Music Notation

Prior to the invention of sound recording, the most reliable way to share and archive music was with music notation: a system of symbols for recording instructions to performing a particular piece. Not all musical cultures use music notation, and systems of notation vary in form and specificity.

A photograph of the sheet music for the jazz chart `Misty` on a music stand, with the blurry shapes of a hand and the neck and mouthpiece of an alto saxophone in the extreme foreground. An alto saxophone part for the 1954 jazz standard Misty by American composer and pianist Errol Garner. Though even amateur composers can create professionally engraved scores with scorewriting software, jazz pieces are typically notated by hand, or using music fonts to replicate manuscript, to evoke a more authentic feel for the musician.