The Music Notation Project
Exploring alternative music notation systems — to make reading, writing, and playing music more enjoyable and easier to learn.
Improving Upon Traditional Music Notation: Chromatic Staves
Many people struggle to learn to read and play music. Many even give up before they become proficient at it. Could a better music notation system make a big difference? We think so.
Chromatic scale on a traditional diatonic staff (above)
and on a basic five-line version of a chromatic staff (below)
Play Chromatic Scale (MP3)
Listen to the scale shown on the two staves above and see which one best represents what you hear.
On a chromatic staff each note of the chromatic scale is given its own unique line or space. This approach can make music easier to read, play, and understand. Below we discuss its advantages in terms of key signatures, accidentals, clefs, octaves, and intervals. (The five-line chromatic staff shown above is one of many different versions. We use it simply to introduce the concept, not to suggest that it is preferable to others.)
Traditional notation does not give each note its own unique position on the staff. The traditional staff is based on the notes from only one key (C major/A minor — the white keys on the piano). Only seven notes have their own line or space. The remaining notes (the black keys) must be represented by altering these seven notes with sharp (#) or flat (b) signs, either in the key signature or as an accidental.
Read on to learn how the chromatic staff approach improves upon traditional music notation. (Note that we are not promoting one particular alternative notation system, but seek to educate our visitors about a variety of such systems and the general principles on which they are based.)
Key Signatures
"The need for a new notation, or a radical improvement of the old, is greater than it seems, and the number of ingenious minds that have tackled the problem is greater than one might think."
— Arnold Schoenberg [1]
There are fifteen different key signatures to memorize in traditional notation, and one must always keep the current key signature in mind while playing. With a chromatic staff this is not necessary since a note's position on the staff directly indicates what note to play. All keys are equally easy to read.
Show more about key signatures... Expand all sections on this page...Accidentals
In traditional notation accidental signs must be used to represent accidentals — notes that are not in the current key signature. On a chromatic staff they are not needed since all notes have their own position on the staff, making it easier to see each note's pitch and how it relates to other notes.
Show more about accidentals...Clefs
In traditional notation, clef symbols change which notes appear on which lines and spaces of the staff. Staves that look the same may represent different sets of notes, depending on the clef. Alternative notation systems typically use an octave or register symbol that simply indicates a staff's pitch range.
Octaves
On a traditional staff, two notes an octave apart do not look alike. If a note falls on a line, the note an octave higher or lower will fall on a space (and vice-versa).
On chromatic staves like the one above, notes an octave apart look the same. Notes are easy to identify since a given note always has the same appearance regardless of its octave.
Show more about octaves...Intervals
Intervals that look the same in traditional notation may not be the same interval. In this illustration, whole steps and half steps are visually indistinguishable, as are major and minor thirds. What you see does not always correspond with what you hear and must play.
Chromatic staves represent intervals more consistently and more accurately, as shown in this illustration of a C major scale. Whole steps are always two notes on two neighboring lines or on two neighboring spaces. Half steps are always one note on a line and another on a neighboring space.
Show more about intervals...Chromatic Staves: A Better Approach to Music Notation
All of these features of traditional music notation combine to make reading music much more difficult than it might be with a better notation system. For an analogy, imagine trying to do arithmetic with Roman numerals. It can be done, but the notation system makes a big difference. Of course it is important to view traditional notation in its broader historical context and to keep in mind the innovations and reforms that it has undergone over time. [2]
Alternative music notation systems with chromatic staves avoid each of these pitch-related difficulties, and offer significant advantages over traditional music notation.[3]
Next:
Music Notations - Check out some alternative notation systems.
Tutorials- Learn about various approaches to alternative music notation.
[1] Arnold Schoenberg was probably the most influential 20th-century composer of Western "classical music." It is less commonly known that he also invented a chromatic staff notation system. This quote is from his "A New Twelve-Tone Notation," written in 1924 (see Style and Idea: Selected Writings of Arnold Schoenberg). Although Schoenberg was a proponent of atonal, non-diatonic music, his statement is relevant for all kinds of music. Most alternative notation systems were invented primarily with traditional tonal music in mind, and we are interested in making all types of music easier to read and play. Though we quote Schoenberg we do not discount the importance of diatonic scales and keys. Chromatic staff notation systems actually represent diatonic scales, tonalities, and their intervals much more faithfully than traditional notation. See Intervals on this page, and our Intervals Tutorial.
[2] Traditional notation was developed over several centuries for use with music and instruments that were different from those of today. Guido d'Arezzo introduced his staff-based system in about 1025 CE, but the five-line staff only became standardized in the 1500s. This staff-based notation was a significant achievement that improved upon the notation systems that preceded it, and it has continued to evolve over time to address new notational needs as they arose.
[3] One of the few disadvantage to chromatic staves is that they typically require more vertical space on the page, since they include five additional notes per octave. Some notation systems solve this problem, for example these notations with more than one notehead shape and Express Stave notation.
