Ноты как называются и пишутся

Урок 2. Нотная грамота

Теория музыки невозможна без нотной грамоты. В этом вы уже успели убедиться, когда изучали на первом уроке ступени звукоряда. Вы уже знаете, что основным ступеням звукоряда присвоены те же названия, что и нотам, и понимаете что такое понижение ступени, т.е. ноты.

Этого достаточно, чтобы приступить к изучению нотной грамоты «с нуля». Если нотная грамота вам знакома, все равно просмотрите материал урока с целью убедиться, что вы ничего не пропустили, когда изучали нотную грамоту ранее.

Цель урока: познакомиться с нотной грамотой «с нуля», получить представление о паузах и длительностях нот, их расположении на нотном стане и других связанных с этой темой понятиях.

Это нужно, чтобы вы могли в будущем самостоятельно разбирать ноты, записанные на нотном стане, и ориентироваться в табах и аккордах, если вам попадется аккордовая запись мелодии либо табулатура.

Содержание:

• Кто придумал ноты
• Расположение нот на нотном стане
• Знаки альтерации
• Ключи на нотном стане
• Длительности нот
• Паузы
• Тест на проверку знаний

Заметим, что большинство современных музыкальных сайтов чаще предлагают для гитары именно аккорды либо табулатуру (табы) к песне, нежели традиционную запись на нотном стане. Для начинающих музыкантов нужно уточнить, что аккорды и табы – это те же самые ноты, только записанные в другом виде, т.е. в другом виде музыкальной нотации, поэтому выучить ноты нужно обязательно. В общем, приступаем!

Кто придумал ноты

Начнем с небольшого исторического экскурса. Считается, что первым человеком, кому пришла в голову идея обозначать высоту звука знаками, был флорентийский монах и композитор Гвидо д’Ареццо. Это случилось в первой половине 11 века. Гвидо учил монастырских певчих различным церковным песнопениям, а чтобы добиться слаженного звучания хора, придумал систему знаков, указывающих на высоту звука.

Это были квадратики, расположенные на четырех параллельных линиях. Чем более высокий звук нужно было издать, тем выше располагался квадратик. В его нотации было всего 6 нот, а названия они получили от начальных слогов строк Гимна, воспевающего Иоанна Крестителя: Ut, Resonare, Mira, Famuli, Solve, Labii. Несложно заметить, что 5 из них – «ре», «ми», «фа», «соль», «ля» – используются и сегодня. К слову, музыку к гимну написал сам Гвидо д’Ареццо.

Позже в нотный ряд добавилась нота «си», в нотный стан – пятая линейка, скрипичный и басовый ключи, знаки альтерации, которые мы сегодня будем изучать. В эпоху Средневековья, когда зарождалась буквенная нотация, звукоряд было принято начинать с ноты «ля», за которой закрепилось обозначение в виде первой буквы латинского алфавита А. Соответственно, следующей за ней ноте «си» досталась вторая буква алфавита В.

Поскольку процесс формирования способов записи звуков развивался в разных странах параллельными курсами, возникли разные варианты нотаций. Так, в немецкой музыкальной традиции дополнительной ноте «си» присвоили букву Н, следующую за буквой G. Это связано с тем, что у немцев буква В была уже занята нотой «си-бемоль», которую располагали сразу за нотой «ля».

Современное понимание звукоряда и основных его ступеней сложилось в 17 веке, а звук, соответствующий по высоте «си-бемолю», долгое время считался базовым элементом музыкальной системы, т.е. не пониженным и не повышенным. Сегодня общепринятой считается система нотации в виде C, D, E, F, G, A, B. Хотя и обозначение ноты «си» в виде Н тоже можно встретить. Мы уже начали и далее продолжим изучать системы нотации и записи нот на нотном стане, принятые в современном мире музыки.

Расположение нот на нотном стане

Вы уже знаете, что нота – это музыкальный звук. Ноты отличаются по высоте, и за каждой нотой закреплено свое обозначение. Также вы уже поняли, что нотный стан представляет собой 5 параллельных линий, на которых расположены ноты. За каждой нотой закреплено свое место. Собственно, именно так и можно идентифицировать ноты, глядя на обозначения в нотном стане. Теперь давайте совместим эти знания и посмотрим, как выглядит нотный стан с нотами в самом общем виде (на значки слева пока не смотрим):

Нотный стан (он же нотоносец) – это те самые 5 параллельных линий, которые вы видите на картинке. Кружочки на нотах – это условные обозначения нот. На верхнем нотоносце вы видите ноты для 1-й октавы, на нижнем – ноты для малой октавы.

Точкой отсчета в обоих случаях является нота «до» 1-й октавы, и для нее предусмотрена добавочная линейка. Разница в том, что на верхнем нотоносце ноты идут снизу вверх, поэтому нота «до» 1-й октавы находится внизу. На нижнем нотоносце ноты идут сверху вниз, поэтому нота «до» 1-й октавы находится сверху.

Однако мы помним, что музыкальные звуки охватывают намного больший диапазон, чем малая и первая октавы. Поэтому, чтобы получить полное представление о расположении нот на нотном стане, вам нужно изучить более подробную схему размещения нот:

Самые внимательные из вас увидели, что и на подробной схеме мы видим не все октавы. Чтобы увидеть правильное расположение всех нот, нам снова понадобятся добавочные линейки. Посмотрите, как это выглядит, на примере контроктавы:

А теперь вы уже готовы к тому, чтобы выучить расположение всех нот на нотном стане. Для удобства скоординируем изображение нотного стана с клавиатурой фортепиано, которую вы уже успели рассмотреть, когда проходили урок №1. Обратите внимание, где находится первая нота «до» 1-й октавы относительно линий верхнего и нижнего нотоносца. Мы отметили ее красным цветом:

У большинства из тех, кто видит всю эту картину впервые, возникает вопрос: а как же это запомнить?!.. В общем-то, запомнить вам нужно только расположение первой ноты «до» 1-й октавы, а все остальные ноты располагаются в определенной логической последовательности относительно первой ноты «до».

Более легкому запоминанию нот поможет упражнение «Лезгинка». Как ни удивительно, к музыке оно никакого отношения не имеет, а предназначено для развития координации работы правого и левого полушарий головного мозга у детей [А. Сиротюк, 2015]. Представьте, что кулак или ладошка с поджатыми пальцами – это кружок для обозначения ноты, а прямая кисть руки, которая упирается в середину ребра ладони – это добавочная линейка нотоносца:

Так вы запомните, что добавочная линейка рассекает пополам кружок, обозначающий ноту «до»:

Дальше будет проще. Ноту «ре» можно представить как кулак, расположенный над вытянутой кистью. Следующая нота «ми» будет рассечена пополам вытянутой кистью, но кисть уже будет изображать не добавочную линию, а нижнюю из пяти линий нотоносца. Для ноты «фа» мы поднимаем кулак над линией, а ноту «соль» рассекаем вытянутой кистью, которая теперь изображает вторую снизу линию нотоносца. Думается, принцип построения нот вы поняли. Аналогично можно выстроить ноты, идущие вниз относительно «до» 1-й октавы.

Если вы хотите освоить специальные мнемотехники, которые помогут запоминать любую информацию, записывайтесь на наш курс «Мнемотехники», и за короткий срок (чуть больше месяца) вы поймете, что никаких проблем с памятью у вас нет. Есть лишь более эффективные техники запоминания, нежели те, которыми вы пользовались ранее.

Итак, с расположением нот на нотном стане, думаем, в целом все понятно. Самые внимательные уже заметили, что при рассмотренной выше расстановке нот места для диезов и бемолей, т.е. повышения и понижения ноты, уже не остается. И вот для этого нам нужны знаки альтерации в нотах.

Знаки альтерации

В конце предыдущего урока вы уже выучили символы диеза (♯) и бемоля (♭). Вы уже поняли, что если нота повышается на полутон, к ней добавляют значок диеза, если понижается на полутон – значок бемоля. Так, повышенная нота «соль» будет записана как G♯, а пониженная нота «соль» как G♭. Диез и бемоль называются знаками альтерации, т.е. изменения. Слово происходит от позднелатинского alterare, что переводится как «изменять».

Повышение на 2 полутона обозначается двойным, т.е. дубль-диезом, понижение на 2 полутона обозначается двойным, т.е. дубль-бемолем. Для дубль-диеза есть специальный значок, похожий на крестик , но, т.к. его трудно подобрать на клавиатуре, может использоваться обозначение ♯♯ или просто две решетки ##. Чтобы обозначить дубль-бемоль, пишут либо 2 значка ♭♭, либо латинские буквы bb.

Чтобы обозначить повышение или понижение ноты на нотном стане, значок диеза или бемоля располагается либо непосредственно перед нотой, либо, если ту или иную ноту нужно снизить или повысить во всем произведении, в начале нотного стана с нотами к произведению. Для случаев, когда изменение ноты предусмотрено на протяжении всего произведения, за символами диезов и бемолей закреплены определенные места на нотном стане:

Уточним для надписи на картинке, что под словосочетанием «в скрипичном ключе» подразумевается нотоносец для нот 1-5 октав, а под словами «в басовом ключе» – нотоносец для всех остальных октав от малой до субконтроктавы. Чуть позже мы расскажем про скрипичный и басовый ключи подробнее. Пока поговорим о том, как запомнить расположение диезов и бемолей на нотоносце.

В принципе, это несложно, если вы успели выучить расположение значков, обозначающих ноты. Так, значок диеза располагается ровно на той линии нотоносца, что и та нота, которую требуется повышать. Для нотоносца в скрипичном ключе вам нужно запомнить, где находятся ноты в диапазоне от «ля» 1-й октавы до «соль» 2-й октавы, и вы легко поймете закономерность размещения диезов:

Точно такая закономерность наблюдается при расположении бемолей. Они тоже находятся на тех строчках, что и ноты, к которым они относятся. Здесь в качестве ориентира используются ноты в диапазоне от «фа» 1-й октавы до «ми» 2-й октавы:

С диезами и бемолями в басовом ключе действуют абсолютно те же закономерности. Для ориентирования в диезах вам следует запомнить расположение нот от «соль» малой октавы до «ля» большой октавы:

Для ориентирования в бемолях нужно запомнить расположение нот от «ми» малой октавы до «фа» большой октавы:

Как вы уже заметили, для расположения диезов и бемолей в начале произведения возле ключа – скрипичного или басового – задействуются только основные линейки нотоносца. Такие знаки альтерации называются ключевыми.

Знаки альтерации, относящиеся только к одной ноте, называются случайными или встречными, действуют в пределах одного такта и располагаются непосредственно перед этой нотой.

А сейчас давайте разберемся, что же делать, если нужно отменить диез или бемоль, установленный в начале нотного стана. Такая необходимость может возникнуть при модуляции, т.е. при переходе в другую тональность. Это модный прием, часто применяемый в эстрадной музыке, когда последний припев или куплет и припев исполняется на 1-2 полутона выше, чем предыдущие куплеты и припевы.

Для этого существует еще один знак альтерации: бекар. Его функция – отмена действия диезов и бемолей. Бекары тоже подразделяются на случайные и ключевые.

Функции бекара:

• Случайный бекар отменяет действие случайных знаков альтерации, ставится в том месте и перед той нотой, для которой нужно отменить действие диеза или бемоля, и действует в пределах такта.
• Ключевой бекар отменяет действие диезов и бемолей, указанных в начале произведения, т.е. ключевых. Он действует до следующей смены ключевого знака либо, если такового не будет, до конца произведения.

Чтобы было нагляднее, посмотрите, где располагается случайный бекар на нотном стане:

А теперь посмотрите, где располагается ключевой бекар, и вы сразу поймете разницу:

Уточним, что запись на нотном стане применяется для гитары и фортепиано, и любых других музыкальных инструментов, а вот табы, которые вы видите на предыдущей картинке под нотным станом, используются для гитары.

В гитарных табах 6 линий по количеству струн гитары. Верхняя линия обозначает самую тонкую струну, которая будет нижней, если вы возьмете гитару в руки. Нижняя линия означает самую толстую гитарную струну, которая является верхней, когда вы держите гитару в руках. Цифры указывают, на каком ладу зажимать ту струну, на которой написана цифра.

