This is great stuff - the best discussion I've seen on ABC. But have we answered the original question?

Is ABC the way to go to obtain chord progressions?

The raw ABC files don't contain chords - or at least I've never seen them. You can obtain a program such as ABCMUS to guess/extract them for you, but even as a registered user I have not been happy with many of the results.

I now have my own method of extracting chords from MIDI files, but it can be tedious, and the resultant chords are sometimes quite complex. What you get is what the original sequencing person inputs. (It's all too easy for a keyboard player to add the odd note here and there on the left hand to create what appears to be a formidable looking jazz chord). Prompted by a recent thread I've been looking at some Music Hall MIDI's, and like a lot of music originally designed for piano, the original chords are fantastic - if you like that sort of thing. If the occasion were to arise where i was to post these chords to this forum, should I edit them to be more folky or leave that to the individual reader?

Having said all this there is a large body of Celtic tunes on MIDI on the Web where the chords are relatively usable by the average guitar player. It seems however that the tools to make them visible are not so user friendly.

This sounds like a job for a bright, young programmer from Sydney who already has extensive experience in extracting data from MIDI files, and who is already familiar with the needs of Mudcat users. The suitable applicant should apply via this thread.

Regards John