Notation

Every culture in the world has developed forms of language and music. Just as language, music can have oral as well as written traditions. Although oral traditions in music are alive and well in almost every type of society, literate societies have also evolved systems of graphic notation to represent sounds and the way performers should interpret them.

A music notation system can therefor be thought of as the collection of symbols that people use to represent and interpret sounds. Think about it as a set of written instructions or blueprint that serves two main purposes: First, to preserve the music heritage of a people or culture, and second, to allow people to recreate musical works by following the directions that someone else has committed to paper. Music notation can, therefore, be thought of as a form of communication among musicians that usually happens between composer and performer. In this course, we will be focusing on the traditional staff notation of Western music.

Music notation also refers to the act of writing musical notes. Depending on the historical period and culture, this has taken many different forms, and served different functions.

In recent centuries, the standard method for music notation in most Western music traditions has been staff notation. Other forms of notation have also been used, however. Some contemporary music, for example, uses imaginative forms of graphic notation. In earlier times, a combination of letters, numbers, and staves collectively called tablature, was used for certain string instruments. A numerical notation system that is sometimes used instead of the traditional character notation also exists in China and Japan.

The Staff

The staff is a collection of five horizontal lines and the four spaces between them. The plural of staff is stave. Noteheads are the oval-shaped part of notes that are placed on the lines or in the spaces of the staff to represent different pitches.

In the following sections of the course, you will see and hear the relationship between pitch and note placement on the staff.