Применительно к иллюстрации по случайному бекару мы видим, что сначала нужно было играть «до-диез», который как раз находится на втором ладу 2-й струны. После бекара, т.е. отмены диеза, нужно играть чистую ноту «до», которая находится на первом ладу 2-й струны. Финальный урок нашего курса будет посвящен игре на различных музыкальных инструментах, в том числе на гитаре, и мы расскажем, как легко и просто запомнить расположение нот на гитарном грифе.

Подведем итог и сведем воедино всю информацию по знакам альтерации на следующей картинке:

Если вы уже умеете играть на каком-нибудь музыкальном инструменте, а сейчас решили подтянуть теорию, рекомендуем прочитать параграф 11 «Знаки альтерации» в учебнике Варфоломея Вахромеева «Элементарная теория музыки», где есть примеры разбора нотной записи [В. Вахромеев, 1961]. Мы же переходим к выполнению ранее данных обещаний и расскажем, что же такое ключи применительно к нотному стану.

Ключи на нотном стане

Мы ранее использовали словосочетания «в скрипичном ключе» и «в басовом ключе». Расскажем, что имеется в виду. Дело в том, что за каждой из линий нотоносца условно закреплена определенная звуковысотность. Ввиду того, что в мире существует множество музыкальных инструментов, издающих самые разные звуки, понадобились некие «точки отсчета» звуковысотности, и их роль отдали ключам.

Ключ выписывается так, чтобы линия, откуда стартует отсчет, пересекла его в главной точке. Таким способом ключ закрепляет за нотой, написанной на данной линии, точную высоту, относительно которой отсчитывается высотность и наименования прочих звуков. Различают несколько разновидностей ключей.

Ключи – перечень:

• Скрипичный – так называемый ключ «Соль», закрепляет на 2-й линии высоту звука «соль» 1-й октавы. Главная точка расположена по центру спирали ключа и как бы «накручивается» на 2-ю линейку нотного стана.
• Басовый– так называемый ключ «Фа», закрепляет на 4-й линии высоту «фа» в малой октаве. 2 точки знака стоят сверху и снизу 4-й линии нотоносца, если вести отсчет снизу.
• Альтовый – так называемый ключ «До», закрепляет высоту «до» в 1-й октаве на 3-й линии, используется преимущественно для альтовых инструментов.
• Теноровый – тоже ключ «До», но уже на 4-й линии, используется для таких инструментов как фагот, виолончель и тромбон.

Давайте проиллюстрируем:

Заметим, что когда-то ключей «До» было больше. Ключ «До» на 1-й линии назывался сопрановым, на 2-й – меццо-сопрановым, на 5-й – баритоновым, а употреблялись они для вокальных партий соответственно указанным диапазонам. Вообще, разные ключи в нотах нужны, чтобы не делать добавочные линии нотоносца в избыточных количествах и облегчить восприятие нот. К слову, чтобы упростить чтение нот, используется ряд дополнительных обозначений, о которых мы сейчас поговорим.

Длительности нот

Когда на 1-м уроке мы изучали физические свойства звука, мы узнали, что для музыкального звука важной характеристикой является его длительность. Глядя на нотный стан, музыкант должен понимать не только то, какую ноту нужно сыграть, но и как долго она должна звучать.

Чтобы было проще ориентироваться, кружочки нот могут быть светлыми или темными (пустыми или заштрихованными), иметь дополнительные «хвостики», «палочки», «линии» и прочее. Глядя на эти нюансы, сразу понятно, целая это нота или половинная, или еще какая-либо. Осталось разобраться, что значит «целая» нота, «половинная» и т.д.

Как считать длительности:

1	Целая нота– тянется на равномерный отсчет «раз и 2 и 3 и 4 и» (звук «и» в конце произносится обязательно – это важно).
2	Половинная– тянется на отсчет «раз и 2 и».
3	Четвертная – тянется на «раз и».
4	Восьмая– тянется на «раз» или на звук «и», если восьмые идут подряд.
5	Шестнадцатая– успевает повториться дважды на слово «раз» или на звук «и».

Понятно, что считать можно с разной скоростью, поэтому для унификации счета используется специальное устройство: метроном. Там четко выверено расстояние между звуками и устройство как бы считает вместо вас. Сейчас существует бесчисленное множество программ с функцией метронома, как самостоятельных, так и имеющих данную опцию в составе других мобильных приложений для музыкантов.

В Google Play можно найти, к примеру, программу-метроном Soundbrenner, а можно скачать программу для настройки гитары Guitar Tuna, где в разделе «Инструменты» будет «Библиотека аккордов» и «Метроном» (не забудьте разрешить приложению доступ к микрофону). Далее давайте разберемся, как обозначается длительность нот.

Длительности (обозначения):

• Целая нота – светлый (незакрашенный) значок.
• Половинная – светлый (незакрашенный) значок + штиль (вертикальная линия).
• Четвертная– темный (заштрихованный) значок + штиль.
• Восьмая– темный (заштрихованный) значок + штиль с «флажком» (он же «хвостик»).
• Шестнадцатая– темный (заштрихованный) значок + штиль с двойным «хвостиком».
• Тридцать вторая – темный (заштрихованный) значок + штиль с тройным «флажком».
• Точки справа от ноты увеличивают долготу звука в 1,5 раза.

Думается, принцип понятен, а для наглядности предлагаем вам следующую иллюстрацию:

Если 8-е, 16-е, 32-е ноты идут подряд, их принято объединять в группы и не «пестрить» большим количеством «хвостиков» или «флажков». Для этого применяется так называемое «ребро». По количеству ребер можно сразу понять, какие именно ноты объединены в группу для проигрыша.

Объединение нот в группу:

• 1 ребро – восьмые.
• 2 ребра – шестнадцатые.
• 3 ребра – тридцать вторые.
• 4 ребра – шестьдесят четвертые.

Вот как это выглядит:

Обычно ноты объединяются внутри такта. Напомним, что такт – это ноты и сопутствующие им знаки между двумя вертикальными линиями, которые именуются тактовыми чертами:

Как вы заметили, штиль может смотреть наверх либо вниз. Тут есть свои закономерности.

Направление штиля:

• Для записи одной мелодической линии без моментов, когда звучат одновременно две ноты или больше, штили направляю вверх для нот, изображенных ниже середины нотного стана, и вниз для нот, нарисованных выше середины нотного стана. Штили нот на 3-й (средней) линии могут быть направлены и вверх, и вниз, но чаще их направляют вниз.
• Для записи двух мелодических линий, когда могут звучать несколько нот одновременно, штили для нот «верхней» мелодии смотрят вверх, для «нижней» мелодии – вниз.

Более подробную информацию про длительности нот можно найти у Вахромеева в «Элементарной теории музыки [В. Вахромеев, 1961].

И, наконец, в любой мелодии есть и звуки, и паузы между ними. Поговорим о них.

Паузы

Паузы измеряются по такому же принципу, как нотные длительности. Пауза точно так может быть целой, половинной и т.д. Однако пауза может длиться дольше, чем целая нота, и для таких случаев придуманы особые названия. Так, если пауза длится в 2 раза дольше, чем целая нота, ее называют бревис, если в 4 раза дольше – это лонга, в 8 раз – максима. Полный перечень названий с обозначениями можно увидеть в нижеследующей таблице:

Итак, на сегодняшнем уроке вы познакомились с нотной грамотой «с нуля», получили представление о знаках альтерации, написании нот, обозначении пауз и других связанных с этой темой понятиях. Думаем, что для одного задания этого более чем достаточно. Теперь осталось закрепить ключевые моменты урока с помощью проверочного теста.

Тест на усвоение материала урока

Если вы хотите проверить свои знания по теме данного урока, можете пройти небольшой тест, состоящий из нескольких вопросов. В каждом вопросе правильным может быть только 1 вариант. После выбора вами одного из вариантов, система автоматически переходит к следующему вопросу. На получаемые вами баллы влияет правильность ваших ответов и затраченное на прохождение время. Обратите внимание, что вопросы каждый раз разные, а варианты перемешиваются.

А теперь переходим к изучению гармонии в музыке.

← 1 Свойства звука3 Гармония в музыке →

В основных моментах, связанных с образованием звука мы разобрались. Теперь пришло время поговорить о более конкретных вещах, а если более конкретно – о нотном письме. Сегодня будем вникать в суть того, как выглядит нотное письмо, как читать ноты и т.д.

Ноты, длительности и их обозначения

Собственно, первое, что нам нужно усвоить в вопросе записи нот, это факт того, что нотное письмо – устоявшаяся система записи звуков при помощи специальных знаков – нот. То есть, иных вариантов нет и быть не может. Сам нотный знак (нота) обозначается кружком, который может быть либо полностью черным, либо пустым.

К кружочкам пририсовываются линии, вертикальные палочки (штили), а также хвосты и ребра. Все это придумано для компактности записи нот. Также к нотам пририсовывают горизонтальные линии, которые соединяют короткие по длительности ноты в группы.

Для того, чтобы понять, каким образом обозначается каждый конкретный звук, нужно посмотреть на нотный стан – пять параллельных полос, в которых записывают ноты. Линии отсчитываются снизу, а в начале нотного стана (каждой строки) ставится вертикальная черта. Точно такая же черта будет стоять и в конце строки, что логично.

Сами ноты записываются на линиях, а также между ними. Помимо основных линий, также применяются дополнительные короткие линии для отдельных (слишком низких или слишком высоких) нот. Дополнительные линии могут располагаться как под нотным станом, так и над ним. Вертикальные полосы приписываются к нотам с правой стороны, по направлению вверх или вниз. В зависимости от длительности звука, к штилям дорисовывают хвосты.

Длительность нот, как уже сказано в предыдущем абзаце, обозначается хвостами у штилей. Чем короче нота по своей длительности – тем больше хвостов имеется у ее обозначения. Разница в длительностях довольно проста: каждая последующая длительность звучит вдвое короче предыдущей. Помимо этого, каждая предыдущая длительность состоит из двух следующих длительностей.

Для упрощения понимания, стоит обратиться к математике. Представим, что целая нота – это единица. Дальнейшие ноты будут составлять половины (и прочие части) от целой ноты. То есть:

1 = 1/2 + 1/2 = 1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4 = 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 и т.д.

Аналогично можно принять целую ноту за цифру 4, если мы говорим о музыке, размер которой составляет 4/4.

Ключи

Все мы слышали о скрипичном ключе. Помимо него существуют и другие разновидности ключей: басовый, альтовый и т.д. Собственно, ключ нужен для того, чтобы человек, читающий ноты, имел представление того, какая высота звуков используется в рамках записанных нот. Каждый ключ можно сопоставить с октавами фортепиано. Другими словами, ключи нужны, чтобы избежать огромного количества добавленных линий во время записи музыки нотами.

Ключ ставится в начале нотного стана и обозначает высоту определенного звука. Скрипичный ключ также именуется Ключ Соль – его “завитушка” своим центром указывает на расположение ноты Соль первой октавы на нотном стане, т.е. получается, что нота Соль располагается на второй линии.

Басовый ключ (или Ключ Фа) своей точкой обозначает высоту звука Фа малой октавы. Альтовый ключ отсылает нас к ноте До первой октавы, которая находится на третьей линии. Также применяется Теноровый ключ, который также отсылает нас к ноте До, но для него она будет находиться на четвертой линии. Альтовый и теноровый ключи применяются для небольшого количества инструментов – альта, тромбона и виолончели, фагота и снова тромбона, соответственно.

Гитаристы используют скрипичный ключ, бас-гитаристы – басовый ключ, клавишники – скрипичный и басовый ключ.

Знаки альтерации

Мы уже говорили об альтерации звуков в прошлых статьях. Для тех, кто не помнит, напоминаю вкратце: альтерация отвечает за изменение высоты звука на полтона выше или ниже. Альтерация – понижение или повышение основной ступени – обозначается диезами, бемолями, дубль-диезами и дубль-бемолями, а также знаком бекара, который отменяет действие предыдущих знаков.

Знаки альтерации ставятся перед нотами по мере надобности, а также ставятся при ключе (справа от него). Знаки альтерации около нот действуют в рамках одной ноты, а вот знаки у ключа действуют на протяжении всего произведения. То есть, если мы видим при ключе диез на одной из полосок, то все ноты в рамках музыкального произведения на этой линии будут диезами.

Дополнительные знаки, увеличивающие длительность

Кроме основных обозначений длительности нот (штилей, хвостов и т.д.) используются дополнительные знаки. К ним относятся: точка, две точки, лига и фермата.

