Clairnote DN

An alternative music notation system that makes music easier to read and understand.

Notes and intervals are represented clearly and consistently.

Notes appear on a staff line or in one of three vertical positions between them. Adjacent staff positions are always a half step apart (one semitone).

Whether a note is solid or hollow is its most prominent visual feature, so Clairnote DN uses this solid/hollow distinction to help convey pitch rather than duration. The vertical positions on the staff alternate regularly between solid and hollow noteheads. This makes individual notes easier to identify and interval relationships easier to see. Half notes have a double stem to distinguish them from quarter notes, otherwise Clairnote DN uses traditional rhythm symbols.

The connection between what you see and what you play and hear is simple, direct, and intuitive.

The interval relationships between notes are visible and explicit. For example, you can see the patterns of whole steps and half steps that make up typical scales, like the C major scale shown above. (The notes of whole steps are always solid-solid or hollow-hollow, while the notes of half steps are always solid-hollow or hollow-solid.)

Each note of the chromatic scale has its own line or space on the staff.

Notes that have different pitches do not share the same line or space (e.g. F and F-sharp). There is a simple one-to-one relationship between each key on a piano (white or black) and its corresponding staff position. You can simply play the notes as you see them, without having to remember the current key signature and any accidental signs.

Octaves

In traditional music notation notes an octave apart do not resemble each other. The line pattern of Clairnote DN's staff cyclically repeats with each octave, so notes an octave apart look similar. That makes it easy to identify a given note regardless of its octave. As soon as you learn to read one octave you can read any octave on the staff. This also simplifies playing music in a different octave than the one in which it is written.

Clefs

In traditional music notation the notes represented by the lines and spaces of the staff change depending on the current clef (treble, bass, alto, tenor, etc.). Piano music entails reading in two different clefs at once. In Clairnote DN the lines and spaces of the staff look the same in every octave and always mean the same thing in every octave. There is no need to learn to read different clefs. Clairnote DN 's clef symbols simply indicate the octave register of the staff.

Key Signatures and Accidental Signs

In traditional music notation the notes on the staff may be altered by accidental signs (sharps, flats, naturals, double sharps, double flats) or by one of a dozen or so key signatures that you have to learn and keep in mind in order to play the correct notes. With Clairnote DN you can simply play the notes as they appear on the staff and learn common musical patterns as you go.

Clairnote DN 's key signatures and accidental signs play a very minimal role in the process of reading and playing notes. They provide helpful additional information — all the same information conveyed in traditional notation, like the current key, when a note is an accidental (i.e. not in the current key), and the different names of enharmonically equivalent notes (like G-sharp and A-flat).

Intervals and Chords

In traditional music notation different intervals and chords may look the same (e.g. major and minor thirds and triads). In Clairnote DN the differences between intervals are always clearly visible. This makes it easy to see the relationship between notes and to learn the musical patterns found in chords, scales, melodies, harmonies, etc.

For example, you can see the difference between major and minor thirds, the building blocks of chords. (Major thirds are always solid-solid or hollow-hollow. Minor thirds are always solid-hollow or hollow-solid.)

This facilitates reading music relatively by reading the intervals between notes (as a complement to reading the individual notes). Improvising and playing by ear involve playing music relatively, by interval (by relative pitch), so clearly seeing each interval as you play supports learning these skills. See Intervals , Chords , and Scales .

Sheet Music Videos

Sheet Music and Software

There are currently over 600 works in the Clairnote DN Sheet Music collection, all available to download for free as PDFs. They were created with LilyPond – free (open-source) music notation software that anyone can use to create new sheet music from scratch or to automatically convert traditional music files into Clairnote DN. See Software: LilyPond . The available sheet music includes a collection of fiddle tunes, a piano lesson book, and a sight-singing lesson book.

Here are a few well known pieces from the Clairnote DN Sheet Music collection (PDF files):

• Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star , arranged for piano
• The Blue Danube Waltz (Main Theme) by Johann Strauss Jr., arranged for piano
• Greensleeves Traditional English melody, arranged for four-part vocal harmony
• Das Wohltemperierte Clavier I, Praeludium I by J.S. Bach
• Für Elise by Ludwig van Beethoven, for piano
• The Entertainer by Scott Joplin, for piano
• Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin, for piano

What next? Explore Clairnote DN with the "AudioVisualizer" on the About page or play a game to start to learn to read Clairnote DN on the Learn page.