The
Music
Notation
Project

More Music Notation Systems

"With so many solutions, you know there must be a problem." — MNMA member Andre Lippens

Out of the hundreds[1] of alternative notation systems that exist, we primarily focus on those that meet our particular set of desirable criteria (see Guided Tour and Gallery). Below we list a number of additional systems that take a different approach, in one way or another. We include links to their websites (or other documentation) and numbers to indicate which of our criteria each system does not meet, to the best of our knowledge. Suggestions for corrections are welcome. (This is intended to be a factual analysis, not a judgment on whether the system is well designed or meets the inventor's goals, because those goals might be different from those of the Music Notation Project.)

Some websites linked below are not English-language sites. Use Google Translate if needed.

 

Contents
Systems with twelve vertical staff positions per octave (chromatic staff)
Systems with six vertical staff positions per octave (two pitches per position)
Systems with non-standard diatonic staves
Systems with other types of non-standard staves
Systems that do not use a staff
Systems that use the traditional diatonic staff
Websites of systems presented elsewhere on our site
More specialized systems that may be of interest

 

Systems with twelve vertical staff positions per octave (chromatic staff)

 

Ambrose Piano Tabs by Russell Ambrose
Website. See criteria 7 and 8, and comment about Klavar below. Formerly known as "keyPlay" at keyPlay.co.uk

 

Dodeka Notation by Jacques-Daniel Rochat
Website. See criteria 1, 2, and 17.

 

Drielijn Notation by Pierre Hendriks
Website (Netherlands). See criterion 11.

 

Hass Notation by Peter Hass
Website, (Denmark). See criteria 9 and 15.

Hass notation uses a five-line, pitch-proportional chromatic staff whose lines are spaced three semitones (a minor third) apart. Three noteheads shapes are used: an oval on lines, and downward and upward triangles in the spaces. This regularly alternating pattern of three noteheads corresponds directly to the three rows of a chromatic button accordion, which has an isomorphic layout. The staff does not cycle at the octave (criterion 9). The traditional treble and bass clefs are replaced by an E and an O clef, respectively. As in traditional notation, each of these clefs gives a different set of note names to the staff lines. (A note on the lower staff is an octave and a major sixth lower than the note at the same position on the upper staff.) An unusual property of the system is that the majority of the positions on each staff are the same as in traditional notation (as long as one applies the necessary sharps and flats in traditional notation). The stem is horizontally centered on the notehead, rather than placed at the left or right as in traditional notation. Rhythmic notation is traditional. Pitch nomenclature uses traditional German pitch names for the naturals (with B for the pitch a whole step below C, and H for a half-step below C), and the new names O, S, V, and I for the traditional C#, D#, F#, and G#.

 

I-Accord Music Notation by Saieb Khalil
MNP Wiki Page. See criterion 8. The staff has three lines per octave, corresponding to the notes of the tonic triad. Thus the staff uses relative pitches rather than absolute pitches, similarly to Thumline. There are two forms of the staff: one for major keys and the other for minor. (The inventor's description does not state how the system deals with modulation or with music in which the key is ambiguous.) The diatonic pitches are depicted by oval noteheads, and the chromatic pitches by half-ovals (optionally replaceable by hollow triangles). Traditional duration symbols can be used.

 

Klavar Music Notation (Klavarscribo) by Cornelis Pot
Wikipedia Page, Klavar Music Foundation of Great Britain, Klavar Foundation of the Netherlands, Klavar Vereniging Nederland (Dutch Klavar Union), KlavarScore website. See criteria 8 and 13 -- Klavar almost meets 8, but the staff is not quite pitch-proportional, because it mirrors the piano keyboard, whose white keys divide the octave into seven equal steps. Note that there are three variants of Klavar featured on our site: Pot's own 6-6 Klavar, Jean de Buur's Mirck Version, and Tadeusz Wójcik's Isomorph Notation. See also software for Klavar.

 

Meloz Music Tablature by Jerald Lepinski
See criterion 8, and comment about Klavar above. The website (http://www.meloz.com) no longer exists.

 

Numbered Notes by Jason MacCoy
Website. See criterion 17. Places numbers (1-12) in front of each note to help with note identification and interval calculation. See also the only notes version and the only numbers version on our site.

 

NUME (New Understanding of Musical Expression) by Mike Ellis
Website. See criteria 10 and 15. Uses an alternative symbol system of noteheads for rhythmic notation.

 

SuperMusic by Ernest Moore Hume
Link to Book. See criteria 8 and 15.

 

Symmetrisch Chromatisches System (SCS) by Robert Doll
See criteria 10 and 15. The website (http://www.scs-rad.de) no longer exists, formerly in German and English.

 

Systems with six vertical staff positions per octave (two pitches per position)

See criterion 8 for all of the notation systems in this group. They are all 6-6 systems since they group the 12 chromatic pitches into two whole-tone scales. As such, they have a certain amount of isomorphism, but do not have full pitch proportionality (criterion 8).

 

Black White Notation (BWN) by C.J. Wang
Website (2011). See criterion 8. Uses a six-degree staff rather than either a pitch-proportional twelve-degree chromatic staff, or a traditional staff. Hollow and solid noteheads are used to help indicate pitch, otherwise rhythm notation is similar to traditional notation.