Точка увеличивает действительную длительность ноты на ее половину, и ставится справа от головы ноты.

Две точки увеличивают длительность на половину и еще четверть. Ставятся две точки аналогично одной точке – у головы ноты.

Лига – выгнутая линия, связывающая между собой две ноты, находящиеся рядом. Длительности нот могут быть совершенно разными, а продолжительность общего звучания конкретной ноты будет равна сумме залигованных нот. Лига может применяться как в конкретном такте, так и для переноса звучания ноты между тактами.

Фермата – это знак в виде полукруга с точкой, который дает понять, что нота может звучать сколько угодно времени.

Паузы

Перерывы в звучании нот называются паузами.

В эти моменты не звучит ничего, кроме тишины. Продолжительность пауз аналогична продолжительности нот – каждая пауза имеет собственное обозначение длительности, а система работы аналогична длительности нот.

Тем, кто решил познать в музыке хоть что-либо серьезное, не избежать знакомства с различными нотными записями. Из данной статьи вы узнаете о том, как научиться читать ноты, не заучивая их, а лишь поняв те логические принципы, на которых базируется нотная грамота.

Что входит в понятие нотной грамоты? Это все то, что относится, так или иначе, к записи и чтению нот; это такой своеобразный язык, который понятен всем музыкантам Европы и Америки. Как известно, каждый музыкальный звук определяется 4-мя физическими свойствами: высотой, продолжительностью, громкостью и тембром (окраской). И с помощью нотной записи музыкант получает информацию обо всех этих четырех свойствах того звука, который он собирается спеть или сыграть на музыкальном инструменте.

Я предлагаю разобраться с тем, как отображается в нотной записи каждое из свойств музыкального звука.

Звуковысотность

Весь ряд музыкальных звуков выстроен в единую систему – звукоряд, то есть такой ряд, в котором все звуки следуют друг за другом по порядку, от самых низких до самых высокихзвуков, или наоборот. Звукоряд разделяется на октавы – отрезки музыкального звукоряда, каждый из которых содержит набор одинаковых по названию нот – до, ре, ми, фа, соль, ля, си.

Для записи и чтения нот используют нотный стан – это строка для записи нот в виде пяти параллельных линий (правильнее сказать – линеек). Любые ноты звукоряда записываются на нотном стане: на линейках, под линейками или над ними (ну и, естественно, между линейками с равным успехом). Линейки принято нумеровать снизу вверх:

Сами ноты обозначаются головками овальной формы. Если для записи ноты не хватает основных пяти линеек, то для них вводятся специальные дополнительные линейки. Чем выше нота звучит, тем выше она располагается и на линейках:

Представление о точной высоте звука дают музыкальные ключи, из которых наиболее всем известны два – скрипичный и басовый. Нотная грамота для начинающих базируется на изучении скрипичного ключа в первой октаве. Они записываются так:

О способах быстрого запоминания всех нот читайте в статье «Как быстро и легко выучить ноты», выполните предлагаемые там практические упражнения и вы не заметите, как проблема отпадёт сама собой.

Длительности нот

Продолжительность каждой ноты относится к области музыкального времени, которое представляет собой непрерывное движение с одной и той же скоростью равных долей, сравнимых с мерным биением пульса. Обычно одна такая доля ассоциируется с четвертной по длительности нотой. Посмотрите на рисунок, вы увидите графическое изображение разных по длительности нот и их названия:

Конечно, в музыке используются и более мелкие длительности. И вы уже поняли, что каждая новая, более мелкая длительность, получается в ходе деления целой ноты на число 2 в n-ой степени: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 и т.д. Так, целую ноту мы можем разделить не только на 4 четвертных, но с равным успехом и на 8 восьмых или 16 шестнадцатых нот.

Музыкальное время очень хорошо организовано, и в его организации помимо долей участвуют более крупные единицы – такты, то есть отрезки, которые содержат точно заданное число долей. Такты выделяются визуально путём разделения одного от другого вертикальной тактовой чертой. Количество долей в тактах, и длительность каждой из них отражается в нотах с помощью числового размера.

И размеры, и длительности, и доли тесно связаны с такой областью в музыке, как ритм. Нотная грамота для начинающих обычно оперирует наиболее простыми размерами, например, 2/4, 3/4 и т.п. Посмотрите, как в них может быть организован музыкальный ритм.

Громкость

На то, как сыграть тот или иной мотив – громко или тихо, также указано в нотах. Тут всё просто. Вот, какие значки вы будете встречать:

Тембр

Тембр звуков – это область, которая нотной грамотой для начинающих почти совсем не затрагивается. Однако, как правило, в нотах есть разные указания по этому поводу. Самое простое – название инструмента или голоса, для которого предназначено данное сочинение. Самое сложное связано с техникой игры (например, включение и выключение педалей на рояле) или с приёмами извлечения звука (например, флажолеты на скрипке).

На этом следует остановиться: с одной стороны, вы узнали уже многое о том, что можно прочитать в нотах, с другой – немало ещё предстоит узнать. Следите за обновлениями на сайте. Если вам понравился данный материал, порекомендуйте его своим друзьям, используя кнопки внизу страницы.

Вверх

This article is about a notation for music. For the «musical» notation in mathematics, see Musical isomorphism.

Music notation or musical notation is any system used to visually represent aurally perceived music played with instruments or sung by the human voice through the use of written, printed, or otherwise-produced symbols, including notation for durations of absence of sound such as rests.

The types and methods of notation have varied between cultures and throughout history, and much information about ancient music notation is fragmentary. Even in the same time period, such as in the 2010s, different styles of music and different cultures use different music notation methods; for example, for professional classical music performers, sheet music using staves and noteheads is the most common way of notating music, but for professional country music session musicians, the Nashville Number System is the main method.

The symbols used include ancient symbols and modern symbols made upon any media such as symbols cut into stone, made in clay tablets, made using a pen on papyrus or parchment or manuscript paper; printed using a printing press (c. 1400s), a computer printer (c. 1980s) or other printing or modern copying technology.

Although many ancient cultures used symbols to represent melodies and rhythms, none of them was particularly comprehensive, which has limited today’s understanding of their music. The seeds of what would eventually become modern Western notation were sown in medieval Europe, starting with the Christian Church’s goal for ecclesiastical uniformity. The church began notating plainchant melodies so that the same chants could be used throughout the church. Music notation developed further during the Renaissance and Baroque music eras. In the classical period (1750–1820) and the Romantic music era (1820–1900), notation continued to develop as new musical instrument technologies were developed. In the contemporary classical music of the 20th and 21st century, music notation has continued to develop, with the introduction of graphical notation by some modern composers and the use, since the 1980s, of computer-based score writer programs for notating music. Music notation has been adapted to many kinds of music, including classical music, popular music, and traditional music.

History[edit]

Ancient Near East[edit]

The earliest form of musical notation can be found in a cuneiform tablet that was created at Nippur, in Babylonia (today’s Iraq), in about 1400 BCE. The tablet represents fragmentary instructions for performing music, that the music was composed in harmonies of thirds, and that it was written using a diatonic scale.^[2] A tablet from about 1250 BCE shows a more developed form of notation.^[3] Although the interpretation of the notation system is still controversial, it is clear that the notation indicates the names of strings on a lyre, the tuning of which is described in other tablets.^[4] Although they are fragmentary, these tablets represent the earliest notated melodies found anywhere in the world.^[5]

Ancient Greece[edit]

Ancient Greek musical notation was in use from at least the 6th century BCE until approximately the 4th century CE; only one complete composition (Seikilos epitaph) and a number of fragments using this notation survive. The notation for sung music consists of letter symbols for the pitches, placed above text syllables. Rhythm is indicated in a rudimentary way only, with long and short symbols. The Seikilos epitaph has been variously dated between the 2nd century BCE to the 2nd century CE.

Three hymns by Mesomedes of Crete exist in manuscript. The Delphic Hymns, dated to the 2nd century BCE also use this notation, but they are not completely preserved. Ancient Greek notation appears to have fallen out of use around the time of the Decline of the Western Roman Empire.

Byzantine Empire[edit]

Byzantine music once included music for court ceremonies, but has only survived as vocal church music within various Orthodox traditions of monodic (monophonic) chant written down in Byzantine round notation (see Macarie’s anastasimatarion with the Greek text translated into Romanian and transliterated into Cyrillic script).^[6]

Since the 6th century, Greek theoretical categories (melos, genos, harmonia, systema) played a key role to understand and transmit Byzantine music, especially the tradition of Damascus had a strong impact on the pre-Islamic Near East comparable to the impact coming from Persian music. The earliest evidence are papyrus fragments of Greek tropologia. These fragments just present the hymn text following a modal signature or key (like «ΠΛ Α» for echos plagios protos or «Β» for echos devteros).

Unlike Western notation, Byzantine neumes used since the 10th century were always related to modal steps (same modal degree, one degree lower, two degrees higher, etc.) in relation to such a clef or modal key (modal signatures). Originally this key or the incipit of a common melody was enough to indicate a certain melodic model given within the echos. Next to ekphonetic notation, only used in lectionaries to indicate formulas used during scriptural lessons, melodic notation developed not earlier than between the 9th and the 10th century, when a theta (θ), oxeia (/) or diple (//) were written under a certain syllable of the text, whenever a longer melisma was expected. This primitive form was called «theta» or «diple notation».

Today, one can study the evolution of this notation in Greek monastic chant books like those of the sticherarion and the heirmologion (Chartres notation was rather used on Mount Athos and Constantinople, Coislin notation within the patriarchates of Jerusalem and Alexandria), while there was another gestic notation originally used for the asmatikon (choir book) and kontakarion (book of the soloist or monophonaris) of the Constantinopolitan cathedral rite. The earliest books which have survived, are «kondakars» in Slavonic translation which already show a notation system known as Kondakarian notation.^[7] Like the Greek alphabet notational signs are ordered left to right (though the direction could be adapted like in certain Syriac manuscripts). The question of rhythm was entirely based on cheironomia (the interpretation of so-called great signs which derived from different chant books). These great signs (μεγάλα σῃμάδια) indicated well-known melodic phrases given by gestures of the choirleaders of the cathedral rite. They existed once as part of an oral tradition, developed Kondakarian notation and became, during the 13th century, integrated into Byzantine round notation as a kind of universal notation system.^[8]

Today the main difference between Western and Eastern neumes is that Eastern notation symbols are «differential» rather than absolute, i.e., they indicate pitch steps (rising, falling or at the same step), and the musicians know to deduce correctly, from the score and the note they are singing presently, which correct interval is meant. These step symbols themselves, or better «phonic neumes», resemble brush strokes and are colloquially called gántzoi (‘hooks’) in modern Greek.

Notes as pitch classes or modal keys (usually memorised by modal signatures) are represented in written form only between these neumes (in manuscripts usually written in red ink). In modern notation they simply serve as an optional reminder and modal and tempo directions have been added, if necessary. In Papadic notation medial signatures usually meant a temporary change into another echos.

The so-called «great signs» were once related to cheironomic signs; according to modern interpretations they are understood as embellishments and microtonal attractions (pitch changes smaller than a semitone), both essential in Byzantine chant.^[9]

Since Chrysanthos of Madytos there are seven standard note names used for «solfège» (parallagē) pá, vú, g^há, d^hi, ké, zō, nē, while the older practice still used the four enechemata or intonation formulas of the four echoi given by the modal signatures, the authentic or kyrioi in ascending direction, and the plagal or plagioi in descending direction (Papadic Octoechos).^[11] With exception of vú and zō they do roughly correspond to Western solmization syllables as re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, do. Byzantine music uses the eight natural, non-tempered scales whose elements were identified by Ēkhoi, «sounds», exclusively, and therefore the absolute pitch of each note may slightly vary each time, depending on the particular Ēkhos used. Byzantine notation is still used in many Orthodox Churches. Sometimes cantors also use transcriptions into Western or Kievan staff notation while adding non-notatable embellishment material from memory and «sliding» into the natural scales from experience, but even concerning modern neume editions since the reform of Chrysanthos a lot of details are only known from an oral tradition related to traditional masters and their experience.

