick with tools that are able to render staffs with melody, but for now I need just lyrics aligned to chords.

Answer 1

Abc v2.2 has two scorewriter programs: abcm2ps creates PostScript files, and abc2svg creates Scalable Vector Graphics. Each of these support a number of extensions to standard Abc 2, but they aren't completely compatible with one another.
(see: http://moinejf.free.fr/abcm2ps-doc/index.html)

There are two types of chord grid in abc2svg (but none in abcm2ps). The second type (grid2) is what you are looking for.

From Guido Gnonzato's Making Music with Abc 2, ch 5.2, p. 92:

%%grid2 [n] replaces the notes of a voice with a chord grid. [n] may be any digit; when it's omitted, the chord grid is not typeset;

An example is given on the following page, p. 93:

This formatting directive is also explained (using slightly different terms) in the appendix A.5.5, p. 174:

%%grid2 [int]: replaces a voice with a chord grid. When [int] is missing, the grid is disabled. Default: 0; scope: voice; not available in abcm2ps.

---

Note that you will need to specify a rhythm for the lyrics to align with (using some dummy melody).

For the piece mentioned, you should get something like this:

X:1
T: 
C: 
Q:none
K:none clef=none
M:none
L:1/8
V:1
%%grid2 1
"Am" z8 | z2AA AAAA | "G" A8 | zAAA AAAA | "Am" A8 |
w:Hel-lo dark-ness my old friend, I've come to talk to you a-gain 

From here, you can add the actual melody notes and other details, and turn off (or comment out) grid2.

X:1
T:The Sound of Silence
C:Paul Simon
Q:1/4=108
K:D#min clef=treble-8
M:4/4
L:1/8
V:1
%%grid2 0
"D#m" z8 | z2DD FFAA | "C#" G8 | zCCC EEGG | "D#m" F8 |
w:Hel-lo dark-ness my old friend, I've come to talk to you a-gain

Answer 2

I do not think ABC is really designed with that in mind (although I’m not much of an authority on abc), but this sort of thing is really easy in Lilypond:

<<
  \new ChordNames \chordmode {
    a1:m g g a:m
  }
  \new Lyrics \lyricmode {
    \skip4 Hel8 -- lo dark -- ness, my old
    friend1 \break
    \skip8 I’ve8 come to talk with you a --
    gain1
  }
>>

Then add some stylesheeting to get this to look like we want:

\paper {
  ragged-right = ##t    % Allow lines to no fill the whole line
  indent = 0            % No indent at start
}

\layout {
  \context {            % Some tricks to get better alignment
    \Lyrics
    \override LyricText.self-alignment-X = #LEFT
    \consists Bar_engraver
    \consists Separating_line_group_engraver
    \override BarLine.extra-spacing-width = #'(0.1 . -0.1)
    \hide BarLine

    % reduce distance to chord names
    \override VerticalAxisGroup.nonstaff-relatedstaff-spacing.basic-distance = #2
  }
  \context {
    \Score
    \remove Bar_number_engraver
  }
}

<<
  \new ChordNames \chordmode {
    a1:m g g a:m
  }
  \new Lyrics \lyricmode {
    \skip4 Hel8 -- lo dark -- ness, my old
    friend1 \break
    \skip8 I’ve8 come to talk with you a --
    gain1
  }
>>

When at some point we decide to add a melody later on this can be done simply like this:

<<
  \new ChordNames \chordmode {
    a1:m g g a:m
  }
  \new Staff \relative {
    r4 a'8 a c c e e |
    d1 |
    r8 g, g g b b d d |
    c1
  }
  \new Lyrics \lyricmode {
    \skip4 Hel8 -- lo dark -- ness, my old
    friend1
    \skip8 I’ve8 come to talk with you a --
    gain1
  }
>>

or let Lilypond derive the rhythm of the lyrics from the notes

<<
  \new ChordNames \chordmode {
    a1:m g g a:m
  }
  \new Staff \relative {
    r4 a'8 a c c e e |
    d1 |
    r8 g, g g b b d d |
    c1
  }
  \addlyrics {
    Hel -- lo dark -- ness, my old
    friend
    I’ve come to talk with you a --
    gain
  }
>>

I do not know if you can somehow get ABC to do this (it is designed for simplicity after all), but I suppose even if it is not ABC this might work for you.

Answer 3

You can create sheets using lyrics and chords like the one you quoted using any text editor, such as Word or Google Docs. The most important feature of this is to use a fixed-width font for the text. Otherwise, you'll never be able to get the spacing right (and the spacing is important). Referring to your quote above, the G chord is supposed to start at the same time as the word "friend."

In most programs, the font Courier or Courier New is a fixed-width font. That means that all the letters have exactly the same width. Other fonts, such as Times, have skinnier letters i, l and fatter letters m, w.. This difference makes aligning the chords to the words impossible.

Answer 4

ABC does not allow for this...

...because the text alignment mechanism aligns to notes.

But...

W:

There is a W: operator intended for adding lyrics after the end of a score, but there's no allowance for aligning lines of text — that is, the chord symbols could not be directly aligned to the lyrics. There are at least two ways to get around this, but both are ugly.

1. Make the chord symbols part of the lyrics: W: (Am)Hello darkness, my old (G)friend
2. Use some character as a spacer:

W:Am ---------------------- G
W:Hello darkness my old friend

There is a %%wordsfont directive that allows the W: font to be specified, but only for output to PostScript/PDF. However, the feature is "volatile" (per the ABC standard) and may not be available in all implementations. In theory, though, this would allow for the use of a fixed-width font like Courier, which in turn would allow for making the use of a spacing character accurate.

w:

The w: operator aligns to notes, but while the staff can be hidden, notes cant. The best one could do would be to hide everything but the notes, then just enter one note per word or syllable.

X: 1
K:none stafflines=0
E E E E E E E
w: Am _____G
w:Hel-lo, dark-ness, my old friend

The chord symbols could also be attached to the notes themselves, but this will place them either above the notes or below the lyrics.

X: 1
K:none stafflines=0
"_Am"E E E E E E "_G"E
w:Hel-lo, dark-ness, my old friend