Every time you open a book of piano music you use an invention about a thousand years old. It was made by a monk who had a very practical problem: his choir could not remember the songs.
Music without notes
For centuries church chant, known as Gregorian chant, was passed on by ear, from teacher to singer. Monks drew small signs called neumes above the words to remind singers of the shape of a melody, up or down, but the signs did not show exact pitches. Learning the full repertoire by heart could take a singer ten years.
Guido's lines
Around the year 1000 Guido of Arezzo, an Italian Benedictine monk who trained choir singers, had a better idea. He drew horizontal lines, each a third apart, and placed the notes on the lines and in the spaces between them. A letter at the start of a line fixed its pitch, an early form of the clef. For the first time a singer could see exactly which note to sing, and sing a melody they had never heard.
Do, re, mi was born in a hymn
To help his singers remember the notes, Guido used a hymn to Saint John in which each line begins one step higher than the last. The first syllables of those lines gave the note names: ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la. Much later si was added for the seventh note, and ut was changed to the easier do. Guido wrote that with his method a singer could be trained in a year or two instead of ten.
A thousand years of changes
- The number of lines changed: four lines for chant, five lines for most other music, and the grand staff of two staves for keyboard.
- The shapes changed: square and diamond notes became the round notes we know.
- Bar lines, time signatures and modern rhythm signs arrived over centuries.
- Sharps and flats moved: written before notes, gathered into key signatures, and governed by rules that changed from era to era. In Bach's time, for example, minor keys were often written with one flat fewer than today.
The next small step
Notation was never finished. Every era made it a little clearer for the musicians of its time. iCanPiano Style is a small step in the same tradition: the staff, the clefs and the rhythms stay exactly as they are, and only the notes on black keys change, so that each one shows its key.
- F sharp: right half black. Play the black key to the right of F.
- B flat: left half black. Play the black key to the left of B.
- B natural: no natural sign. A note that is all black or all white is played on a white key.
Frequently asked questions
Who invented music notation?
Signs for music existed earlier, but the staff that shows exact pitches is credited to Guido of Arezzo, an Italian monk, around the year 1000.
Where do the names do, re, mi come from?
From a hymn to Saint John, whose lines begin with ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la. Si was added later and ut became do.
Is music notation still changing?
Yes. Notation has changed in every era. iCanPiano Style is one modern change: it keeps standard notation and shows the black keys in the notes.