13th-century Near East[edit]

In 1252, Safi al-Din al-Urmawi developed a form of musical notation, where rhythms were represented by geometric representation. Many subsequent scholars of rhythm have sought to develop graphical geometrical notations. For example, a similar geometric system was published in 1987 by Kjell Gustafson, whose method represents a rhythm as a two-dimensional graph.^[12]

Early Europe[edit]

The scholar and music theorist Isidore of Seville, while writing in the early 7th century, considered that «unless sounds are held by the memory of man, they perish, because they cannot be written down.»^[13] By the middle of the 9th century, however, a form of neumatic notation began to develop in monasteries in Europe as a mnemonic device for Gregorian chant, using symbols known as neumes; the earliest surviving musical notation of this type is in the Musica disciplina of Aurelian of Réôme, from about 850. There are scattered survivals from the Iberian Peninsula before this time, of a type of notation known as Visigothic neumes, but its few surviving fragments have not yet been deciphered.^[14] The problem with this notation was that it only showed melodic contours and consequently the music could not be read by someone who did not know the music already.

Notation had developed far enough to notate melody, but there was still no system for notating rhythm. A mid-13th-century treatise, De Mensurabili Musica, explains a set of six rhythmic modes that were in use at the time,^[15] although it is not clear how they were formed. These rhythmic modes were all in triple time and rather limited rhythm in chant to six different repeating patterns. This was a flaw seen by German music theorist Franco of Cologne and summarised as part of his treatise Ars cantus mensurabilis (the art of measured chant, or mensural notation). He suggested that individual notes could have their own rhythms represented by the shape of the note. Not until the 14th century did something like the present system of fixed note lengths arise.^{[citation needed]} The use of regular measures (bars) became commonplace by the end of the 17th century.^{[citation needed]}

The founder of what is now considered the standard music staff was Guido d’Arezzo,^[16] an Italian Benedictine monk who lived from about 991 until after 1033. He taught the use of solmization syllables based on a hymn to Saint John the Baptist, which begins Ut Queant Laxis and was written by the Lombard historian Paul the Deacon. The first stanza is:

1. Ut queant laxis
2. resonare fibris,
3. Mira gestorum
4. famuli tuorum,
5. Solve polluti
6. labii reatum,
7. Sancte Iohannes.

Guido used the first syllable of each line, Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, and Si, to read notated music in terms of hexachords; they were not note names, and each could, depending on context, be applied to any note. In the 17th century, Ut was changed in most countries except France to the easily singable, open syllable Do, believed to have been taken either from the name of the Italian theorist Giovanni Battista Doni, or from the Latin word Dominus, meaning Lord.^[17]

Christian monks developed the first forms of modern European musical notation in order to standardize liturgy throughout the worldwide Church,^[18] and an enormous body of religious music has been composed for it through the ages. This led directly to the emergence and development of European classical music, and its many derivatives. The Baroque style, which encompassed music, art, and architecture, was particularly encouraged by the post-Reformation Catholic Church as such forms offered a means of religious expression that was stirring and emotional, intended to stimulate religious fervor.^[19]

Modern staff notation[edit]

Modern music notation is used by musicians of many different genres throughout the world. The staff (or stave, in British English) consists of 5 parallel horizontal lines which acts as a framework upon which pitches are indicated by placing oval note-heads on (ie crossing) the staff lines, between the lines (ie in the spaces) or above and below the staff using small additional lines called ledger lines. Notation is read from left to right, which makes setting music for right-to-left scripts difficult. The pitch of a note is indicated by the vertical position of the note-head within the staff, and can be modified by accidentals. The duration (note length or note value) is indicated by the form of the note-head or with the addition of a note-stem plus beams or flags. A stemless hollow oval is a whole note or semibreve, a hollow rectangle or stemless hollow oval with one or two vertical lines on both sides is a double whole note or breve. A stemmed hollow oval is a half note or minim. Solid ovals always use stems, and can indicate quarter notes (crotchets) or, with added beams or flags, smaller subdivisions. Additional symbols such as dots and ties can lengthen the duration of a note.

A staff of written music generally begins with a clef, which indicates the pitch-range of the staff. The treble clef or G clef was originally a letter G and it identifies the second line up on the five line staff as the note G above middle C. The bass clef or F clef identifies the second line down as the note F below middle C. While the treble and bass clef are the most widely used, other clefs, which identify middle C, are used for some instruments, such as the alto clef (for viola and alto trombone) and the tenor clef (used for some cello, bassoon, tenor trombone, and double bass music). Some instruments use mainly one clef, such as violin and flute which use treble clef, and double bass and tuba which use bass clef. Some instruments, such as piano and pipe organ, regularly use both treble and bass clefs.

Following the clef, the key signature is a group of from 0 to 7 sharp (♯) or flat (♭) signs placed on the staff to indicate the key of the piece or song by specifying that certain notes are sharp or flat throughout the piece, unless otherwise indicated with accidentals added before certain notes. When a flat (♭) sign is placed before a note, the pitch of the note is lowered by one semitone. Similarly, a sharp sign (♯) raises the pitch by one semitone. For example, a sharp on the note D would raise it to D♯ while a flat would lower it to D♭. Double sharps and double flats are less common, but they are used. A double sharp is placed before a note to make it two semitones higher, a double flat — two semitones lower. A natural sign placed before a note renders that note in its «natural» form, which means that any sharp or flat applied to that note from the key signature or an accidental, is cancelled. Sometimes a courtesy accidental is used in music where it is not technically required, to remind the musician of what pitch is required.

Following the key signature is the time signature. The time signature typically consists of two numbers, with one of the most common being ⁴
₄. The top «4» indicates that there are four beats per measure (also called bar). The bottom «4» indicates that each of those beats are quarter notes. Measures divide the piece into groups of beats, and the time signatures specify those groupings. ⁴
₄ is used so often that it is also called «common time», and it may be indicated with rather than numbers. Other frequently used time signatures are ³
₄ (three beats per bar, with each beat being a quarter note); ²
₄ (two beats per bar, with each beat being a quarter note); ⁶
₈ (six beats per bar, with each beat being an eighth note) and ¹²
₈ (twelve beats per bar, with each beat being an eighth note; in practice, the eighth notes are typically put into four groups of three eighth notes. ¹²
₈ is a compound time type of time signature). Many other time signatures exist, such as ³
₈, ⁵
₈, ⁵
₄, ⁷
₄, ⁹
₈, and so on.

Many short classical music pieces from the classical era and songs from traditional music and popular music are in one time signature for much or all of the piece. Music from the Romantic music era and later, particularly contemporary classical music and rock music genres such as progressive rock and the hardcore punk subgenre mathcore, may use mixed meter; songs or pieces change from one meter to another, for example alternating between bars of ⁵
₄ and ⁷
₈.

Directions to the player regarding matters such as tempo (e.g., Allegro, Andante, Largo, Vif, Lent, Modérément, Presto, etc.), dynamics (pianississimo, pianissimo, piano, mezzopiano, mezzoforte, forte, fortissimo, fortississimo, etc.) appear above or below the staff. Terms indicating the musical expression or «feel» to a song or piece are indicated at the beginning of the piece and at any points where the mood changes (e.g., «Slow March», «Fast Swing», «Medium Blues», «Fougueux», «Feierlich», «Gelassen», «Piacevole», «Con slancio», «Majestic», «Hostile» etc.) For vocal music, lyrics are written near the pitches of the melody. For short pauses (breaths), retakes (retakes are indicated with a ‘ mark) are added.

In music for ensembles, a «score» shows music for all players together, with the staves for the different instruments and/or voices stacked vertically. The conductor uses the score while leading an orchestra, concert band, choir or other large ensemble. Individual performers in an ensemble play from «parts» which contain only the music played by an individual musician. A score can be constructed from a complete set of parts and vice versa. The process was laborious and time consuming when parts were hand-copied from the score, but since the development of scorewriter computer software in the 1980s, a score stored electronically can have parts automatically prepared by the program and quickly and inexpensively printed out using a computer printer.

Variations on staff notation[edit]

• Percussion notation conventions are varied because of the wide range of percussion instruments. Percussion instruments are generally grouped into two categories: pitched (e.g. glockenspiel or tubular bells) and non-pitched (e.g. bass drum and snare drum). The notation of non-pitched percussion instruments is less standardized. Pitched instruments use standard Western classical notation for the pitches and rhythms. In general, notation for unpitched percussion uses the five line staff, with different lines and spaces representing different drum kit instruments. Standard Western rhythmic notation is used to indicate the rhythm.
• Figured bass notation originated in Baroque basso continuo parts. It is also used extensively in accordion notation. The bass notes of the music are conventionally notated, along with numbers and other signs that determine which chords the harpsichordist, organist or lutenist should improvise. It does not, however, specify the exact pitches of the harmony, leaving that for the performer to improvise.
• A lead sheet specifies only the melody, lyrics and harmony, using one staff with chord symbols placed above and lyrics below. It is used to capture the essential elements of a popular song without specifying how the song should be arranged or performed.
• A chord chart or «chart» contains little or no melodic or voice-leading information at all, but provides basic harmonic information about the chord progression. Some chord charts also contain rhythmic information, indicated using slash notation for full beats and rhythmic notation for rhythms. This is the most common kind of written music used by professional session musicians playing jazz or other forms of popular music and is intended primarily for the rhythm section (usually containing piano, guitar, bass and drums).
• Simpler chord charts for songs may contain only the chord changes, placed above the lyrics where they occur. Such charts depend on prior knowledge of the melody, and are used as reminders in performance or informal group singing. Some chord charts intended for rhythm section accompanists contain only the chord progression.
• The shape note system is found in some church hymnals, sheet music, and song books, especially in the Southern United States. Instead of the customary elliptical note head, note heads of various shapes are used to show the position of the note on the major scale. The Sacred Harp is one of the most popular tune books using shape notes.

In various countries[edit]

Korea[edit]

Jeongganbo is a unique traditional musical notation system created during the time of Sejong the Great that was the first East Asian system to represent rhythm, pitch, and time.^[20][21] Among various kinds of Korean traditional music, Jeong-gan-bo targets a particular genre, Jeong-ak (정악, 正樂).

Jeong-gan-bo tells the pitch by writing the pitch’s name down in a box called ‘jeong-gan’ (this is where the name comes from). One jeong-gan is one beat each, and it can be split into two, three or more to hold half beats and quarter beats, and more. This makes it easy for the reader to figure out the beat.

Also, there are many markings indicating things such as ornaments. Most of these were later created by Ki-su Kim.

India[edit]

The Samaveda text (1200 BCE – 1000 BCE) contains notated melodies, and these are probably the world’s oldest surviving ones.^[22] The musical notation is written usually immediately above, sometimes within, the line of Samaveda text, either in syllabic or a numerical form depending on the Samavedic Sakha (school).^[23] The Indian scholar and musical theorist Pingala (c. 200 BCE), in his Chanda Sutra, used marks indicating long and short syllables to indicate meters in Sanskrit poetry.

A rock inscription from circa 7th–8th century CE at Kudumiyanmalai, Tamil Nadu contains an early example of a musical notation. It was first identified and published by archaeologist/epigraphist D. R. Bhandarkar.^[24] Written in the Pallava-grantha script of the 7th century, it contains 38 horizontal lines of notations inscribed on a rectangular rock face (dimension of around 13 by 14 feet). Each line of the notation contains 64 characters (characters representing musical notes), written in groups of four notes. The basic characters for the seven notes, ‘sa ri ga ma pa dha ni’, are seen to be suffixed with the vowels a, i, u, e. For example, in the place of ‘sa’, any one of ‘sa’, ‘si’, ‘su’ or ‘se’ is used. Similarly, in place of ri, any one of ‘ra’, ‘ri’, ‘ru’ or ‘re’ is used. Horizontal lines divide the notation into 7 sections. Each section contains 4 to 7 lines of notation, with a title indicating its musical ‘mode’. These modes may have been popular at least from the 6th century CE and were incorporated into the Indian ‘raga’ system that developed later. But some of the unusual features seen in this notation have been given several non-conclusive interpretations by scholars.^[25]

In the notation of Indian rāga, a solfege-like system called sargam is used. As in Western solfege, there are names for the seven basic pitches of a major scale (Shadja, Rishabha, Gandhara, Madhyama, Panchama, Dhaivata and Nishada, usually shortened to Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni). The tonic of any scale is named Sa, and the dominant Pa. Sa is fixed in any scale, and Pa is fixed at a fifth above it (a Pythagorean fifth rather than an equal-tempered fifth). These two notes are known as achala swar (‘fixed notes’).

