diff --git a/tidal-parse/src/Sound/Tidal/Parse.hs b/tidal-parse/src/Sound/Tidal/Parse.hs
index 522d332cf..c506e24a7 100644
--- a/tidal-parse/src/Sound/Tidal/Parse.hs
+++ b/tidal-parse/src/Sound/Tidal/Parse.hs
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@
 
 module Sound.Tidal.Parse (parseTidal) where
 
-import           Language.Haskell.Exts
 import           Language.Haskellish as Haskellish
 import           Control.Applicative
 import           Data.Bifunctor
@@ -20,13 +19,14 @@ type H = Haskellish ()
 
 -- This is depended upon by Estuary, and changes to its type will cause problems downstream for Estuary.
 parseTidal :: String -> Either String ControlPattern
-parseTidal x =
-  if strip x == [] then (return T.silence)
-    else (f $ Language.Haskell.Exts.parseExp x)
-    where
-      strip = dropWhileEnd isSpace . dropWhile isSpace
-      f (ParseOk x') = second fst $ runHaskellish parser () x'
-      f (ParseFailed l s) = throwError $ show l ++ ": " ++ show s
+parseTidal x = if x' == [] then (return T.silence) else r
+  where
+    x' = dropWhileEnd isSpace $ dropWhile isSpace $ Haskellish.removeComments x
+    r = bimap showSyntaxError fst $ Haskellish.parseAndRun parser () x
+
+showSyntaxError :: (Span,Data.Text.Text) -> String
+showSyntaxError (((lineNumber,columnNumber),(_,_)),msg) =
+  show lineNumber ++ ":" ++ show columnNumber ++ " " ++ Data.Text.unpack msg
 
 
 -- The class Parse is a class for all of the types that we know how to parse.
diff --git a/tidal-parse/test/Sound/Tidal/TidalParseTest.hs b/tidal-parse/test/Sound/Tidal/TidalParseTest.hs
index bd1013705..6da8852d3 100644
--- a/tidal-parse/test/Sound/Tidal/TidalParseTest.hs
+++ b/tidal-parse/test/Sound/Tidal/TidalParseTest.hs
@@ -30,12 +30,24 @@ run =
     it "parses a string containing only spaces as silence" $
       "    " `parsesTo` silence
 
+    it "parses a string containing only a one-line comment as silence" $
+      "-- commented out" `parsesTo` silence
+
+    it "parses a string containing only a multi-line comment as silence" $
+      "{- commented out \n this is another line}" `parsesTo` silence
+
     it "parses the identifier silence as silence" $
       "silence" `parsesTo` silence
 
     it "parses a very simple single 's' pattern" $
       "s \"bd cp\"" `parsesTo` s "bd cp"
 
+    it "parses a very simple single 's' pattern with a same line comment" $
+       "s \"bd cp\" -- comment " `parsesTo` s "bd cp"
+
+    it "parses a very simple single 's' pattern with a multi line comment" $
+       "s \"bd cp\" {- \n comment -}" `parsesTo` s "bd cp"
+
     it "parses a very simple single 'sound' pattern" $
       "sound \"bd cp\"" `parsesTo` sound "bd cp"
 
diff --git a/tidal-parse/tidal-parse.cabal b/tidal-parse/tidal-parse.cabal
index d1b0d5a13..bdd3af2be 100644
--- a/tidal-parse/tidal-parse.cabal
+++ b/tidal-parse/tidal-parse.cabal
@@ -32,9 +32,8 @@ library
       base >=4.8 && <5
     , tidal >= 1.8 && <1.10
     , transformers >= 0.5 && < 0.7
-    , haskell-src-exts >= 1.17.1 && < 1.24
     , template-haskell
-    , haskellish
+    , haskellish >= 0.3.2 && < 0.4
     , containers < 0.7
     , mtl >= 2.2.2 && <2.3
     , text < 2.1