Help!

Here are some frequently asked questions. If you have any more questions, email me.

About FolkTuneFinder?

What is FolkTuneFinder?

A search engine for folk tunes. It has a database of tunes transcribed in ABC format, displayed in notation form. More information on the about page.

How can I search?

FolkTuneFinder has two search methods: melody and title. Title search is straightforward, you type in the title of the tune and hopefully your tune is found.

Melody search is more interesting. You can start by typing a short musical phrase in or just by browsing for all tunes. You can narrow down your search by time signature, key signature and the actual notes used in the tune.

Melody search results try and match as much of the phrase as possible. It allows for mistakes or variations. It prioritises the longer melody matches over shorter ones and earlier matches over later ones. The search results show the start of the tune. If the match happens in the first few bars, it will be highlighted in red.

If you see any bizarre results, please email me.

How does it make money?

It doesn't. I created FolkTuneFinder in 2008 to solve a problem that I had and I have never tried to make money from it.

Isn't it expensive?

Yes, it's not cheap to run. If you want to make a donation to say thank you and help with running costs, you're are very welcome to drop me an email.

Accounts, Blogs, Favourites

How do I log in?

Login has been removed, and along with it, the favourites feature. You can read about the decision here

Privacy

What about cookies and privacy?

You can use the site without cookies. Please feel free to disable them if you want.

Google Analytics is used to monitor how many people are using the site. If you want to opt out, you are welcome to block it.

Browsing

What happened to MIDIs?

When FolkTuneFinder started in 2008, browsers played MIDI files. This meant you could listen to the tune directly in the browser. Recently browsers have removed this functionality. The MIDIs never left FolkTuneFinder but your browser stopped being able to play them. I looked for a while at the best way of solving this.

The solution, as of version 5, is to play automatically generated MP3s in the browser. They should be compatible with every browser out there. You can still download the MIDI file and now you can also download the MP3.

Why does the design keep changing?

FolkTuneFinder keeps changing. It's a completely different site to what it was 5 years ago. The code and algorithms have changed significantly over the years. In comparison the design hasn't changed much! A change in the design is a reflection of a change in other aspects of the site.

The latest design is little simpler, it's responsive and so should work (in theory) better with a range of screen sizes.

The ABC sources don't work

The web crawler first ran in 2008. Since then some of the original sites have gone offline. If you sign in you will see the 'View ABC Source' button. This will show the original ABC.