Howard Jones wrote: Joe_F, I am familiar with the concept of solfa, but only in the major key and I don't know how to deal with accidentals. But I'm not trained to sing in it, and I couldn't decipher a tune written out in it. In order to make sense of a tune written in solfa I would have to convert it to notation (although I don't read music well), and I would probably use ABC to do this.

But the flip side is that ABC uses absolute pitches and sol-fa uses relative pitches, and relative pitches are what generally matters in folk songs. Sol-fa, in general, is better for singing; ABC is better for instruments. Which is easier will depend on education, I think. I'm old enough that I has some elementary school music instruction, using primarily note names (do, re, mi). For someone like me, sol-fa would be easier to learn than ABC. For someone taught to play piano (say), ABC will be easier.

This is not an argument for either; it's merely an argument that one should be aware of the strengths of each. Then it's time to decide which one to prefer. :-)