The Music Notation Project

Many inventors have used a five-line chromatic staff. This staff looks like the traditional staff, but instead of representing a series of diatonic notes in the key of C Major, it represents all twelve notes of the chromatic scale. There is one "invisible line," for a total of six lines spanning an octave, each spaced a whole step apart. The invisible line allows multiple one-octave staves to be placed contiguously as needed for greater pitch range. Some systems introduce bold lines or change the position of the invisible line.

If there were six standard lines per octave, it would be very difficult to discriminate pitches when reading music on two contiguous staves. So some inventors substitute bold or dashed lines in the place of some of the normal lines. This permits the use of six lines per octave without sacrificing the ability to place multiple staves contiguously for a greater pitch range.

Some inventors have used a four-line staff with two adjacent "invisible lines." These staves are similar to the five-line staves (above), but are slightly less dense (i.e., visually less "busy") and require more ledger lines. They are also less likely to be confused with traditional notation.

The bold lines in these systems help the eye discriminate between different lines, facilitating pitch identification. Alternating notehead color (black and white) makes it even easier to discriminate between pitches. See the Using Notehead Color for Pitch tutorial for more about this strategy and how it affects rhythmic notation.

These systems achieve a less dense appearance by using fewer lines. Two solid lines and either a dashed line or an "invisible line" make for three lines per octave, each spaced a major third apart. Beyreuther's systems use notehead color to help discriminate between adjacent pitches.

These "twinline" systems require less vertical space by introducing a second notehead shape that fits more compactly between adjacent lines, while still keeping the noteheads' centers evenly spaced on the vertical axis. These shapes (and in most cases notehead color) help to discriminate between adjacent pitches.

These systems have two lines per octave, evenly spaced at a half an octave apart (one tritone or six half-steps). This requires a bold or dashed line for orientation when multiple staves are placed contiguously. Notehead colors or shapes help discriminate pitch values.

With one line per octave, Dolmatov's system has the least dense appearance of any system, but it also uses the most ledger lines, with 7 of the 12 pitches requiring them.

The staff lines of all the systems above are spaced either a whole step apart, or some multiple of a whole step (a major third, a tritone, or an octave). The systems below follow a different principle instead. These staves have an irregular spacing that highlights the 7-5 pattern, by putting the diatonic notes of the C major scale either in spaces (Klavar/Mirck) or on lines, including ledger lines (Collins, Parncutt 0-5-7).