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Color, shape, and sound: A proposed system of

music notation

Article in Semiotica · April 2015

DOI: 10.1515/sem-2014-0086

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Mitchell Wong
University of Toronto
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Colour, Shape and Sound: A Proposed System of Music Notation

The traditional system of music notation uses a wide variety of symbols to

communicate musical ideas. These include elliptical note heads attached to vertical stems

to denote rhythm, and a 5-line staff on which these note heads are placed to denote pitch.

Many of these symbols however, are arbitrary, bearing no inherent connection to the

sounds or rhythms they represent. Nonetheless, their functions and their verbal

equivalents must be learned, and the musician must be able to decode them rapidly in

order to produce the desired sounds.

The following article presents an alternative system of music notation that is at

once more iconic and objective. Instead of note heads and stems, it uses colours and

shapes to evoke musical responses. As a primitive, universal language, colour is easily

and quickly understood. As a means of communication, it bypasses normal barriers

applied to traditional music symbols and terms. A colour-based musical notation system

can be regarded as a more efficient, primordial means through which to record and

reproduce musical ideas.

Furthermore, the symbols used in this system are inherently related to the musical

information they communicate. Lower pitches for example, are represented by colours of

lower physical frequencies while higher pitches are represented by colours of higher

physical frequencies. Likewise, notes of longer duration have a visible length that is

longer than notes of shorter duration. A note worth four beats for example, will appear

exactly twice as long as a note worth two beats. This intrinsic connection between the

symbols and their function allows for a more intuitive and objective language of notation.
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1. History of associating music and colour

The tradition of associating music and colour dates back to ancient times.

Aristotle (384 B.C.E. – 322 B.C.E.) noted the connection between colour and sound in

his treatise De Sensu (350 B.C.E). In it, he stated that we may regard colours as

analogous to the sounds that enter into music (Aristotle 1907: 439b). In medieval Europe,

the earliest forms of music notation used colour as a guide to represent pitch (Poast

2000). Around 900 C.E., for instance, a thin red line was ruled above the text and called

“F”. Every modulation above this red line was a higher pitch and every one below it was

a lower pitch. Moreover, red, black and white notes, among others, indicated a change in

tone quality (Hughes 1939: 768-769). In the field of physics, Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

discussed the correlations he perceived between the colour spectrum and the musical

scale. In his work Optiks (1704) he suggested that his spectrum of seven colours was

governed by the same ratios underlying music’s seven-note diatonic scale. Although not a

lover of practical music, he was interested in music’s underlying principles and the notion

of universal laws common to music and nature. Finally, in the era of modern music, the

composer John Cage (1912-1992) used colour in the score for his composition Aria

(1958). In this piece, pitch was notated by the vertical position of coloured lines and the

layout of these lines defined ten different styles of singing.

Since at least 1870, inventors have been patenting systems of music notation that

incorporate colour. A search of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Database today will reveal

dozens of systems created by theorists from Canada, Australia, Japan, and the United

States. Though the conventions they use are quite diverse, these systems all share the goal

of facilitating the reading and writing of music. It must be noted that all of the systems
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currently registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Database use a minimum of

seven colours to represent the 88 notes of the piano. Most often, these seven colours are

red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Unfortunately, any notation system

which uses these seven colours should be deemed ineffective since the human eye cannot

immediately distinguish between the last three. Two of these last three colours must

therefore be eliminated for such a system to work properly.

The presently proposed system is the first to use only five colours – red, orange,

yellow, green and blue – to represent all 88 notes of the piano. These five colours are

sufficiently contrasting to allow the eye to differentiate between them with certainty. This

system can therefore be seen as an evolution, rather than a revolution, in the association

between music and colour.

2. Basic workings of the system

As previously mentioned, the proposed system uses five colours - red, orange,

yellow, green and blue. These colours are fixed to specific notes on the piano as such:

Figure 1.
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Additionally, diagonal lines struck through each colour can either raise or lower the pitch

by a half step. A diagonal line originating from the bottom left corner and terminating in

the top right corner raises the pitch by a half step. A diagonal line originating in the top

left corner and terminating in the bottom right corner lowers the pitch by a half step.

Figure 2.

To notate musical passages, the colours are drawn on the traditional 5-line staff. The

same colour drawn on different vertical spaces on the staff represents the same note in

different octaves. C1, for example, is represented by a red block on the space below the

lowest line on the staff. C2 is represented by the next highest space.

Figure 3.
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The C major scale in four octaves would therefore be represented as follows:

Figure 4.

The duration of each note is represented by the visible length of its bar of colour. For the
sake of comparison, a note lasting 4 beats would be represented as such:

Figure 5.

A note lasting 2 beats would be represented as such:

Figure 6.

A note lasting 1 beat would be represented as such:

Figure 7.

A note lasting ½ beat would be represented as such:

Figure 8.
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The melody of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star would thus be represented as follows:

Figure 9.

Rests (silence) are indicated by blank space, proportionate to the duration of the rest.

Finally, for jazz and pop music, chord symbols are represented by coloured shapes. For

example, a circle represents a major chord, a square represents a minor chord, and a

triangle represents a dominant 7th chord. The colour inside the shape represents the root

note (tonic) of the chord.

A C major chord would thus be represented as follows:

Figure 10.

And an A minor chord would be represented as follows:

Figure 11.
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The melody to the Broadway song Somewhere Over the Rainbow (1938) would thus be
represented as follows:

Figure 12.

This represents the basic workings of the proposed notation system. The system

has been thoroughly developed however to accommodate music of great complexity. It is

capable, for example, of notating Johann Sebastian Bach’s Fugue in G Minor BWV 578

(1703) which features four voices playing simultaneously in counterpoint. It is also

capable of notating Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (1913) which consists of a 40-part

orchestral score.

The system is also capable of accommodating music of diverse genres and time

periods including, but not limited to, western classical music, medieval music, jazz, rock,

and pop. Moreover, the system can be used by many types of instruments, including but

not limited to string instruments, brass instruments, woodwind instruments, melodic

percussion instruments and medieval instruments. Further research must be done to

determine whether the system is capable of notating music of other cultures such as

traditional Indian or Chinese music.

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3. Advantages over the traditional system

The proposed system offers several significant advantages over the traditional system. In

the traditional system, one must memorize the meanings of many different symbols. To

read duration for example, one must know that an empty circle represents four beats,

while an empty circle with a vertical stem attached to it represents two beats. These

symbols are arbitrary and their meanings must be memorized. With the proposed system

on the other hand, the symbol for the note intrinsically communicates its duration. There

is an objective connection between the symbol and its function, thus allowing the reader

to translate the symbol more intuitively.

In terms of pitch, the traditional notation system requires that one memorize

which note each line or space of the staff corresponds to. On the standard 5-line staff, this

means differentiating between 11 lines and spaces. Furthermore, as many as nine

additional ledger lines may extend either above or below the standard staff. This makes a

total of 29 different lines or spaces that the reader must distinguish. Finally, there is the

added disadvantage that the same note looks different when written in different octaves.

For example, the note C written in the “treble clef” appears on the first ledger line

beneath the staff, on the third space from the bottom on the staff, and on the second

ledger line above the staff.

In the proposed system, only the spaces, not the lines, are used to display

information. Moreover, only four additional ledger lines are needed to represent the notes

in the extreme high and low range. This makes a total of only nine spaces that one must

distinguish. Finally, there is the added advantage that the same note looks almost
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identical in every octave. The note C for example, will appear as a red block in all

octaves, the only difference being which vertical space the block appears on. The

proposed system therefore uses fewer symbols to represent pitch, and these symbols

repeat themselves in a logical and predictable order.

Finally, the traditional system uses a range of other symbols such as “clef” signs,

signs for “sharps” and “flats”, “naturals” and “accidentals”, and the combination of sharp

or flat signs which together make up a “key signature”. All of these symbols are arbitrary

and bear no intrinsic connection to their musical function. Nonetheless, the reader must

learn their meanings and be able to decode them on sight. The presently proposed system

eliminates all of the aforementioned symbols while remaining capable of notating

musical ideas with equal accuracy.

There is the final advantage that the presently proposed system can be read from right to

left just as easily as left to right. (Danesi insert information here)

4. Ethnographic study

The creator of the proposed system, Mitchell Wong, performed an ethnographic

study of it on a class of grade 5/6 students at an alternative public school in downtown

Toronto. The class was a co-ed group of 29 students between the ages of 9 and 11. The

study consisted of five 40-minute music classes that took place in the autumn of 2012.

All of the students learned the system by playing the recorder. Prior to this study, the

students had had two months of prior experience playing the recorder, in which they had

learned to read very simple music using the traditional notation system.
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The group made rapid progress in learning to read music with the proposed

notation. Within the first 40-minute class they were able to read short musical passages

which used three different notes (red, green and blue). They were also able to read

rhythms that used durations of four beats, two beats and one beat. When presented with

each short passage, the overwhelming majority of students were able to play it correctly

on their first attempt.

By the fifth and final lesson, students were able to read passages using five

different notes (red, orange, yellow, green, blue). They were also capable of reading both

notes and rests with durations of four beats, two beats and one beat. When confronted

with these passages of greater difficulty, the majority of students were still able to play

them correctly on their first attempt. Moreover, by the second or third attempt at each

passage, all of the students were able to play it correctly.

The results of this informal study indicate that the proposed system is an efficient

medium through which to learn to read music. The students’ rapid acquisition of the

notation language and their ability to play the notated passages with a high level of

accuracy suggest the intuitiveness of the system’s design. In Wong’s opinion as a music

educator, the students would have taken double the amount of class time to attain the

same level of music-reading proficiency had the music been notated in the traditional

system. More research must be done however, to determine the system’s effectiveness

with other variables such as students’ age, students’ instruments, and music of greater

complexity.
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5. Implications

The implications of the proposed system go beyond the playing of notated music.

A system such as this has strong potential to engage students with their creative faculties.

For example, students are able to easily compose their own pieces by “colouring in” a

series of rectangular blocks. Once this is done, they can then proceed to “play their art”.

The creative process thus becomes more accessible, allowing students to develop their

compositional and performance skills side by side.

Another implication of the system is that notated music can extend beyond the

page and into the physical world. A sunset for example, with red, orange and yellow

streaks can be “played.” The different colours would determine the notes, and their

relative sizes in the sky would determine their durations. The shapes that one sees in the

physical world could also be interpreted: round shapes would denote major tonalities,

square shapes would denote minor tonalities, etc. A scene of rolling green hills set against

a range of blue triangular mountains could therefore be interpreted in terms of pitch,

rhythm and tonality. With a fixed system for translating the properties of shape and

colour into sound, the physical world could be re-imagined as a musical score.

In conclusion, the recognition of colours and shapes is a primordial characteristic

of human beings. The presently proposed system assigns musical meaning to particular

colours and shapes, thus taking advantage of this natural ability. The proposed system

could therefore be regarded as an efficient means through which to represent musical

ideas. Furthermore, the symbols used in this system are visually related to their musical
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function. This gives the symbols an objective character that can perhaps be rapidly and

intuitively understood.

It is not our intention to have the proposed system of music notation replace the

traditional one. The traditional system is deeply engrained within the western musical

tradition and, once mastered, is very adequate to communicate a composer’s musical

ideas. The question we wish to raise is the correlation between colour, shape and sound,

and how a stimulation of first two properties can produce an outcome in the third. The

proposed system synthesizes these three properties into a coherent, functional language of

music notation. It remains to be seen how this system can engaged for the reading,

writing and creation of music in the future.

References
Aristotle. 1907. The Works of Aristotle. London, U.K.: Oxford University Press.
Hughes, Rupert. 1939. The Music Lover’s Encyclopedia. Garden City, NJ: Garden City
Publishers.

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