Each of the other five notes, Re, Ga, Ma, Dha and Ni, can take a ‘regular’ (shuddha) pitch, which is equivalent to its pitch in a standard major scale (thus, shuddha Re, the second degree of the scale, is a whole-step higher than Sa), or an altered pitch, either a half-step above or half-step below the shuddha pitch. Re, Ga, Dha and Ni all have altered partners that are a half-step lower (Komal-«flat») (thus, komal Re is a half-step higher than Sa).

Ma has an altered partner that is a half-step higher (teevra-«sharp») (thus, tivra Ma is an augmented fourth above Sa). Re, Ga, Ma, Dha and Ni are called vikrut swar (‘movable notes’). In the written system of Indian notation devised by Ravi Shankar, the pitches are represented by Western letters. Capital letters are used for the achala swar, and for the higher variety of all the vikrut swar. Lowercase letters are used for the lower variety of the vikrut swar.

Other systems exist for non-twelve-tone equal temperament and non-Western music, such as the Indian Swaralipi.

Russia[edit]

Znamenny Chant is a singing tradition used in the Russian Orthodox Church which uses a «hook and banner» notation. Znamenny Chant is unison, melismatic liturgical singing that has its own specific notation, called the stolp notation. The symbols used in the stolp notation are called kryuki (Russian: крюки, ‘hooks’) or znamena (Russian: знамёна, ‘signs’). Often the names of the signs are used to refer to the stolp notation. Znamenny melodies are part of a system, consisting of Eight Modes (intonation structures; called glasy); the melodies are characterized by fluency and well-balancedness (Kholopov 2003, 192). There exist several types of Znamenny Chant: the so-called Stolpovoy, Malyj (Little) and Bolshoy (Great) Znamenny Chant. Ruthenian Chant (Prostopinije) is sometimes considered a sub-division of the Znamenny Chant tradition, with the Muscovite Chant (Znamenny Chant proper) being the second branch of the same musical continuum.

Znamenny Chants are not written with notes (the so-called linear notation), but with special signs, called Znamëna (Russian for «marks», «banners») or Kryuki («hooks»), as some shapes of these signs resemble hooks. Each sign may include the following components: a large black hook or a black stroke, several smaller black ‘points’ and ‘commas’ and lines near the hook or crossing the hook. Some signs may mean only one note, some 2 to 4 notes, and some a whole melody of more than 10 notes with a complicated rhythmic structure. The stolp notation was developed in Kievan Rus’ as an East Slavic refinement of the Byzantine neumatic musical notation.

The most notable feature of this notation system is that it records transitions of the melody, rather than notes. The signs also represent a mood and a gradation of how this part of melody is to be sung (tempo, strength, devotion, meekness, etc.) Every sign has its own name and also features as a spiritual symbol. For example, there is a specific sign, called «little dove» (Russian: голубчик (golubchik)), which represents two rising sounds, but which is also a symbol of the Holy Ghost. Gradually the system became more and more complicated. This system was also ambiguous, so that almost no one, except the most trained and educated singers, could sing an unknown melody at sight. The signs only helped to reproduce the melody, not coding it in an unambiguous way.
(See Byzantine Empire)

China[edit]

The earliest known examples of text referring to music in China are inscriptions on musical instruments found in the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng (d. 433 B.C.). Sets of 41 chimestones and 65 bells bore lengthy inscriptions concerning pitches, scales, and transposition. The bells still sound the pitches that their inscriptions refer to. Although no notated musical compositions were found, the inscriptions indicate that the system was sufficiently advanced to allow for musical notation. Two systems of pitch nomenclature existed, one for relative pitch and one for absolute pitch. For relative pitch, a solmization system was used.^[26]

Gongche notation used Chinese characters for the names of the scale.

Japan[edit]

Japanese music is highly diversified, and therefore requires various systems of notation. In Japanese shakuhachi music, for example, glissandos and timbres are often more significant than distinct pitches, whereas taiko notation focuses on discrete strokes.

Ryukyuan sanshin music uses kunkunshi, a notation system of kanji with each character corresponding to a finger position on a particular string.

Indonesia[edit]

Notation plays a relatively minor role in the oral traditions of Indonesia. However, in Java and Bali, several systems were devised beginning at the end of the 19th century, initially for archival purposes. Today the most widespread are cipher notations («not angka» in the broadest sense) in which the pitches are represented with some subset of the numbers 1 to 7, with 1 corresponding to either highest note of a particular octave, as in Sundanese gamelan, or lowest, as in the kepatihan notation of Javanese gamelan.

Notes in the ranges outside the central octave are represented with one or more dots above or below the each number. For the most part, these cipher notations are mainly used to notate the skeletal melody (the balungan) and vocal parts (gerongan), although transcriptions of the elaborating instrument variations are sometimes used for analysis and teaching. Drum parts are notated with a system of symbols largely based on letters representing the vocables used to learn and remember drumming patterns; these symbols are typically laid out in a grid underneath the skeletal melody for a specific or generic piece.

The symbols used for drum notation (as well as the vocables represented) are highly variable from place to place and performer to performer. In addition to these current systems, two older notations used a kind of staff: the Solonese script could capture the flexible rhythms of the pesinden with a squiggle on a horizontal staff, while in Yogyakarta a ladder-like vertical staff allowed notation of the balungan by dots and also included important drum strokes. In Bali, there are a few books published of Gamelan gender wayang pieces, employing alphabetical notation in the old Balinese script.

Composers and scholars both Indonesian and foreign have also mapped the slendro and pelog tuning systems of gamelan onto the western staff, with and without various symbols for microtones. The Dutch composer Ton de Leeuw also invented a three line staff for his composition Gending. However, these systems do not enjoy widespread use.

In the second half of the twentieth century, Indonesian musicians and scholars extended cipher notation to other oral traditions, and a diatonic scale cipher notation has become common for notating western-related genres (church hymns, popular songs, and so forth). Unlike the cipher notation for gamelan music, which uses a «fixed Do» (that is, 1 always corresponds to the same pitch, within the natural variability of gamelan tuning), Indonesian diatonic cipher notation is «moveable-Do» notation, so scores must indicate which pitch corresponds to the number 1 (for example, «1=C»).

• 

  A short melody in slendro notated using the Surakarta method.^[27]

• 

  The same notated using the Yogyakarta method or ‘chequered notation’.^[27]

• 

  The same notated using Kepatihan notation.^[27]

• 

  The same approximated using Western notation.^[27] Play (help·info)

Other systems and practices[edit]

Cipher notation[edit]

Cipher notation systems assigning Arabic numerals to the major scale degrees have been used at least since the Iberian organ tablatures of the 16th-century and include such exotic adaptations as Siffernotskrift. The one most widely in use today is the Chinese Jianpu, discussed in the main article. Numerals can also be assigned to different scale systems, as in the Javanese kepatihan notation described above.

Solfège[edit]

Solfège is a way of assigning syllables to names of the musical scale. In order, they are today: Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do‘ (for the octave). The classic variation is: Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si Do‘. The first Western system of functional names for the musical notes was introduced by Guido of Arezzo (c. 991 – after 1033), using the beginning syllables of the first six musical lines of the Latin hymn Ut queant laxis. The original sequence was Ut Re Mi Fa Sol La, where each verse started a scale note higher. «Ut» later became «Do». The equivalent syllables used in Indian music are: Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni. See also: solfège, sargam, Kodály hand signs.

Tonic sol-fa is a type of notation using the initial letters of solfège.

Letter notation[edit]

The notes of the 12-tone scale can be written by their letter names A–G, possibly with a trailing sharp or flat symbol, such as A♯ or B♭.

Tablature[edit]

Tablature was first used in the Middle Ages for organ music and later in the Renaissance for lute music.^[28] In most lute tablatures, a staff is used, but instead of pitch values, the lines of the staff represent the strings of the instrument. The frets to finger are written on each line, indicated by letters or numbers. Rhythm is written separately with one or another variation of standard note values indicating the duration of the fastest moving part. Few seem to have remarked on the fact that tablature combines in one notation system both the physical and technical requirements of play (the lines and symbols on them and in relation to each other representing the actual performance actions) with the unfolding of the music itself (the lines of tablature taken horizontally represent the actual temporal unfolding of the music). In later periods, lute and guitar music was written with standard notation. Tablature caught interest again in the late 20th century for popular guitar music and other fretted instruments, being easy to transcribe and share over the internet in ASCII format.

Klavar notation[edit]

Klavarskribo (sometimes shortened to klavar) is a music notation system that was introduced in 1931 by the Dutchman Cornelis Pot. The name means «keyboard writing» in Esperanto. It differs from conventional music notation in a number of ways and is intended to be easily readable. Many klavar readers are from the Netherlands.

Piano-roll-based notations[edit]

Some chromatic systems have been created taking advantage of the layout of black and white keys of the standard piano keyboard. The «staff» is most widely referred to as «piano roll», created by extending the black and white piano keys.

Chromatic staff notations[edit]

Over the past three centuries, hundreds of music notation systems have been proposed as alternatives to traditional western music notation. Many of these systems seek to improve upon traditional notation by using a «chromatic staff» in which each of the 12 pitch classes has its own unique place on the staff. An example is Jacques-Daniel Rochat’s Dodeka music notation.^[29][30] These notation systems do not require the use of standard key signatures, accidentals, or clef signs. They also represent interval relationships more consistently and accurately than traditional notation, e.g. major 3rds appear wider than minor 3rds. Many of these systems are described and illustrated in Gardner Read’s «Source Book of Proposed Music Notation Reforms».

Graphic notation[edit]

The term ‘graphic notation’ refers to the contemporary use of non-traditional symbols and text to convey information about the performance of a piece of music. Composers such as Johanna Beyer. Christian Wolff, Carmen Barradas, Earle Brown, Yoko Ono, Anthony Braxton, John Cage, Morton Feldman, Cathy Berberian, Graciela Castillo, Krzysztof Penderecki, Cornelius Cardew, Pauline Oliveros and Roger Reynolds are among the early generation of practitioners. The book Notations, by John Cage and Alison Knowles, is another example of this kind of notation.

Simplified music notation[edit]

Simplified Music Notation is an alternative form of musical notation designed to make sight-reading easier. It is based on classical staff notation, but incorporates sharps and flats into the shape of the note heads. Notes such as double sharps and double flats are written at the pitch they are actually played at, but preceded by symbols called history signs that show they have been transposed.

Modified Stave Notation[edit]

Modified Stave Notation (MSN) is an alternative way of notating music for people who cannot easily read ordinary musical notation even if it is enlarged.

Parsons code[edit]

Parsons code is used to encode music so that it can be easily searched.

Braille music[edit]

Braille music is a complete, well developed, and internationally accepted musical notation system that has symbols and notational conventions quite independent of print music notation. It is linear in nature, similar to a printed language and different from the two-dimensional nature of standard printed music notation. To a degree Braille music resembles musical markup languages^[31] such as MusicXML^[32] or NIFF.

Integer notation[edit]

In integer notation, or the integer model of pitch, all pitch classes and intervals between pitch classes are designated using the numbers 0 through 11.

Rap notation[edit]

The standard form of rap notation is the «flow diagram», where rappers line up their lyrics underneath «beat numbers».^[33] Hip-hop scholars also make use of the same flow diagrams that rappers use: the books How to Rap and How to Rap 2 extensively use the diagrams to explain rap’s triplets, flams, rests, rhyme schemes, runs of rhyme, and breaking rhyme patterns, among other techniques.^[34] Similar systems are used by musicologists Adam Krims in his book Rap Music and the Poetics of Identity^[35] and Kyle Adams in his work on rap’s flow.^[36] As rap usually revolves around a strong 4/4 beat,^[37] with certain syllables aligned to the beat, all the notational systems have a similar structure: they all have four beat numbers at the top of the diagram, so that syllables can be written in-line with the beat.^[37]

ABC[edit]

ABC notation is a compact format using plain text characters, readable by computers and by humans. More than 100,000 tunes are now transcribed in this format.^[38]

Music notation on computers[edit]

Unicode[edit]

The Musical Symbols Unicode block encodes an extensive system of formal musical notation.

