Home
Have you or someone you know struggled to learn to read sheet music… perhaps even given up playing an instrument because this barrier was too much to overcome? WYSIWYP is a new notation designed to make reading music as simple and as intuitive as possible for beginning students of music while still retaining all the capabilities of traditional notation.
The Simplified Notation app for Sheet Music (SNapp) is a cross-platform browser app for displaying sheet music in WYSIWYP format. Your local music store isn’t selling WYSIWYP sheet music (yet) so it’s a must.
Of course learning to play a musical instrument takes enormous time and practice, but this technique allows the student to focus on playing and spend less time learning to read sheet music.
Traditional notation vs WYSIWYP - a quick summary
All octaves have the same format and staves expand/contract to fit the range of the score (red lines are C, blue lines are F).
Noteheads explicitly indicate naturals (circles) and sharps/flats (combination symbol or triangles up/down). There is no need to remember key signatures.
Note duration is explicitly shown as stripes on a true timeline.
Tic marks on the timeline show the beat - no need for time signature since beats per measure is explicit.
Find all the details in the Complete Summary. If you want to try out the app right away, here is the link to it.
_______________________________________________________
About this website
This website is an example of how the WYSIWYP alternative notation could be disseminated on the internet for discovery by music students struggling to learn to read sheet music. Use of alternative notations is not likely to be directed top down from schools of music, but rather spread like a meme on the internet in a bottom-up manner.
The value of the WYSIWYP alternative notation is unproven. Therefore, there is another target audience for this website. Academics in the areas of musicology and/or music education may find that alternative notations would be an interesting research project. Such research might reveal whether they have merit in helping students to read and play music, and as a result, reduce student dropout rates.
There are many proposed alternative notations and one has achieved some level of acceptance (Klavarskribo). However, while most provide a more logical notation, they do not necessarily lead to easier learning by beginning students. The goal of the WYSIWYP approach is to make music notation intuitive. While learning to play an instrument takes much time and practice, this new notation itself can be learned in less than an hour. Furthermore, compared to other alternative notations, it is not so far afield from traditional notation so transitioning to it should be less difficult when the student is ready.
The website is incomplete but is a work on progress. Questions and constructive comments are welcome. Also welcome would be discussions regarding potential research projects.
email address: contact.wysiwyp@gmail.com