The Dotty World of Music Notation by James Kelso

"If you can’t read music you’re not alone. Yet you can press the right keys on a computer. You can press the right buttons in an elevator. So why can’t you, with a musical score in front of you, press the right keys on a piano? The reason is because conventional written music is a graphic nightmare. It’s bonkers. If someone invented it today they’d be laughed at. You should be able to read music as easily as you can read a book, or use a computer, or use a lift. Surely there must be simpler systems? And of course there are. Much simpler. There’s one particular method that is laughably simpler. But hardly anyone has heard of it. Certainly very few in the music business. Teachers, professionals, performers, composers, none of them know about it except perhaps for a tiny handful. In fact, not only are most musicians ignorant about it, they’re often proud of their ignorance. They bridle and get huffy if you even mention the subject. A senior editor of one of the world’s most respected music publishers called the text of this booklet ‘absolutely fascinating and a great read’. One of the world’s most respected international music critics said it was ‘most thought-provoking’. So, standby. For the price of a cup of coffee you are going to learn what most of the maestros on the world’s podiums don’t know. This is not to decry or denigrate the intellectual achievement of conventional notation, the system that has so enriched the world. This is not an attempt to supplant it, but to see it clearly. To realize that written music is not music. Notation is the portal to the majestic halls of sound beyond. It’s the portal that’s wonky, not the music. The fact is conventional notation is like an old combination-lock safe that you have to unscramble and unpick to get in. It needn’t be such a struggle, as you’re about to find out."