The Miscellaneous Symbols block has a few of the more common symbols:

• U+2669 ♩ QUARTER NOTE
• U+266A ♪ EIGHTH NOTE
• U+266B ♫ BEAMED EIGHTH NOTES
• U+266C ♬ BEAMED SIXTEENTH NOTES
• U+266D ♭ MUSIC FLAT SIGN
• U+266E ♮ MUSIC NATURAL SIGN
• U+266F ♯ MUSIC SHARP SIGN

The Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs block has three emoji that may include depictions of musical notes:

• U+1F3A7 🎧 HEADPHONE
• U+1F3B5 🎵 MUSICAL NOTE
• U+1F3B6 🎶 MULTIPLE MUSICAL NOTES

Software[edit]

Many computer programs have been developed for creating music notation (called scorewriters or music notation software). Music may also be stored in various digital file formats for purposes other than graphic notation output.

Perspectives of musical notation in composition and musical performance[edit]

According to Philip Tagg and Richard Middleton, musicology and to a degree European-influenced musical practice suffer from a ‘notational centricity’, a methodology slanted by the characteristics of notation.^[39][40] A variety of 20th- and 21st-century composers have dealt with this problem, either by adapting standard Western musical notation or by using graphic notation.^{[clarification needed]} These include George Crumb, Luciano Berio, Krzystof Penderecki, Earl Brown, John Cage, Witold Lutoslawski, and others.^[41][42]

See also[edit]

• List of musical symbols of modern notation.
• Hebrew cantillation
• Colored music notation
• Eye movement in music reading
• Guido of Arezzo, inventor of modern musical notation
• History of music publishing
• List of scorewriters
• Mensural notation
• Modal notation
• Music engraving, drawing music notation for the purpose of mechanical reproduction
• Music OCR, the application of optical character recognition to interpret sheet music
• Neume (plainchant notation)
• Pitch class
• Rastrum, a five-pointed writing implement used to draw parallel staff lines across a blank piece of sheet music
• Scorewriter
• Semasiography
• Sheet music
• Time unit box system, a notation system useful for polyrhythms
• Tongan music notation, a subset of standard music notation
• Tonnetz
• Znamenny chant

Notes[edit]

Sources[edit]

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

• Byzantine Music Notation. Contains a Guide to Byzantine Music Notation (neumes).
• CCARH—Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities Information on Stanford University Course on music representation. Links page shows examples of different notations.
• Music Markup Language. XML-based language for music notation.
• Synopsis of Musical Notation Encyclopedias (An index from topics of CWN into the books of Gould, Vinci, Wanske, Stone and Read.)
• Gehrkens, Karl Wilson Music Notation and Terminology. Project Gutenberg.
• Gilbert, Nina. «Glossary of U.S. and British English musical terms.» Posted 17 June 1998; updated 7 September 2000.

This article is about a notation for music. For the «musical» notation in mathematics, see Musical isomorphism.

Music notation or musical notation is any system used to visually represent aurally perceived music played with instruments or sung by the human voice through the use of written, printed, or otherwise-produced symbols, including notation for durations of absence of sound such as rests.

The types and methods of notation have varied between cultures and throughout history, and much information about ancient music notation is fragmentary. Even in the same time period, such as in the 2010s, different styles of music and different cultures use different music notation methods; for example, for professional classical music performers, sheet music using staves and noteheads is the most common way of notating music, but for professional country music session musicians, the Nashville Number System is the main method.

The symbols used include ancient symbols and modern symbols made upon any media such as symbols cut into stone, made in clay tablets, made using a pen on papyrus or parchment or manuscript paper; printed using a printing press (c. 1400s), a computer printer (c. 1980s) or other printing or modern copying technology.

Although many ancient cultures used symbols to represent melodies and rhythms, none of them was particularly comprehensive, which has limited today’s understanding of their music. The seeds of what would eventually become modern Western notation were sown in medieval Europe, starting with the Christian Church’s goal for ecclesiastical uniformity. The church began notating plainchant melodies so that the same chants could be used throughout the church. Music notation developed further during the Renaissance and Baroque music eras. In the classical period (1750–1820) and the Romantic music era (1820–1900), notation continued to develop as new musical instrument technologies were developed. In the contemporary classical music of the 20th and 21st century, music notation has continued to develop, with the introduction of graphical notation by some modern composers and the use, since the 1980s, of computer-based score writer programs for notating music. Music notation has been adapted to many kinds of music, including classical music, popular music, and traditional music.

History[edit]

Ancient Near East[edit]

The earliest form of musical notation can be found in a cuneiform tablet that was created at Nippur, in Babylonia (today’s Iraq), in about 1400 BCE. The tablet represents fragmentary instructions for performing music, that the music was composed in harmonies of thirds, and that it was written using a diatonic scale.^[2] A tablet from about 1250 BCE shows a more developed form of notation.^[3] Although the interpretation of the notation system is still controversial, it is clear that the notation indicates the names of strings on a lyre, the tuning of which is described in other tablets.^[4] Although they are fragmentary, these tablets represent the earliest notated melodies found anywhere in the world.^[5]

Ancient Greece[edit]

Ancient Greek musical notation was in use from at least the 6th century BCE until approximately the 4th century CE; only one complete composition (Seikilos epitaph) and a number of fragments using this notation survive. The notation for sung music consists of letter symbols for the pitches, placed above text syllables. Rhythm is indicated in a rudimentary way only, with long and short symbols. The Seikilos epitaph has been variously dated between the 2nd century BCE to the 2nd century CE.

Three hymns by Mesomedes of Crete exist in manuscript. The Delphic Hymns, dated to the 2nd century BCE also use this notation, but they are not completely preserved. Ancient Greek notation appears to have fallen out of use around the time of the Decline of the Western Roman Empire.

Byzantine Empire[edit]

Byzantine music once included music for court ceremonies, but has only survived as vocal church music within various Orthodox traditions of monodic (monophonic) chant written down in Byzantine round notation (see Macarie’s anastasimatarion with the Greek text translated into Romanian and transliterated into Cyrillic script).^[6]

Since the 6th century, Greek theoretical categories (melos, genos, harmonia, systema) played a key role to understand and transmit Byzantine music, especially the tradition of Damascus had a strong impact on the pre-Islamic Near East comparable to the impact coming from Persian music. The earliest evidence are papyrus fragments of Greek tropologia. These fragments just present the hymn text following a modal signature or key (like «ΠΛ Α» for echos plagios protos or «Β» for echos devteros).

Unlike Western notation, Byzantine neumes used since the 10th century were always related to modal steps (same modal degree, one degree lower, two degrees higher, etc.) in relation to such a clef or modal key (modal signatures). Originally this key or the incipit of a common melody was enough to indicate a certain melodic model given within the echos. Next to ekphonetic notation, only used in lectionaries to indicate formulas used during scriptural lessons, melodic notation developed not earlier than between the 9th and the 10th century, when a theta (θ), oxeia (/) or diple (//) were written under a certain syllable of the text, whenever a longer melisma was expected. This primitive form was called «theta» or «diple notation».

Today, one can study the evolution of this notation in Greek monastic chant books like those of the sticherarion and the heirmologion (Chartres notation was rather used on Mount Athos and Constantinople, Coislin notation within the patriarchates of Jerusalem and Alexandria), while there was another gestic notation originally used for the asmatikon (choir book) and kontakarion (book of the soloist or monophonaris) of the Constantinopolitan cathedral rite. The earliest books which have survived, are «kondakars» in Slavonic translation which already show a notation system known as Kondakarian notation.^[7] Like the Greek alphabet notational signs are ordered left to right (though the direction could be adapted like in certain Syriac manuscripts). The question of rhythm was entirely based on cheironomia (the interpretation of so-called great signs which derived from different chant books). These great signs (μεγάλα σῃμάδια) indicated well-known melodic phrases given by gestures of the choirleaders of the cathedral rite. They existed once as part of an oral tradition, developed Kondakarian notation and became, during the 13th century, integrated into Byzantine round notation as a kind of universal notation system.^[8]

Today the main difference between Western and Eastern neumes is that Eastern notation symbols are «differential» rather than absolute, i.e., they indicate pitch steps (rising, falling or at the same step), and the musicians know to deduce correctly, from the score and the note they are singing presently, which correct interval is meant. These step symbols themselves, or better «phonic neumes», resemble brush strokes and are colloquially called gántzoi (‘hooks’) in modern Greek.

Notes as pitch classes or modal keys (usually memorised by modal signatures) are represented in written form only between these neumes (in manuscripts usually written in red ink). In modern notation they simply serve as an optional reminder and modal and tempo directions have been added, if necessary. In Papadic notation medial signatures usually meant a temporary change into another echos.

The so-called «great signs» were once related to cheironomic signs; according to modern interpretations they are understood as embellishments and microtonal attractions (pitch changes smaller than a semitone), both essential in Byzantine chant.^[9]

Since Chrysanthos of Madytos there are seven standard note names used for «solfège» (parallagē) pá, vú, g^há, d^hi, ké, zō, nē, while the older practice still used the four enechemata or intonation formulas of the four echoi given by the modal signatures, the authentic or kyrioi in ascending direction, and the plagal or plagioi in descending direction (Papadic Octoechos).^[11] With exception of vú and zō they do roughly correspond to Western solmization syllables as re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, do. Byzantine music uses the eight natural, non-tempered scales whose elements were identified by Ēkhoi, «sounds», exclusively, and therefore the absolute pitch of each note may slightly vary each time, depending on the particular Ēkhos used. Byzantine notation is still used in many Orthodox Churches. Sometimes cantors also use transcriptions into Western or Kievan staff notation while adding non-notatable embellishment material from memory and «sliding» into the natural scales from experience, but even concerning modern neume editions since the reform of Chrysanthos a lot of details are only known from an oral tradition related to traditional masters and their experience.

13th-century Near East[edit]

In 1252, Safi al-Din al-Urmawi developed a form of musical notation, where rhythms were represented by geometric representation. Many subsequent scholars of rhythm have sought to develop graphical geometrical notations. For example, a similar geometric system was published in 1987 by Kjell Gustafson, whose method represents a rhythm as a two-dimensional graph.^[12]

Early Europe[edit]

The scholar and music theorist Isidore of Seville, while writing in the early 7th century, considered that «unless sounds are held by the memory of man, they perish, because they cannot be written down.»^[13] By the middle of the 9th century, however, a form of neumatic notation began to develop in monasteries in Europe as a mnemonic device for Gregorian chant, using symbols known as neumes; the earliest surviving musical notation of this type is in the Musica disciplina of Aurelian of Réôme, from about 850. There are scattered survivals from the Iberian Peninsula before this time, of a type of notation known as Visigothic neumes, but its few surviving fragments have not yet been deciphered.^[14] The problem with this notation was that it only showed melodic contours and consequently the music could not be read by someone who did not know the music already.

Notation had developed far enough to notate melody, but there was still no system for notating rhythm. A mid-13th-century treatise, De Mensurabili Musica, explains a set of six rhythmic modes that were in use at the time,^[15] although it is not clear how they were formed. These rhythmic modes were all in triple time and rather limited rhythm in chant to six different repeating patterns. This was a flaw seen by German music theorist Franco of Cologne and summarised as part of his treatise Ars cantus mensurabilis (the art of measured chant, or mensural notation). He suggested that individual notes could have their own rhythms represented by the shape of the note. Not until the 14th century did something like the present system of fixed note lengths arise.^{[citation needed]} The use of regular measures (bars) became commonplace by the end of the 17th century.^{[citation needed]}

The founder of what is now considered the standard music staff was Guido d’Arezzo,^[16] an Italian Benedictine monk who lived from about 991 until after 1033. He taught the use of solmization syllables based on a hymn to Saint John the Baptist, which begins Ut Queant Laxis and was written by the Lombard historian Paul the Deacon. The first stanza is:

1. Ut queant laxis
2. resonare fibris,
3. Mira gestorum
4. famuli tuorum,
5. Solve polluti
6. labii reatum,
7. Sancte Iohannes.

