3 ms·

There are a few alternatives, though most are instrument-specific. For piano, there's Klavarskribo. If you've ever played Guitar Hero/Rockband, it's a bit like

There are a few alternatives, though most are instrument-specific. For piano, there's Klavarskribo. If you've ever played Guitar Hero/Rockband, it's a bit like that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klavarskribo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klavarskribo For many fretted stringed instruments, there's tablature. One line per string, and instead of abstract squiggles you get numbers that represent fret positions. They stack easily for chords, and there's intuitive notation for picking styles and such. E.g. sliding from the second to the fifth fret on the A string would look like: E |---------- B |---------- G |---------- D |---------- A |---2/5---- E |---------- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablature I see your point about a truly different system but, as music is basically sound through time, I'm not sure how else it could be notated if not linearly.

soundwave106 10y ago
Most of the alternatives in use I can think come in genres where improvisation is far more important than playing exactly, and as such only a reduced feature set is needed. Examples include the above mentioned tablature, solfege (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solf%C3%A8ge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solf%C3%A8ge), Roman numeral notation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_numeral_analysis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_numeral_analysis), chord charts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chord_chart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chord_chart), or lead sheets (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_sheet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_sheet). Full notation in the pop and jazz genres are rare. For Western classical, honestly, considering the information included in standard notation -- rhythmic complexity, phrasings, special symbols for various afflictions, etc. -- it would be really hard to replicate this in a system that's both easy for humans and computers to read. (Think if musicians had to use something like the piano roll found in most DAWs...)

soundwave106 10y ago

Most of the alternatives in use I can think come in genres where improvisation is far more important than playing exactly, and as such only a reduced feature set is needed. Examples include the above mentioned tablature, solfege (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solf%C3%A8ge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solf%C3%A8ge), Roman numeral notation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_numeral_analysis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_numeral_analysis), chord charts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chord_chart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chord_chart), or lead sheets (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_sheet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_sheet). Full notation in the pop and jazz genres are rare. For Western classical, honestly, considering the information included in standard notation -- rhythmic complexity, phrasings, special symbols for various afflictions, etc. -- it would be really hard to replicate this in a system that's both easy for humans and computers to read. (Think if musicians had to use something like the piano roll found in most DAWs...)