4 ms·
> I always wondered why musicians keep up with the > conventional musical notation system, and haven't come > up with something better (maybe a job for a HNer?)
by breadbox 9y ago
> I always wondered why musicians keep up with the
> conventional musical notation system, and haven't come
> up with something better (maybe a job for a HNer?).
Before starting down that path, I would recommend familiarizing yourself with the wide range of music notations that already exist and continue to be used, and then the ridiculously varying plethora of failed alternative music notations that have been invented over the centuries, and why they failed to see wider adoption.
And, of course, it's fascinating to study the evolution of the existing "standard" music notation, and see the changes that have been adopted, and the ones that weren't. For all its apparent stasis, it has definitely evolved over the centuries, in response to the changing needs of musicians.
- ascendantlogic 9y agoThat doesn't jive with the "I can do better" mantra around these parts. I say that both sincerely and sarcastically.
- Pyxl101 9y agoThey are not saying you cannot be better. They're just saying to respect what came before and learn from it as you devise the better scheme.
- Moru 9y agohttps://xkcd.com/927/ https://xkcd.com/927/
- mejari 9y agoCloser to this: https://xkcd.com/1831/ https://xkcd.com/1831/
- erikpukinskis 9y agoJibe means to be in accordance. Jive is a dialect and a dance. FYI. I realize we will probably lose these words, but for now.....
- breadbox 9y agoI get your point, but at the same time I would say that it's often much harder to "do better" when you don't even have a clear idea what it is you're trying to improve upon.
- pcsanwald 9y agoAgree 100% with all this. Modern drum notation is probably the easiest case to look at with regards to evolution of "western notation", with jazz chord symbols being another. Some other reasons why musical notation prevails: - There's a huge switching cost, as much of the world's written music is in some form of "western notation". Being able to read standard notation unlocks a huge wealth of knowelege from books, etc. - Standard notation is one of the most flexible ways to create readable music, playable and easy to read across a wide variety of instruments and ranges (clefs, transposing score, etc). - It's a common language, in the way that a programming language is. Some of the conventions may be confusing to outsides (i.e. why is the term "puts" used for printing in ruby? this seems normal to any ruby hacker but is completely unintuitive to a layperson). Once these conventions are learned, they provide common reference point. Like a lot of languages, it's far from perfect, but much like spoken language, more likely to evolve than be replaced. - There's almost no motivation for anyone to replace standard notation. Notation isn't required for all forms of music (many great jazz and blues musicians don't read music), and for the forms of music where it is required, it's by far the quickest and most efficient way to communicate the information. In summary, I think the question of "why can't we do better" is valid, but you could ask the same question about programming in C. There are good reasons to write C in 2017, and there are still good reasons to write musical notation.
- pklausler 9y agoWhat great jazz musicians don't read music?
- pcsanwald 9y agoWes Montgomery, Erroll Garner, Django Reinhart and obviously Roland Kirk are probably the most well known that couldn't read at all. There are many, many more jazz musicians that were/are very poor sight readers.
- pklausler 9y agoSure, but those guys are all (sadly) long gone, and the parent comment said "don't", not "didn't".