Guido used the first syllable of each line, Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, and Si, to read notated music in terms of hexachords; they were not note names, and each could, depending on context, be applied to any note. In the 17th century, Ut was changed in most countries except France to the easily singable, open syllable Do, believed to have been taken either from the name of the Italian theorist Giovanni Battista Doni, or from the Latin word Dominus, meaning Lord.^[17]

Christian monks developed the first forms of modern European musical notation in order to standardize liturgy throughout the worldwide Church,^[18] and an enormous body of religious music has been composed for it through the ages. This led directly to the emergence and development of European classical music, and its many derivatives. The Baroque style, which encompassed music, art, and architecture, was particularly encouraged by the post-Reformation Catholic Church as such forms offered a means of religious expression that was stirring and emotional, intended to stimulate religious fervor.^[19]

Modern staff notation[edit]

Modern music notation is used by musicians of many different genres throughout the world. The staff (or stave, in British English) consists of 5 parallel horizontal lines which acts as a framework upon which pitches are indicated by placing oval note-heads on (ie crossing) the staff lines, between the lines (ie in the spaces) or above and below the staff using small additional lines called ledger lines. Notation is read from left to right, which makes setting music for right-to-left scripts difficult. The pitch of a note is indicated by the vertical position of the note-head within the staff, and can be modified by accidentals. The duration (note length or note value) is indicated by the form of the note-head or with the addition of a note-stem plus beams or flags. A stemless hollow oval is a whole note or semibreve, a hollow rectangle or stemless hollow oval with one or two vertical lines on both sides is a double whole note or breve. A stemmed hollow oval is a half note or minim. Solid ovals always use stems, and can indicate quarter notes (crotchets) or, with added beams or flags, smaller subdivisions. Additional symbols such as dots and ties can lengthen the duration of a note.

A staff of written music generally begins with a clef, which indicates the pitch-range of the staff. The treble clef or G clef was originally a letter G and it identifies the second line up on the five line staff as the note G above middle C. The bass clef or F clef identifies the second line down as the note F below middle C. While the treble and bass clef are the most widely used, other clefs, which identify middle C, are used for some instruments, such as the alto clef (for viola and alto trombone) and the tenor clef (used for some cello, bassoon, tenor trombone, and double bass music). Some instruments use mainly one clef, such as violin and flute which use treble clef, and double bass and tuba which use bass clef. Some instruments, such as piano and pipe organ, regularly use both treble and bass clefs.

Following the clef, the key signature is a group of from 0 to 7 sharp (♯) or flat (♭) signs placed on the staff to indicate the key of the piece or song by specifying that certain notes are sharp or flat throughout the piece, unless otherwise indicated with accidentals added before certain notes. When a flat (♭) sign is placed before a note, the pitch of the note is lowered by one semitone. Similarly, a sharp sign (♯) raises the pitch by one semitone. For example, a sharp on the note D would raise it to D♯ while a flat would lower it to D♭. Double sharps and double flats are less common, but they are used. A double sharp is placed before a note to make it two semitones higher, a double flat — two semitones lower. A natural sign placed before a note renders that note in its «natural» form, which means that any sharp or flat applied to that note from the key signature or an accidental, is cancelled. Sometimes a courtesy accidental is used in music where it is not technically required, to remind the musician of what pitch is required.

Following the key signature is the time signature. The time signature typically consists of two numbers, with one of the most common being ⁴
₄. The top «4» indicates that there are four beats per measure (also called bar). The bottom «4» indicates that each of those beats are quarter notes. Measures divide the piece into groups of beats, and the time signatures specify those groupings. ⁴
₄ is used so often that it is also called «common time», and it may be indicated with rather than numbers. Other frequently used time signatures are ³
₄ (three beats per bar, with each beat being a quarter note); ²
₄ (two beats per bar, with each beat being a quarter note); ⁶
₈ (six beats per bar, with each beat being an eighth note) and ¹²
₈ (twelve beats per bar, with each beat being an eighth note; in practice, the eighth notes are typically put into four groups of three eighth notes. ¹²
₈ is a compound time type of time signature). Many other time signatures exist, such as ³
₈, ⁵
₈, ⁵
₄, ⁷
₄, ⁹
₈, and so on.

Many short classical music pieces from the classical era and songs from traditional music and popular music are in one time signature for much or all of the piece. Music from the Romantic music era and later, particularly contemporary classical music and rock music genres such as progressive rock and the hardcore punk subgenre mathcore, may use mixed meter; songs or pieces change from one meter to another, for example alternating between bars of ⁵
₄ and ⁷
₈.

Directions to the player regarding matters such as tempo (e.g., Allegro, Andante, Largo, Vif, Lent, Modérément, Presto, etc.), dynamics (pianississimo, pianissimo, piano, mezzopiano, mezzoforte, forte, fortissimo, fortississimo, etc.) appear above or below the staff. Terms indicating the musical expression or «feel» to a song or piece are indicated at the beginning of the piece and at any points where the mood changes (e.g., «Slow March», «Fast Swing», «Medium Blues», «Fougueux», «Feierlich», «Gelassen», «Piacevole», «Con slancio», «Majestic», «Hostile» etc.) For vocal music, lyrics are written near the pitches of the melody. For short pauses (breaths), retakes (retakes are indicated with a ‘ mark) are added.

In music for ensembles, a «score» shows music for all players together, with the staves for the different instruments and/or voices stacked vertically. The conductor uses the score while leading an orchestra, concert band, choir or other large ensemble. Individual performers in an ensemble play from «parts» which contain only the music played by an individual musician. A score can be constructed from a complete set of parts and vice versa. The process was laborious and time consuming when parts were hand-copied from the score, but since the development of scorewriter computer software in the 1980s, a score stored electronically can have parts automatically prepared by the program and quickly and inexpensively printed out using a computer printer.

Variations on staff notation[edit]

• Percussion notation conventions are varied because of the wide range of percussion instruments. Percussion instruments are generally grouped into two categories: pitched (e.g. glockenspiel or tubular bells) and non-pitched (e.g. bass drum and snare drum). The notation of non-pitched percussion instruments is less standardized. Pitched instruments use standard Western classical notation for the pitches and rhythms. In general, notation for unpitched percussion uses the five line staff, with different lines and spaces representing different drum kit instruments. Standard Western rhythmic notation is used to indicate the rhythm.
• Figured bass notation originated in Baroque basso continuo parts. It is also used extensively in accordion notation. The bass notes of the music are conventionally notated, along with numbers and other signs that determine which chords the harpsichordist, organist or lutenist should improvise. It does not, however, specify the exact pitches of the harmony, leaving that for the performer to improvise.
• A lead sheet specifies only the melody, lyrics and harmony, using one staff with chord symbols placed above and lyrics below. It is used to capture the essential elements of a popular song without specifying how the song should be arranged or performed.
• A chord chart or «chart» contains little or no melodic or voice-leading information at all, but provides basic harmonic information about the chord progression. Some chord charts also contain rhythmic information, indicated using slash notation for full beats and rhythmic notation for rhythms. This is the most common kind of written music used by professional session musicians playing jazz or other forms of popular music and is intended primarily for the rhythm section (usually containing piano, guitar, bass and drums).
• Simpler chord charts for songs may contain only the chord changes, placed above the lyrics where they occur. Such charts depend on prior knowledge of the melody, and are used as reminders in performance or informal group singing. Some chord charts intended for rhythm section accompanists contain only the chord progression.
• The shape note system is found in some church hymnals, sheet music, and song books, especially in the Southern United States. Instead of the customary elliptical note head, note heads of various shapes are used to show the position of the note on the major scale. The Sacred Harp is one of the most popular tune books using shape notes.

In various countries[edit]

Korea[edit]

Jeongganbo is a unique traditional musical notation system created during the time of Sejong the Great that was the first East Asian system to represent rhythm, pitch, and time.^[20][21] Among various kinds of Korean traditional music, Jeong-gan-bo targets a particular genre, Jeong-ak (정악, 正樂).

Jeong-gan-bo tells the pitch by writing the pitch’s name down in a box called ‘jeong-gan’ (this is where the name comes from). One jeong-gan is one beat each, and it can be split into two, three or more to hold half beats and quarter beats, and more. This makes it easy for the reader to figure out the beat.

Also, there are many markings indicating things such as ornaments. Most of these were later created by Ki-su Kim.

India[edit]

The Samaveda text (1200 BCE – 1000 BCE) contains notated melodies, and these are probably the world’s oldest surviving ones.^[22] The musical notation is written usually immediately above, sometimes within, the line of Samaveda text, either in syllabic or a numerical form depending on the Samavedic Sakha (school).^[23] The Indian scholar and musical theorist Pingala (c. 200 BCE), in his Chanda Sutra, used marks indicating long and short syllables to indicate meters in Sanskrit poetry.

A rock inscription from circa 7th–8th century CE at Kudumiyanmalai, Tamil Nadu contains an early example of a musical notation. It was first identified and published by archaeologist/epigraphist D. R. Bhandarkar.^[24] Written in the Pallava-grantha script of the 7th century, it contains 38 horizontal lines of notations inscribed on a rectangular rock face (dimension of around 13 by 14 feet). Each line of the notation contains 64 characters (characters representing musical notes), written in groups of four notes. The basic characters for the seven notes, ‘sa ri ga ma pa dha ni’, are seen to be suffixed with the vowels a, i, u, e. For example, in the place of ‘sa’, any one of ‘sa’, ‘si’, ‘su’ or ‘se’ is used. Similarly, in place of ri, any one of ‘ra’, ‘ri’, ‘ru’ or ‘re’ is used. Horizontal lines divide the notation into 7 sections. Each section contains 4 to 7 lines of notation, with a title indicating its musical ‘mode’. These modes may have been popular at least from the 6th century CE and were incorporated into the Indian ‘raga’ system that developed later. But some of the unusual features seen in this notation have been given several non-conclusive interpretations by scholars.^[25]

In the notation of Indian rāga, a solfege-like system called sargam is used. As in Western solfege, there are names for the seven basic pitches of a major scale (Shadja, Rishabha, Gandhara, Madhyama, Panchama, Dhaivata and Nishada, usually shortened to Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni). The tonic of any scale is named Sa, and the dominant Pa. Sa is fixed in any scale, and Pa is fixed at a fifth above it (a Pythagorean fifth rather than an equal-tempered fifth). These two notes are known as achala swar (‘fixed notes’).

Each of the other five notes, Re, Ga, Ma, Dha and Ni, can take a ‘regular’ (shuddha) pitch, which is equivalent to its pitch in a standard major scale (thus, shuddha Re, the second degree of the scale, is a whole-step higher than Sa), or an altered pitch, either a half-step above or half-step below the shuddha pitch. Re, Ga, Dha and Ni all have altered partners that are a half-step lower (Komal-«flat») (thus, komal Re is a half-step higher than Sa).

Ma has an altered partner that is a half-step higher (teevra-«sharp») (thus, tivra Ma is an augmented fourth above Sa). Re, Ga, Ma, Dha and Ni are called vikrut swar (‘movable notes’). In the written system of Indian notation devised by Ravi Shankar, the pitches are represented by Western letters. Capital letters are used for the achala swar, and for the higher variety of all the vikrut swar. Lowercase letters are used for the lower variety of the vikrut swar.

Other systems exist for non-twelve-tone equal temperament and non-Western music, such as the Indian Swaralipi.

Russia[edit]

Znamenny Chant is a singing tradition used in the Russian Orthodox Church which uses a «hook and banner» notation. Znamenny Chant is unison, melismatic liturgical singing that has its own specific notation, called the stolp notation. The symbols used in the stolp notation are called kryuki (Russian: крюки, ‘hooks’) or znamena (Russian: знамёна, ‘signs’). Often the names of the signs are used to refer to the stolp notation. Znamenny melodies are part of a system, consisting of Eight Modes (intonation structures; called glasy); the melodies are characterized by fluency and well-balancedness (Kholopov 2003, 192). There exist several types of Znamenny Chant: the so-called Stolpovoy, Malyj (Little) and Bolshoy (Great) Znamenny Chant. Ruthenian Chant (Prostopinije) is sometimes considered a sub-division of the Znamenny Chant tradition, with the Muscovite Chant (Znamenny Chant proper) being the second branch of the same musical continuum.

Znamenny Chants are not written with notes (the so-called linear notation), but with special signs, called Znamëna (Russian for «marks», «banners») or Kryuki («hooks»), as some shapes of these signs resemble hooks. Each sign may include the following components: a large black hook or a black stroke, several smaller black ‘points’ and ‘commas’ and lines near the hook or crossing the hook. Some signs may mean only one note, some 2 to 4 notes, and some a whole melody of more than 10 notes with a complicated rhythmic structure. The stolp notation was developed in Kievan Rus’ as an East Slavic refinement of the Byzantine neumatic musical notation.

