Evolution of Music
How Modern Music Notation Evolved
To understand why Numbered Notes is a unique and effective solution, it is important to understand the evolution of western music notation. The legacy of accidentals, key signatures and inconsistent note assignments related to the treble and bass staves make modern notation overly complex.
Early Staff Design with 7 NotesEarly written music only had 7 "lettered-notes" written on a 4 line staff. It included the letters A to G, and typically began its order with the letter C going C,D,E,F,G,A and B. Notes were written on and between staff lines. |
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 4 Line staff, 7 notes A-G |
Modern Staff with AccidentalsAs music continued to evolve, musicians designed more sophisticated harmonies that resulted in sounds that existed between the original 7 notes. To indicate these sounds in the notation sequence they used small marks located by the original notes that either raised or lowered the note by one half step. This was an identifiable way to modify a system originally only designed for 7 notes. These symbols are now called accidentals and include Sharps, Flats and Neutrals. |
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5 Line Staff, Notes A-G with Accidentals in same positions! |
This type of adjustment is analogous to grading systems that offer variations like A-, A or A+. It is interesting to note that letter grades are often converted back into numbers resulting in a "Grade Point Average".
Key-SignaturesEach note has a related Key-Signature that defines what notes are modified by the accidentals and which are not. This system creates a staggering 15 different possibilities that must be visually interpreted and memorized to read music. |
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Different notes on Treble and BassNotes are assigned differently on the Treble and Bass staves requiring them to be memorize independently. |
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In short, current music notation is based on a series of evolutionary steps that allowed for more advanced harmonies but did not redesign the system for a clear way to represent all 12 notes in the octave.
Lettered notation written inconsistently on the Grand Staff is the problem...
What is the way to fix it?
