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With its power and flexibility, Obsidian has become a popular choice for digital note-taking. But did you know it can also be a music creation and learning platform? Using the ABCjs library, you can compose, view, and listen to sheet music directly within your vault.
Writing Music in Obsidian
A while ago, I decided to dive deep into music theory. I was tired of writing songs without a solid understanding of what I was doing. Like any serious pursuit, I turned to my Obsidian vault to document everything I was learning. But I soon discovered that Obsidian goes beyond text notes—it also allowed me to play back the musical kind.
I stumbled upon a fantastic plugin that lets me write and play sheet music directly in Obsidian. This plugin is calledABC Music Notation. It integrates the ABCjs library into Obsidian, letting you type music notation. It then displays your notes as beautiful sheet music, and you can even listen to that music in Obsidian.
Installing the ABC Music Notation Plugin
Installing any Obsidian pluginis a straightforward process, and ABC Music Notation is no exception. Here’s how you do it:
How to Use ABCjs in Obsidian
Using the ABC Music Notation plugin in Obsidian is simple. However, likewriting math notations in Obsidian, it takes some getting used to. If you’ve used ABC notation or ABCjs before, it will be easy, as the process in Obsidian is the same.
To get started, paste the code below in a new note:
This will create a code block. You can then insert music notation between these two lines and ABCjs will render it into sheet music.
ABCjs is a comprehensive library. It covers virtually everything found in sheet music: grace notes, multiple voices, dynamic markings, and much more. Explaining all of its features would require thousands of words, so I’ll keep it simple by reviewing a sample piece and breaking it down.
Paste the code below in a code block to get started:
In your Obsidian note, it should look like this:
In each block of ABC notation, the first few lines define the piece and its header, while the rest are the music itself. Here’s what the header for this piece means:
After the header, come the music notes:
Once you’re done writing the music, click anywhere outside the block to see the rendered sheet music. you may click on the sheet music to play it!
That’s the simple process you can use to start writing music in your Obsidian notes. Remember that ABCjs offers a lot more. TheABC websiteis a great resource to explore more advanced capabilities. From there, all you need is a little practice, and you can turn your vault into an interactive music studio.
