Alternative Notation Project Development
stuar...@gmail.com
Thanks John. I felt this discussion of websites and such to be off topic from that of bias against ANs in the previous conversation thread, so I am responding here. I apologize in advance for being so long-winded. As my wife would say, “don’t get him started”.
John: “I looked at your website. My first question was where is the diagram of WYSIWYP and the keyboard? I want to see a picture, not read a lot of text! After a while I found https://sites.google.com/view/the-challenges-of-sheet-music?usp=sharing with the diagram a bit of a scroll down. I wanted this diagram to be the first thing the audience sees! And do you have a beginners piano course? is there a list of transnotated standard piano pieces? Is there an automatic translation app?”
Me: I actually have two websites. The first is a prototype for a website to someday to promote, instruct, and support an online community of students https://www.wysiwyp.org/ I created it a long time ago and I now realize it needs major work before I officially “roll it out”. It currently has a header on the home page explaining this. It includes a “course” that is based on a (retail) book for adult beginners but using my notation instead of TN. Knowing what I know now, my “course” needs to be discarded and totally replaced. This is because I think new instructional techniques should be created that take advantage of ANs’ ease of learning. This makes it possible for adult learners to more quickly start playing the music they love instead of children’s tunes.
The 2nd website is what I am using in my outreach to university music schools as a case for help in evaluation of my AN. And then if there is some buy-in, publication of results in academic journals and conferences might inspire frontline music teachers to try it and perhaps even adopt it for their students. In addition, I would hope an academic would be interested in helping to form a project team to complete the development of the project: the website, app development, and quality training materials. This is all described in the 2nd website. It’s a hard sell needless to say. In the other MNP forum conversation thread, I was just pointing to the Tradition page because it is relevant to that thread. I really was trying to avoid the impression of a sales pitch for which the full website is intended. (So now you can blame John for me opening Pandora’s box here.)
There is indeed a prototype app that displays virtual sheet music from input MusicXML files. It is browser based so it runs on almost any screen device. It demonstrates all of the changes my AN makes to TN but there remains the need to add in all of the other TN unchanged functionality (e.g., repeats, slurs, articulations, etc.). It’s called the Simplified Notation App (https://snapp.wysiwyp.org/). The first website (as well as SNapp) has a link to some simple MusicXML tunes just so new arrivals to the site don’t have to go looking for MusicXML files (they’re not plentiful or easy to find shall we say). My intention is to someday greatly expand the list (while still respecting copyright laws). There is a description of SNapp and how to use it linked on the home page of the first website.
So, generally with the first website, I have the beginnings of what would be necessary to launch a “bottom-up” approach to attract beginning students searching on the internet for an easier way to read music. The second website is to engage the academic world in a “top-down” approach.
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John: “I guess your system is not on the MusicNotation website because it doesn't comply with the pitch proportionality condition, In that B and D are space notes equally below and above the C line, instead of showing the semitone and wholetone distances accurately.”
Me: It’s on the WIKI because I was too late in the game to be included in the original MNMA website. Of course, because it is diatonic it would not have been in the main discussion because diatonics don’t comply with the criteria as you point out.
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John: “I have general question about your website. What brand is it? How much does it cost? Can a website continue on after a person dies? Paul Morris has urged me to get my own site for my Express Stave instead of the MNP Wiki page it is on currently (https://musicnotation.org/wiki/notation-systems/express-stave-by-john-keller/), but I am aware of my age and health concerns so feel my current page is a better place for my files. Just that I cannot edit it. I would like to delete a lot and streamline the teaching method, have an automated transnotation ability, as well as all the downloadable piano pieces I have notated.”
Me: One of the reasons both of my websites look kinda lame is that they are hosted on Google Sites. It is limited in its functionality but the good news though is that it’s free. There are a number of hosting sites that provide more robust website creation tools but they’re not free. But as my “bottom-up” website demonstrates, it is possible to do all of the things you want to do with Google Sites. Since one does not pay anything for Google Sites, the website should exist as long as the Google account is still active, or Google decides to drop Sites. We can talk offline about more details of Sites if you’d like. I too am disappointed that I cannot update my entry on the WIKI because there are some small changes I would like to make.
And speaking of age. I am at the point (76) where I do not have the time and energy to pursue the bottom-up approach on my own. Oh to be 30 years younger. Alas, my goal now is to reach out to researchers in hopes of getting not only evaluations but hopefully in getting someone to carry on the project of completing the app, replacing the website, and promoting the notation.
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John: “Yes it is good to see a discussion about ANs again. I have a piano club that meets monthly to play for each other. All retiries who learnt or are learning traditional notation, but no-one even wants to look at my notation! Definitely biased against an alternative to traditional notation! So one project I have is to develop a very concise presentation that I could take a person through in 10 minutes to get them playing from ES. And this would be upfront on my website.”
That’s a good idea. I have tried to do the same thing on my first website under the heading of “take a test drive”. Yet another part of the site that needs to be re-written.
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John: “I agree with your points 1 to 5 about misunderstandings. In my opinions an AN can assist in understanding TN. My beginners courses teach both. Point 3 has been made that ES is not as full function as TN because it does not distinguish sharps and flats. But most instruments play enharmonics the exact same way (fingerings on woodwind and brass). On violin and viola we play them with different fingers but in practice the fingering would be understood from context. Not that I am intending ES be for all instruments, just that it could be.”
Me: I would say that ES has the same function as TN with respect to enharmonics, they’re just implemented in a different way. I don’t dare reopen again that conversation about sharps and flats being played differently but it’s my view that the difference would be learned by the student in the course of learning to play the instrument regardless of notation. In any case, my definition of “full function” here means to support every single element of TN’s system of symbols, multiple instrument sheet music, and so forth. This is a huge challenge for an app as well as someday having an editor like MuseScore.
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John: “PS After writing all this i thought to look up WYSIWYP on the MNP site and found your Wiki page. (https://musicnotation.org/wiki/notation-systems/what-you-see-is-what-you-play-wysiwyp-by-stuart-byrom/)
This is good and concise with the explanatory picture right at the top. What I thought should be on your website!”
Me: I guess I could claim to have a 3rd website that is the MNP WIKI. But this has a different presentation than the other two because it’s really targeted for those of us interested in ANs and presumably are musicians themselves and probably already read TN. For beginners, I prefer a different approach that assumes no previous knowledge of music. But I think you confirmed my intention!