Introduction to Notation Systems

This lesson is part of the Fundamentals of Sound & Music module.

Objectives

• Students will be familiar with and understand the basic concepts of guitar tablature, lead sheet notation, braille music notation, and electronic notation formats such as Standard MIDI File and MusicXML.

Resources

Readings

Notation Explained

• Handout on Prescriptive/Descriptive and Etic/Emic notations
• A. Granade, "Cracking the Code: What Notation Can Tell Us About Our Musical Values" (Open Access Musicology, forthcoming)
• C. Rowbury, "Music Notation: What is it good for and why does it matter?" (From the Front of the Choir Blog, 2011)
• C. Rowbury, "The song is not the sheet music!" (From the Front of the Choir Blog, 2010)
• C. Rowbury, "Using sheet music to teach and learn songs: the Pros and Cons" (From the Front of the Choir Blog, 2011)
• "Specifying the information you want." (Global Notation Website, 2020)

Histories of Western Notations

• J. Bennett. "How was musical notation invented? A brief history." (How To Classical Blog, 2017)
• V. Williams. "The Evolution of music notation." (My Music Theory Blog)
• D. Hall, "The Art of Visualizing Music."

Individual Notation Types

• Western notations through history
  • Chant Notation:
  • Rhythmic Modes
  • Protonotation: Shaffer et al. "Protonotation" (Open Music Theory)
  • Figured Bass Notation
  • Sacred Harp Shape Note Singing
  • Drum Notation: "Drum Notation." (Drum Book 2013)
• Common popular music notations:
  • Jazz Chart Notation: "How to read jazz chords and lead sheets." (Jazz Guitar Online)
  • Slash Notation
  • Nashville Notation: "Nashville Number System." (Guitar Thinker)
• Tablatures (historical and worldwide):
  • Guitar Tablature: "Guitar Tab Explained." (Music Notes Now Blog)
  • Chinese Gugin Tablature: P. Chang "PeiyouQin"
• Other World Musics
  • Ancient Greek notation (i.e. Epitaph of Seikilos: Wikipedia Article)
  • Gamelan cipher notation
  • Chinese Gongche Notation
• Various modalities
  • Braille notation
  • MIDI signals
  • XML (or other computer-coded notations)
  • DAW visualizations
  • Dance notation

Tools

• Jazz Chord Charts
• Ultimate Guitar Tabs
• Gendhing Jawi: Javanese Gamelan Notation Database
• Sumarsam: Introduction to Gamelan
• MIDI Monitor (Software; Mac only)
• MIDIOX (Software; Windows only)
• Audacity (Software)

Class Activities

• Discussion and demonstration of different notation systems and their individual purposes, strengths and weaknesses
• Transcription of a simple melody in guitar tablature (given fretboard diagrams) and braille music notation
• Demonstration of the creation of various electronic notation formats
• Demonstration of MIDI signals using MIDI monitor software
• Listening and "quick" transcription of musical examples: compare to score and discuss differences based on notation's function.
• In-class interpretation of various notations on different instruments.
• If you have a Javanese gamelan: Have students perform from gamelan notation and illustrate non-written practices

Assignments

• Notating short melodies in different notation systems
• Transcription assignment: ask students to transcribe examples from various musical traditions with different aims and/or given different parameters (i.e. "notate the pitch parameter.")