TwinNote Music Notation

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

C Major and C Minor Scales
D Major and D Minor Scales
A Major and A Minor Scales
Major and Minor Seconds
Chromatic and Whole Tone Scales
Quarter Notes
Half Notes

Quarter Notes, Max 6-6 Version of TwinNote

TwinNote has two kinds of notes — triangles that point up, and triangles that point down. This makes it easy to identify intervals. For instance:

Major seconds (like C-D) — the triangles always point in the same direction.
Minor seconds (like E-F) — the triangles always point in the opposite direction.

It is easy to see the patterns of major and minor seconds that make up the different scales shown above. TwinNote makes these and other intervals clear so that what you see always matches what you hear (unlike traditional music notation where there is no consistent visible difference between major and minor seconds).

Advantages of TwinNote

TwinNote offers many advantages that make music easier to read and learn, while still conveying all of the same information conveyed by traditional notation. In the images shown above, notice how each note of the chromatic scale has its own place on the staff.^[1] This provides some significant benefits:

Intervals:
TwinNote represents intervals more consistently and accurately. Since intervals are the building blocks of music, clearly seeing them means clearly seeing and understanding music's basic structures: scales, chords, keys, etc. Clearly seeing each interval that you play also helps with learning to improvise and play by ear, skills that entail playing by interval. (See Scales and Intervals.)
Key Signatures:
There is no need to memorize and remember different key signatures just to play the right notes. You simply play the notes that you see on TwinNote's chromatic staff. There is no extra step of mentally processing them first according to one of (up to) fifteen key signatures that you have to constantly remember.^[2]
Note Consistency, Octaves, and Clefs:
Notes are easy to identify since they always have the same appearance, regardless of their octave or register. For example, the note E is always an upwards pointing triangle on the same line of the staff. Every E looks just like every other E. There is no need to learn different clefs (like the bass and treble clefs) as in traditional notation.^[2]
Accidental Signs:
As with key signatures, reading accidental signs is no longer required to play the right note. Notes that require sharp, flat, or natural signs in traditional notation have their own position on TwinNote's chromatic staff. You simply play the notes that you see without having to mentally modify them first.^[2]

Learn More:

Scales — Illustrations and discussion of major and minor scales in TwinNote.

Intervals — Illustrations of intervals in TwinNote.

Key Features — An overview of the main characteristics of TwinNote and the thinking behind them, including:

Two types of notehead for clearer notes and intervals
Compact staff for efficient use of vertical space, made possible by the two note shapes
Staff lines a major third apart for clearer intervals
Improved key signatures, register symbols, and accidental signs
Retaining many familiar symbols from traditional notation to make it easier to learn both systems

The Max 6-6 Version of TwinNote
A more radical alternative version of TwinNote.

TwinNote uses a "chromatic staff," a staff on which each of the notes of the chromatic scale has its own vertical position. Unlike on a traditional staff, the vertical distance between notes is always proportional to their difference in pitch — their interval.

TwinNote's staff cycles on the octave, repeating with each octave, so a given note always has the same appearence on the staff regardless of the staff's octave register. Chromatic staves can naturally cycle on the octave since they represent an even number of notes — the twelve notes of the chromatic scale. Traditional staves are based on the odd number of seven notes in the diatonic scale, and so do not cycle on the octave. For example the note C may be on a line or a space, depending on its octave.

The advantages of alternative notation systems that use a chromatic staff that cycles on the octave are covered in more detail by the Music Notation Project. Return
TwinNote has its own system of key signatures, register symbols (instead of clefs), and optional new accidental signs. These provide the same information that is conveyed in traditional notation, but in a clearer and more direct way. For instance, they distinguish between enharmonically equivalent notes such as C# and Db. Return