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Exploring Alternative Music Notation Systems

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Numbered Notes, Notes-Only Version
by Jason MacCoy, 2009

Chromatic scale from C to C. C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A A#/Ab B C

See more scales, intervals, and melodies with the AudioVisualizer.

The image above shows the “Notes-Only” version of the Numbered Notes system. As its title indicates, this system emphasizes the use of numbers for identifying pitches, but this version omits the numbers. (The Numbers-Only version uses the numbers themselves as noteheads, and a third version presented on the Numbered Notes website, has numbers printed in front of each notehead, the way accidentals are in traditional notation, as an optional learning aid.)

Rhythmic notation is the same as in traditional notation.  The Numbered Notes staff is rare in that it spaces its lines a minor third apart. (Hass notation, Drielijn notation, and Lautus notation also have this minor-third spacing. Minor-third spacing was discussed by Siemen Terpstra, one of the evaluators during the MNMA’s Research Project. A minor-third-spaced staff has been described by Peter Hass, and also on the Music Notation Project Forum, as a good notation for the chromatic button accordion, whose isomorphic button layout has pitches arranged in rows of minor thirds, a 4-4-4 pattern.)

Website: http://numberednotes.com/

First Introduced: 2009, Numbered Notes Website

Source: Jason MacCoy, Numbered Notes Website

Similar Notations: Untitled by Robert Stuckey, which also uses numbers for noteheads.

On the version that has numbers printed in front of each notehead, see our criterion 17.

→ Next Two Notation Systems →

Chromatic scale from C to C in Numbered Notes, Numbers-Only Version by Jason MacCoy C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A A#/Ab B C

Numbered Notes, Numbers-Only by Jason MacCoy

Chromatic scale from C to C in Lautus Notation by Bruce Allen Dickey C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A A#/Ab B C

Lautus Notation by Bruce Allen Dickey

← Previous Two Notation Systems ←

Chromatic scale from C to C in Isomorph Notation by Tadeusz Wójcik C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A A#/Ab B C

Isomorph Notation by Tadeusz Wójcik

Chromatic scale from C to C in DA Notation by Rich Reed C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A A#/Ab B C

DA Notation by Rich Reed

Notation System Groups

  • Lines a Whole Step Apart, 5 Lines per Octave
  • Lines a Whole Step Apart, 4 or 3 Lines per Octave
  • Lines a Whole Step Apart, 6 Lines per Octave
  • Lines a Whole Step and Major 3rd Apart, 4 per Octave
  • Lines a Minor 3rd Apart, 3 or 4 Lines per Octave
  • Lines a Major 3rd Apart, 3 Lines per Octave
  • Lines a Major 3rd Apart, 2 Lines per Octave
  • Lines a Major 3rd Apart, 2 per Octave, Compact Staff
  • Lines a Tritone Apart, 2 per Octave, or 1 Line per Octave
  • 7-5 Line Pattern, 3, 5, or 6 Lines per Octave
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