Guide to Protonotation

Protonotation, developed by pedagogue Gary Karpinski, is a method of representing how rhythms relate to a meter and how notes relate to a key, without the complexities of staff notation.

Rhythm

In protonotation, every beat is represented by a short vertical line. Every downbeat is represented by a longer vertical line. Be sure that you have a vertical line for every beat that you hear, and that you don’t start with a longer vertical line unless the music starts on a downbeat.

Since this system doesn’t typically represent beat divisions, we will write either “simple” or “compound” up above the metric grid.

Pitch

The best way to represent the pitches of music in a key is almost always with scale degrees. For people without absolute pitch, this may be the only way to figure out what’s going on. For people with absolute pitch, it makes sure we’re building “tonal” hearing skills, which help us understand and track the relationships among pitches and between pitches and key.

Scale degrees are typically represented either as Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.) or as moveable-do solfège syllables. For speed, when writing solfège syllables, we often simply use the first letter of the syllable. We can represent raised and lowered pitches with sharps or flats, with up and down arrows, or, in moveable-do solfège, by adding the relevant second letter of the syllable (“i” for raised, “e” for lowered, except “re,” which becomes “ra” when lowered). These can simply be written above or below the rhythmic protonotation/shorthand.

 

Example: Protonotation in simple meter

Protonotation:

Solfège:

Pitch and rhythm protonotation for 0:08–0:16 of the melody of the song “We’ll Go From There.” The words “simple, major” are written above to indicate simple meter and a major key. Vertical lines represent the beats: downbeats (longer lines) alternate with other beats (shorter). Horizontal lines of different lengths written between the vertical lines represent the relative lengths of the notes. The first letter of the solfège syllables representing the notes are written above the horizontal lines. The lyrics of the melody are written below the horizontal lines.

Scale Degrees:

Pitch and rhythm protonotation for 0:08–0:16 of the melody of the song “We’ll Go From There.” The words “simple, major” are written above to indicate simple meter and a major key. Vertical lines represent the beats: downbeats (longer lines) alternate with other beats (shorter). Horizontal lines of different lengths written between the vertical lines represent the relative lengths of the notes. The scale-degree numbers representing the notes are written above the horizontal lines. The lyrics of the melody are written below the horizontal lines.

 

Example: Protonotation in compound meter

*note that the melody starts at 0:19 seconds

Protonotation:

Solfege:

Rhythm protonotation for 0:18–0:31 of the melody of the song “The Rose.” The words “compound, minor” are written above to indicate compound meter and a minor key. Vertical lines represent the beats: in triple meter, each downbeat (longer line) is followed by two other beats (shorter). Horizontal lines of different lengths written between the vertical lines represent the relative lengths of the notes. The first letters of the solfège syllables representing the notes are written above the horizontal lines. The lyrics of the melody are written below the horizontal lines.

Scale Degrees:

Rhythm protonotation for 0:18–0:31 of the melody of the song “The Rose.” The words “compound, minor” are written above to indicate compound meter and a minor key. Vertical lines represent the beats: in triple meter, each downbeat (longer line) is followed by two other beats (shorter). Horizontal lines of different lengths written between the vertical lines represent the relative lengths of the notes. The scale-degree numbers representing the notes are written above the horizontal lines. The lyrics of the melody are written below the horizontal lines.

 

 

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Foundations of Aural Skills Copyright © 2022 by Timothy Chenette is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book