ICON - The Alternative Music Notation

[JLMoriart]

It's a very logical progression given an isomorphic layout to start making visual representations of intervals.

You need to be sure though that the isomorphic layout off of which you are basing your system is the most theoretically relevant. The harmonic table keyboard does not reflect the most relevant nature of tonal music, whereas the wiki/hayden layout does.

This has been supported in severyal peer reviewed papers, where a deep connection of tonal theory with the W/H layout is revealed.

[JLMoriart]

For example, how would your system differentiate a minor third from an augmented second? Theyre both theoretically and functionally different (functionally in tunings other than 12-TET.)

The W/H represents each separately and even allows for "tuning invariance".

If you're curious as to why I can send some links, I can't seem to include urls in a comment.

The HT layout has some advantages, but the W/H layout is rooted deep in music theory and should be the layout off of which a notation is based.

[JLMoriart]

mitpressjournals

dotorg

/doi/pdf/10.1162/comj.2007.31.­4.15

thummer

dotcom

/ThumTone/Tuning_Invariant_Lay­outs_Last_Draft.pdf

[geoffreyefloyd]

i agree! Although, if you're only going to play in 12 TET, it appears that the maximum "swathe thickness" occurs at approximately 700 cents for the fokker layout, which is significant considering that 702 cents is the closest integer value to 3/2. For 12 TET, it appears that Fokker can provide much greater modulatory resources than Wicki. There's other things I would consider too, like being able to play triads with one finger...seems handy. Depends on what you wanna do I guess.

[JLMoriart]

If you take harmonic timbres as a given (and with them 702 cents) then fokker is the optimal layout. Deviatiation far from 700 cents, however, breaks down the fingering invariance. The W/H layout however has a valid tuning range from 686 to 720 cents, who's tunings can be played with modified timbres and are traditionally played by non Western cultures.

Not to mention the fundamental link between the W/H layout and Moment Of Symmetry scales, levels of cardinality, and diatonic set theory.

[geoffreyefloyd]

:o

makes sense, thx. Someone should redo this notation for w/h...it would be easy as pie.

[JLMoriart]

Agreed.

thummer

dotcom

/ThumMusic.pdf

Check out page 33 =)

[geoffreyefloyd]

I may have misunderstood something, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong...

[Envergure]

Relevant? The Axis layout is relevant to me because I own one. I don't have any actual music theory training. Why do they peer-review a review of the WH layout?

How does the WH distinguish between the augmented second and minor third? They keys are in the same place regardless of what order you press them, or what you're thinking while you play.

[JLMoriart]

-The Axis layout is relevant to me because I own one-

That is a reasonable point. It boils down to which layout one should play in the first place.

Check out the diagram here:

upload.wikimedia

dotorg

/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Wicki-­Hayden-Musical-Note-Layout.png

Notice how the keys Eb and D# are in different locations, as are every other "enharmonic equivalent."

A minor third is [left] one and then [up/to the left one], whereas an augmented second is to the [right] four and [up/to the right] one.

[Envergure]

I see. That doesn't mean much to me, though. I never thought of it. The Axis comes with stickers you can put on the keys, which include both sharp and flat names for the black keys.

[geoffreyefloyd]

Having an efficient layout is important (especially if you're a microtonalist) but it's not everything. If you are mostly looking to play western music (say jazz or classical), a lot of layouts make playing certain voicings very difficult (unless you can press two keys with one finger, but then you can't arpeggiate the chords in certain ways...).Just try playing something like...ravel's jeux d' eau; most likely there will be many runs and chords that will prove to be difficult if not impossible.

[geoffreyefloyd]

For playing western classical or jazz, I personally would go with janko...probably the chromatone version of it. Everything that can be done on a piano can be done on a chromatone...and easier. I would probably choose W/H over the harmonic table, not just for the wide tuning range but also the fact that scales are a whole lot easier and you don't have to learn two sets of them as you do with the HT. Then again, for some things being able to press major/minor triads with one finger sounds fun...

[JLMoriart]

Right, so if you want to play in a tuning where they are different, you couldn't used the HT layout. Geoffry makes a good point that if you don't care about that stuff it doesn't matter for you, but there is a very good chance that emerging technologies will make playing in these alternate tunings popular, and to play them with the same fingering you need the wicki/hayden layout, for at least the tunings in the syntonic temperament:

en.wikipedia

dotorg

/wiki/Syntonic_temperament

[gray1753]

@JLMoriart Two things: Can you point me to some of those papers (or preferably a good summary)? How does the Wesley layout (arraymbira dot comm) compare to WH?

[JLMoriart]

@gray1753 I'll PM you links to the papers. The Wesley layout that appears on his Array Instruments is functionally exactly the same as the wicki layout. David Wesley "discovered" the layout but, as I understand it, every possible isomorphic layout had already been "discovered" before he invented his instruments. That is, the definition of an isomorphic not layout had been generalized in a way that described every possible layout through mathematical definition, and his layout is the W/H layout.

[fraglessone]

Nice video, this notation makes sense but starts getting confusing around the halfway point, would it be possible to read this and play in realtime? What about playing and holding a chord then playing other notes while holding that chord. I guess you could draw a line going down off of the chord symbol and then draw a line going to the right representing how long you hold the chord. Just a thought...

[Envergure]

I don't see why you couldn't sight-read/play ICON, since many people have learned to do that with staff notation. For holding a chord and playing something else at the same time, I suppose you'd have two rows of symbols (like having two staves, one for each hand).

[BigNickontheDrum]

came here and cleaned up the thumb ratings, who ever thumbs-downed moonscore and dudestar are rejecs, these people have respect for the ground work you've done here. just discovered this instrument twenty minutes ago and if I ever get my hands on one I'll be studying your ideas in pursuit of a coherent technique. excellent work!

[julias7777]

Hahahahahaha!

[moonscore]

Great stuff! I'm a contemporary classical composer and I'm excited about the new possibilities that the AXiS opens up. When I write my first piece for this keyboard layout, I will probably use your ideas in notating it :)

[dudestar99]

Great work! This video brought up memories of reading music on non-AXIS instruments. I've always thought that pianists could progress much musically from learning a stringed instrument - and vice versa. Now that the AXIS has come, I think all musicians could progress much musically from learning it. And your video should be required viewing for AXIS users :)... you've got excellent ideas... this is a neat alternate framework.

[Envergure]

Thanks for the support!

[geoffreyefloyd]

this looks very cool, I'm a wicki hayden fan myself, but this is neat...can you make a video of say like a debussy song or something in this notation, actually anything would be fine as long as we get to see it in action.

[geoffreyefloyd]

COOL!

Suggestion: For diminished and augmented chords I would suggest drawing a tiny line (like a ruler) for every scale degree. My reasoning being, you can have different types of diminished and augmented chords like dim7 or dom7#5. Sure you could just draw a longer line but...it might be hard to differentiate by eye between dim/aug and dim7/dom7#5 without markers to tell you how many scale degrees there are (if you see 4 lines, it's obviously a dim7/dom7#5).

[Envergure]

Good idea.

I am, in fact, still planning on making that second video; I got work for the summer so now I can afford to buy an axis.

[geoffreyefloyd]

ahah neat. I wanna get one, I looked at the opal midi keyboard but it's exactly the same as the axis except it's $2,000 more expensive (albeit a nicer look to it). So I'll go with the axis.