The most notable feature of this notation system is that it records transitions of the melody, rather than notes. The signs also represent a mood and a gradation of how this part of melody is to be sung (tempo, strength, devotion, meekness, etc.) Every sign has its own name and also features as a spiritual symbol. For example, there is a specific sign, called «little dove» (Russian: голубчик (golubchik)), which represents two rising sounds, but which is also a symbol of the Holy Ghost. Gradually the system became more and more complicated. This system was also ambiguous, so that almost no one, except the most trained and educated singers, could sing an unknown melody at sight. The signs only helped to reproduce the melody, not coding it in an unambiguous way.
(See Byzantine Empire)

China[edit]

The earliest known examples of text referring to music in China are inscriptions on musical instruments found in the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng (d. 433 B.C.). Sets of 41 chimestones and 65 bells bore lengthy inscriptions concerning pitches, scales, and transposition. The bells still sound the pitches that their inscriptions refer to. Although no notated musical compositions were found, the inscriptions indicate that the system was sufficiently advanced to allow for musical notation. Two systems of pitch nomenclature existed, one for relative pitch and one for absolute pitch. For relative pitch, a solmization system was used.^[26]

Gongche notation used Chinese characters for the names of the scale.

Japan[edit]

Japanese music is highly diversified, and therefore requires various systems of notation. In Japanese shakuhachi music, for example, glissandos and timbres are often more significant than distinct pitches, whereas taiko notation focuses on discrete strokes.

Ryukyuan sanshin music uses kunkunshi, a notation system of kanji with each character corresponding to a finger position on a particular string.

Indonesia[edit]

Notation plays a relatively minor role in the oral traditions of Indonesia. However, in Java and Bali, several systems were devised beginning at the end of the 19th century, initially for archival purposes. Today the most widespread are cipher notations («not angka» in the broadest sense) in which the pitches are represented with some subset of the numbers 1 to 7, with 1 corresponding to either highest note of a particular octave, as in Sundanese gamelan, or lowest, as in the kepatihan notation of Javanese gamelan.

Notes in the ranges outside the central octave are represented with one or more dots above or below the each number. For the most part, these cipher notations are mainly used to notate the skeletal melody (the balungan) and vocal parts (gerongan), although transcriptions of the elaborating instrument variations are sometimes used for analysis and teaching. Drum parts are notated with a system of symbols largely based on letters representing the vocables used to learn and remember drumming patterns; these symbols are typically laid out in a grid underneath the skeletal melody for a specific or generic piece.

The symbols used for drum notation (as well as the vocables represented) are highly variable from place to place and performer to performer. In addition to these current systems, two older notations used a kind of staff: the Solonese script could capture the flexible rhythms of the pesinden with a squiggle on a horizontal staff, while in Yogyakarta a ladder-like vertical staff allowed notation of the balungan by dots and also included important drum strokes. In Bali, there are a few books published of Gamelan gender wayang pieces, employing alphabetical notation in the old Balinese script.

Composers and scholars both Indonesian and foreign have also mapped the slendro and pelog tuning systems of gamelan onto the western staff, with and without various symbols for microtones. The Dutch composer Ton de Leeuw also invented a three line staff for his composition Gending. However, these systems do not enjoy widespread use.

In the second half of the twentieth century, Indonesian musicians and scholars extended cipher notation to other oral traditions, and a diatonic scale cipher notation has become common for notating western-related genres (church hymns, popular songs, and so forth). Unlike the cipher notation for gamelan music, which uses a «fixed Do» (that is, 1 always corresponds to the same pitch, within the natural variability of gamelan tuning), Indonesian diatonic cipher notation is «moveable-Do» notation, so scores must indicate which pitch corresponds to the number 1 (for example, «1=C»).

• 

  A short melody in slendro notated using the Surakarta method.^[27]

• 

  The same notated using the Yogyakarta method or ‘chequered notation’.^[27]

• 

  The same notated using Kepatihan notation.^[27]

• 

  The same approximated using Western notation.^[27] Play (help·info)

Other systems and practices[edit]

Cipher notation[edit]

Cipher notation systems assigning Arabic numerals to the major scale degrees have been used at least since the Iberian organ tablatures of the 16th-century and include such exotic adaptations as Siffernotskrift. The one most widely in use today is the Chinese Jianpu, discussed in the main article. Numerals can also be assigned to different scale systems, as in the Javanese kepatihan notation described above.

Solfège[edit]

Solfège is a way of assigning syllables to names of the musical scale. In order, they are today: Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do‘ (for the octave). The classic variation is: Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si Do‘. The first Western system of functional names for the musical notes was introduced by Guido of Arezzo (c. 991 – after 1033), using the beginning syllables of the first six musical lines of the Latin hymn Ut queant laxis. The original sequence was Ut Re Mi Fa Sol La, where each verse started a scale note higher. «Ut» later became «Do». The equivalent syllables used in Indian music are: Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni. See also: solfège, sargam, Kodály hand signs.

Tonic sol-fa is a type of notation using the initial letters of solfège.

Letter notation[edit]

The notes of the 12-tone scale can be written by their letter names A–G, possibly with a trailing sharp or flat symbol, such as A♯ or B♭.

Tablature[edit]

Tablature was first used in the Middle Ages for organ music and later in the Renaissance for lute music.^[28] In most lute tablatures, a staff is used, but instead of pitch values, the lines of the staff represent the strings of the instrument. The frets to finger are written on each line, indicated by letters or numbers. Rhythm is written separately with one or another variation of standard note values indicating the duration of the fastest moving part. Few seem to have remarked on the fact that tablature combines in one notation system both the physical and technical requirements of play (the lines and symbols on them and in relation to each other representing the actual performance actions) with the unfolding of the music itself (the lines of tablature taken horizontally represent the actual temporal unfolding of the music). In later periods, lute and guitar music was written with standard notation. Tablature caught interest again in the late 20th century for popular guitar music and other fretted instruments, being easy to transcribe and share over the internet in ASCII format.

Klavar notation[edit]

Klavarskribo (sometimes shortened to klavar) is a music notation system that was introduced in 1931 by the Dutchman Cornelis Pot. The name means «keyboard writing» in Esperanto. It differs from conventional music notation in a number of ways and is intended to be easily readable. Many klavar readers are from the Netherlands.

Piano-roll-based notations[edit]

Some chromatic systems have been created taking advantage of the layout of black and white keys of the standard piano keyboard. The «staff» is most widely referred to as «piano roll», created by extending the black and white piano keys.

Chromatic staff notations[edit]

Over the past three centuries, hundreds of music notation systems have been proposed as alternatives to traditional western music notation. Many of these systems seek to improve upon traditional notation by using a «chromatic staff» in which each of the 12 pitch classes has its own unique place on the staff. An example is Jacques-Daniel Rochat’s Dodeka music notation.^[29][30] These notation systems do not require the use of standard key signatures, accidentals, or clef signs. They also represent interval relationships more consistently and accurately than traditional notation, e.g. major 3rds appear wider than minor 3rds. Many of these systems are described and illustrated in Gardner Read’s «Source Book of Proposed Music Notation Reforms».

Graphic notation[edit]

The term ‘graphic notation’ refers to the contemporary use of non-traditional symbols and text to convey information about the performance of a piece of music. Composers such as Johanna Beyer. Christian Wolff, Carmen Barradas, Earle Brown, Yoko Ono, Anthony Braxton, John Cage, Morton Feldman, Cathy Berberian, Graciela Castillo, Krzysztof Penderecki, Cornelius Cardew, Pauline Oliveros and Roger Reynolds are among the early generation of practitioners. The book Notations, by John Cage and Alison Knowles, is another example of this kind of notation.

Simplified music notation[edit]

Simplified Music Notation is an alternative form of musical notation designed to make sight-reading easier. It is based on classical staff notation, but incorporates sharps and flats into the shape of the note heads. Notes such as double sharps and double flats are written at the pitch they are actually played at, but preceded by symbols called history signs that show they have been transposed.

Modified Stave Notation[edit]

Modified Stave Notation (MSN) is an alternative way of notating music for people who cannot easily read ordinary musical notation even if it is enlarged.

Parsons code[edit]

Parsons code is used to encode music so that it can be easily searched.

Braille music[edit]

Braille music is a complete, well developed, and internationally accepted musical notation system that has symbols and notational conventions quite independent of print music notation. It is linear in nature, similar to a printed language and different from the two-dimensional nature of standard printed music notation. To a degree Braille music resembles musical markup languages^[31] such as MusicXML^[32] or NIFF.

Integer notation[edit]

In integer notation, or the integer model of pitch, all pitch classes and intervals between pitch classes are designated using the numbers 0 through 11.

Rap notation[edit]

The standard form of rap notation is the «flow diagram», where rappers line up their lyrics underneath «beat numbers».^[33] Hip-hop scholars also make use of the same flow diagrams that rappers use: the books How to Rap and How to Rap 2 extensively use the diagrams to explain rap’s triplets, flams, rests, rhyme schemes, runs of rhyme, and breaking rhyme patterns, among other techniques.^[34] Similar systems are used by musicologists Adam Krims in his book Rap Music and the Poetics of Identity^[35] and Kyle Adams in his work on rap’s flow.^[36] As rap usually revolves around a strong 4/4 beat,^[37] with certain syllables aligned to the beat, all the notational systems have a similar structure: they all have four beat numbers at the top of the diagram, so that syllables can be written in-line with the beat.^[37]

ABC[edit]

ABC notation is a compact format using plain text characters, readable by computers and by humans. More than 100,000 tunes are now transcribed in this format.^[38]

Music notation on computers[edit]

Unicode[edit]

The Musical Symbols Unicode block encodes an extensive system of formal musical notation.

The Miscellaneous Symbols block has a few of the more common symbols:

• U+2669 ♩ QUARTER NOTE
• U+266A ♪ EIGHTH NOTE
• U+266B ♫ BEAMED EIGHTH NOTES
• U+266C ♬ BEAMED SIXTEENTH NOTES
• U+266D ♭ MUSIC FLAT SIGN
• U+266E ♮ MUSIC NATURAL SIGN
• U+266F ♯ MUSIC SHARP SIGN

The Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs block has three emoji that may include depictions of musical notes:

• U+1F3A7 🎧 HEADPHONE
• U+1F3B5 🎵 MUSICAL NOTE
• U+1F3B6 🎶 MULTIPLE MUSICAL NOTES

Software[edit]

Many computer programs have been developed for creating music notation (called scorewriters or music notation software). Music may also be stored in various digital file formats for purposes other than graphic notation output.

Perspectives of musical notation in composition and musical performance[edit]

According to Philip Tagg and Richard Middleton, musicology and to a degree European-influenced musical practice suffer from a ‘notational centricity’, a methodology slanted by the characteristics of notation.^[39][40] A variety of 20th- and 21st-century composers have dealt with this problem, either by adapting standard Western musical notation or by using graphic notation.^{[clarification needed]} These include George Crumb, Luciano Berio, Krzystof Penderecki, Earl Brown, John Cage, Witold Lutoslawski, and others.^[41][42]

See also[edit]

• List of musical symbols of modern notation.
• Hebrew cantillation
• Colored music notation
• Eye movement in music reading
• Guido of Arezzo, inventor of modern musical notation
• History of music publishing
• List of scorewriters
• Mensural notation
• Modal notation
• Music engraving, drawing music notation for the purpose of mechanical reproduction
• Music OCR, the application of optical character recognition to interpret sheet music
• Neume (plainchant notation)
• Pitch class
• Rastrum, a five-pointed writing implement used to draw parallel staff lines across a blank piece of sheet music
• Scorewriter
• Semasiography
• Sheet music
• Time unit box system, a notation system useful for polyrhythms
• Tongan music notation, a subset of standard music notation
• Tonnetz
• Znamenny chant

Notes[edit]

Sources[edit]

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

• Byzantine Music Notation. Contains a Guide to Byzantine Music Notation (neumes).
• CCARH—Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities Information on Stanford University Course on music representation. Links page shows examples of different notations.
• Music Markup Language. XML-based language for music notation.
• Synopsis of Musical Notation Encyclopedias (An index from topics of CWN into the books of Gould, Vinci, Wanske, Stone and Read.)
• Gehrkens, Karl Wilson Music Notation and Terminology. Project Gutenberg.
• Gilbert, Nina. «Glossary of U.S. and British English musical terms.» Posted 17 June 1998; updated 7 September 2000.