lilypond-user
[Top][All Lists]
Advanced

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: what about simplifying music notation?


From: Michael Ellis
Subject: Re: what about simplifying music notation?
Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2011 09:10:34 -0400



On Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 1:43 AM, David Rogers <address@hidden> wrote:
* Marc Weber <address@hidden> [2011-03-14 04:01]:


-- O -- (O is the body of a note here)
-- O --

the interval between both pitches depends on the location.
Why?

Why should e-g be different from g - h ?

Wouldn't it be easier to assign notes (c,d,e,..) natural numbers?
then define

could be:
---O- nr 16
---O- nr 12
---O- nr 8
---O- nr 4
---O- nr 0

to be always 4 semitones?

Then many tasks such as transposing music to a different key would
become a simple math operation: simply add a number.

Many musicians who play occasionally only would benefit a lot.

Has anyone else thought about this before?



Sure, various people have come up with several interesting and
useful (at least potentially useful) systems. I think in the end the
trick is not so much coming up with a good system as getting people to
adopt it. The "installed base" (to mis-use a term) of traditional
notation is very large, and people who already know any system at all
are reluctant to learn another unless it will bring them large and
immediate benefits.

In other words, your system is good but everybody will ignore you
anyway. Sad, and not ideal, but I think it's true.


@Marc The website below may be of interest. It has a number of alternative music notation systems that have been proposed as replacements for traditional notation.  

http://musicnotation.org/musicnotations/index.html 

Many of them are quite clever but I think David's comment is correct.  It's extremely difficult to get people to abandon what they've spent years learning.  

Cheers,
Mike

reply via email to

[Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread]