Transition from WYSIWYP to Traditional Notation

Whatever their long term aspirations, beginning students may find WYSIWYP to be a good option if they have struggled to learn traditional notation while trying to learn to play the piano at the same time. WYSIWYP permits the student to spend less time interpreting notation and more time learning playing techniques. Then once the student has learned their way around a piano keyboard, there can be more focus on learning the complex traditional notation. And when the student is ready to accept the challenge of learning it, this 3-step approach to follow will hopefully make that transition easier.

The approach is to start with WYSIWYP and change only one element at a time to traditional notation. Each step should be pretty much mastered before moving on to the next. Hopefully, this makes the challenge of learning traditional notation less daunting than trying to absorb it all at once. Starting with the full WYSIWYP notation, one follows these 3 steps:

Step 1: Replace the WYSIWYP noteheads with the traditional system of notehead/duration symbols.

Step 2: Replace the WYSIWYP staves with the traditional staves.

Step 3: Introduce key signatures.

I believe the steps are listed in increasing level of difficulty to learn and master.

What follows is an example of how this process works with a rather simple snippet of a tune. It demonstrates how these changes would be implemented and a summary of what one would have to learn at each step. The key to this approach is SNapp, the WYSIWYP display app, which would implement the hybrid sheet music (it is not currently implemented). Again, this is just an example; the full learning approach would be a candidate for some courseware development.

Here is the example tune in full WYSIWYP notation:

Step 1. Replace the WYSIWYP noteheads with the traditional system of symbols.

Summary of changes: Replace the noteheads in place on the timeline of the WYSIWYP staff. Because WYSIWYP encodes the note type (natural or sharp/flat combo) in the notehead, the combination notes (sharps/flats) will need to be temporarily highlighted in this transition (like highlighting with a text marker). In Step 3, these will go away. Initially, the duration notetails remain in place, but will be removed before moving on to Step 2. Add the time signature.

What to learn: Even though a time signature is not needed with WYSIWYP, it is added here so that the student can learn that that each beat in this example represents a quarter note symbol. The student should also learn other time signatures wherein a given traditional note name does not always represent the same number of beats or partial beats (e.g., in 4/8 time, a quarter note is 2 beats). Thus, learn the concept that notes names are relative to the key signature while beats are absolute. And part of interpreting the traditional notation is to map the note duration to the beat.

Because of the notetails on the timeline in WYSIWYP, there is no need to learn note names because of the “WYS” aspect of the design. With other tune examples, the student can then learn to identify all of the note duration symbols as well as all of the parallel system rest symbols.

The student will also need to learn additional symbols such as dots and ties and how they affect duration.

Once noteheads and rests have been learned, the WYSIWYP notetails can be removed. The student should then verify their recognition before continuing to Step 2. Notice that notehead alignment still remains as it is on the WYSIWYP timeline staff.

Step 2: Replace the WYSIWYP staves with the traditional staves.

What has changed from Step 1: The staves are switched including the bar lines which are no longer of equal length since there is no longer a true timeline. The notes are placed horizontally as they would be traditionally. Measures expand and contract according to the number of notes contained.

What to learn: There is no longer any mapping to the keyboard, so every line and space must be learned, and eventually learned across the entire range of the keyboard as more complex scores are encountered. Rest symbols are required so that the total of note and rest durations add up to a full measure (AKA “the treachery of the bar”).

Step 3: Introduce key signatures.

What has changed from Step 2: The key signature is added and the need for highlighting is gone. Natural accidentals are added to notes on scale degrees as necessary. In this example, notes on the degree B. The WYSIWYP score header field with key name is removed.

What to learn: Everything about key signatures. How to recognize them and what are their component scale degrees in the associated key. How to recognize the need to adjust playing from a natural during real-time playing. What to understand about accidentals and all of the rules for notes following one in a measure. Basically, it's all a tremendous memorization challenge that many musicians work on throughout their entire musical careers. For beginners, you will learn key signatures (and keys) one at a time as you need them.

Here again is the original WYSIWYP version for a side-by-side comparison:

So that was a lot of work. But hopefully less difficult than learning traditional notation while learning to play the keyboard at the same time.