 

Chromatic Pairs by Fernando Terra
Wiki Page (October 2011). See criterion 8.

 

Equiton Notation by Rodney Fawcett
Wiki Page. See criterion 8. Published by Fawcett in Zurich in 1958, with a more recent version by Mark Gould (2004). A system with an innovative and comprehensive approach to rhythmic notation. It uses a six-degree staff rather than either a pitch-proportional twelve-degree chromatic staff, or a traditional diatonic staff.

 

Howe-Way Music Notation by Hilbert A. Howe
Wiki Page (1964). See criterion 8. Uses a six-line staff that spans two octaves, a six-degree-per-octave staff with three lines and spaces per octave. Each line or space represents two of the twelve pitches of the chromatic scale. The two pitches appearing on a given line or space are distinguished by having black or white noteheads.

 

Systems with non-standard diatonic staves

See criterion 8 for all the notation systems in this group.

 

Leszer Notation by Eduardo Terol
Website. See criterion 8. Uses a non-standard diatonic staff that cycles on the octave.

 

Classic Nydana Notation by Dan Lindgren
Website. See criterion 8. Uses a non-standard diatonic staff that cycles on the octave. See also Chromatic Nydana Notation.

 

Systems with other types of non-standard staves

See criterion 8 for all the notation systems in this group.

 

Finkeys Notation System by Victor Mataele
Link to Patents. See criteria 8, 9, and 3. Pitches are represented by the numbers 1-9 followed by the letters X, Y, and Z (C is 1 and B is Z). Time is represented on the vertical axis. Duration is indicated with colors. (See Criterion 7.) The horizontal axis does not represent pitch but finger number, so it is divided into ten columns, five per hand. (See criteria 8 and 9.) The music therefore has a different appearance for different instruments, as well as for different ways of fingering a passage on the same instrument. (See criterion 3.)

 

Hamburg Music Notation by Robert Elisabeth Key
MNP Wiki Page. See criterion 8. (Note that "Robert Elisabeth Key" is a pseudonym.) Uses a series of numbers and letters (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B) rather than noteheads, to represent the twelve notes of the chromatic scale. The letters are used in order to avoid having to use numbers with double digits.

 

Systems that do not use a staff

 

3JCNGUYEN Music Notation by Thomas Nguyen
Website. See criterion 8. A note is represented by a lower-case letter for the pitch class (a through g), preceded by the note's octave and followed by the note's duration (for example, 4c1 for a quarter note on Middle C). Sharps, flats, and naturals are indicated by +, -, and o respectively. Rests are represented by numbers without letters (for example, 0.5 for an eighth rest). Durations of notes can be written as decimal fractions (for example, 1.5 for a dotted quarter) or ratios (for example, 3/4 for a dotted eighth). A group of notes that would be slurred in traditional notation is instead enclosed in parentheses. All notes are written at the same elevation.

 

NoteTrace by Enrique Prieto
Website. See criteria 2, 7, and 13. Notes are represented by horizontal line segments (called note traces) whose length is proportional to duration, as in a piano-roll notation. (There are no explicit duration symbols; see criterion 13.) A note trace is typically attached to a "reference head." The reference head looks rather like a notehead in other systems, but instead of representing a note it is a guide that aids in identifying the pitches of nearby notes, as there are no staff lines. A reference head has one of four shapes. There are three vertical positions at which a note trace can attach to a reference head: at the head's bottom, middle, or top. This 3 x 4 pattern is also reflected in a correlated system of nomenclature for pitches, intervals, and chords. NoteTrace generally uses shaded horizontal bands in the background behind the notes to aid with pitch orientation.

 

Systems that use the traditional diatonic staff

See criteria 8 and 9 for all the notation systems in this group.

 

Amadeus Musique
Website. See criteria 8 and 9.

 

Cleanotation by Clark Battle
Website. See criteria 8 and 9.

 

iCanPiano Notes by Ophir Atar
Website. See criteria 8 and 9. Formerly known as "Prima Vista Notes".

 

Shape Note Notation
See criteria 8 and 9.
Sacred Harp and Shape Note singing (fasola.org) and Shape Note Bibliography by John Bealle.
Sacred Harp Singing and Samples of Musical Notation by Warren Steel.

 

Simplified Music Notation by Peter Hayes George
Website. See criteria 8 and 9.

 

Websites of systems presented elsewhere on our site

Chromatic 6-6 Notation by Johannes Beyreuther (German Site)

MUTO Music Notation (MUTO Music Method Foundation) (Japanese Site)

Thumline Music Notation (Thumtronics) by Jim Plamondon.

TwinNote Music Notation by Paul Morris

Ailler-Brennink Notation (Chroma Institute) by Albert Brennink. Website no longer exists (http://www.islandnet.com/~chroma/)

Bilinear Music Notation (Spectral Music) by Jose Sotorrio. Website no longer exists (http://www.spectralmusic.com/).

More specialized systems that may be of interest

Tablature, and a Novel Guitar Tablature by Michael Harris

Braille Music Notation, and Opus Technologies offering software, print, and braille materials for learning and using braille music notation.