Re-discovering Klavarskribo
Back in college, I majored in piano performance and have mostly been out of practice since then. I tell people that I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with the piano. Recently I picked up a Brahms Intermezzo I learned years ago, so I could play it at the memorial service for my wife’s grandmother. This has got me back to wanting to learn more music again. But I always run into the same mental difficulties when learning music. I long for a more efficient way to load musical information into my brain/body. Deciphering traditional music notation has never been fun for me. Some cases are worse than others. Atonal music is particularly frustrating to learn from the traditional notation.
Consider the first phrase of #2 from Ned Rorem’s Eight Etudes for Piano.
These chords look like a bunch of triads, but that completely obscures what’s really going on. They’re actually very dense chords, and it would be folly to try to play triads with each hand. I got so frustrated after spending a little time trying to (re-)learn this piece, so I decided I needed some way to capture the information after decoding what was written, rather than traversing it repeatedly and hoping some of it would stick, when in reality it would keep falling right out of my brain because I had no way to easily read it.
Short of having someone play it for me repeatedly, so I could watch the correct keys being depressed (or short of owning a Disklavier which could also do that for me), I fired up Vim and started making some ASCII art:
| | | | | | | | | | | | | _ _ _ _ _ o o o _ o o o _ _ _ _ | | | | | | | # | | | | | _ _ _ _ o o o _ o _ o _ _ _ _ _ | | | # # | # | | | | | | _ _ _ _ _ o _ _ o o _ _ _ _ _ _ | | | | | | | | | | | | | _ _ _ _ _ o o o _ o o o _ _ _ _
The rhythm is easy enough to read with traditional notation, so I ignored that part. I just wanted to capture the notes of the chords. The vertical bars provide a template representing the black-key landscape of the keyboard. The circles are white key notes, the # signs are black key notes. After seeing this on the screen, it reminded me of Klavarskribo (Esperanto for “keyboard writing”), which was invented in 1931. I’ve never investigated Klavarskribo very closely. For some reason, I never got inspired by it before today. But now I have this feeling that I’m going to become the next Klavarskribo evangelist. It’s like DDR notation for piano. (Why not?)
Thanks to the fantastic and free KlavarScript software, I mocked up the corresponding phrase (including rhythm this time) in Klavarskribo:
Learning Klavarskribo will be challenging, but I have this feeling that after just a little effort the floodgates will open for me. Most of what I’ll need to do is un-learn what I already know about traditional notation. I see an analogy with imperative programmers trying to learn Haskell (or XSLT) for the first time. They’re trying to overcome “being brain-damaged by years of imperative programming” (their words, not mine). Thankfully, I didn’t have that obstacle in the programming world, because XSLT is where I started. But with music notation, I indeed will need to overcome years of brain damage, not to mention psychological distress, inflicted by traditional notation.
Russell said,
November 2, 2007 @ 4:18 pm
Check out keyplay
The website is keyPlay c o u k
You will need to register, then download keyPlay program from the download page. You will then need to put your email address in Internet settings (F12). This will enable you to connect to the website from inside the program and download any music in the library. I am happy to send you free examples of printed sheet music, please let me know the style and level of music you want. If you want help getting started please contact me, russellambrose at hot mail com, regards Russell
Terry Thorpe said,
December 30, 2007 @ 12:46 pm
read your thesis with great interest and to some extent awe of your abilities wish ing you all the best with Klavar;and thanks for transcribing the phrase klavarscribo “great stuff” all the best Terry
Simon Attfield said,
January 1, 2008 @ 7:09 am
I learned klavarscribo as a child (is it a ‘c’ or a ‘k’?) and am just re-discovering it and finding I can slip right back into it. I agree with you about the difficulties in interpreting the 5 bar stave representation. It seems the ‘mapping’ between klavarscribo and the keyboard seems far more direct and so requires less mental translation. Its far more usabile. Of course, by representing the keyboard it is limited to keyboard instruments (I think other versions exist for other instruments). But then music is generally written for one instrument.
I’m going to check out the software you mentioned Evan. And also keyplay mentioned by Russell. thanks
Simon
Evan said,
January 2, 2008 @ 12:42 am
I wouldn’t assume that Klavar notation is limited to keyboard instruments. It just happens to map physically very closely to the piano. Traditional notation doesn’t map physically to any instrument, but does that make it unusable for every instrument?
According to the rules-with-no-exceptions of Esperanto, you’d always use the same letter for the same sound. So “Klavarskribo” is correct and “Klavarscribo” is incorrect. The letter “c” in Esperanto doesn’t make the same sound as “k”: http://www.webcom.com/~donh/ecourse/ealfabet.html
I made this mistake when I first posted this article and corrected it shortly thereafter.
Evan said,
January 2, 2008 @ 12:47 am
Russell, thanks for the link to keyPlay. It looks very interesting. Kind of a hybrid approach to notation, or an incremental reform. This may hit the sweet spot for people who have traditional notation hard-wired into their heads (especially the rhythmic symbols) but who still have trouble finding the right keys to play. I will keep my eyes on it and perhaps review it more closely at some point.
Fons Doomen said,
January 6, 2008 @ 10:07 am
Antother member of the board of Klavar Vereniging Nederland pointed out this site to me. In fact the invention of Dutch Cor Pot in 1931 is still much vived, e.g. in the Netherlands 25 % of the organists in protestant churches use it.
All information on Klavarskribo (indeed a word in Esperanto, with two K) can be found in several languages (Dutch, English, French, German and Esperanto) on the website of Klavar Vereniging Nederland, http://www.klavarvereniging.nl. Information on published sheet music and courses is to be found in the site of Klavarskribo Foundation, the remains of the once very big Institute founded by Cor Pot: http://www.klavarskribo.nl
Fons Doomen
Johan van Kooten said,
January 6, 2008 @ 2:45 pm
In addition to Fons Doomen’s reaction: free Klavarskribo sheet music is available in pdf-format at http://www.klavarpianist.nl and http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/klavarpianofiles/
After registration the files can be freely downloaded.
Evan said,
January 6, 2008 @ 4:41 pm
Fons and Johan,
Thank you both for the links. I’ve spent some time on those sites, but I didn’t get very far, because I couldn’t find much information in English (and I haven’t learned Dutch yet). I did find this page: http://www.klavarvereniging.nl/nl/taalversies.lp?ID=1000
But that’s the only information in English that I could find.
I will keep digging to see what else I can find. I did download some of the PDF files from http://klavarpianist.nl, but I’m still hungry for more!
Jeanne Mirck said,
January 21, 2008 @ 3:14 am
I received your emails via MNMA and am now studying the contents of your blog.
I may have some very interesting hints for your video-game.
I am a convinced Klavar fan and promoter since my conversion to it at age 17, now 60 years ago. I made books and games for french children and teach many adults.
Please give me time to study all your ideas.
It might be very interesting if we could meet!!
Jean
Jeanne Mirck said,
January 21, 2008 @ 12:19 pm
Information on Klavarskribo in english: http://www.klavarmusic.org
Evan said,
January 22, 2008 @ 1:08 am
Jeanne, thanks for posting the link to the Klavar Music Foundation. I probably should have done that earlier.
Yes, I’d love to hear more of your thoughts about the video game and whatever input you might have.
Frances said,
January 22, 2010 @ 6:23 pm
Hi Evan,
I’ve just taken up Klavarskribo piano again, having playing it until I was around 17, and a little bit in twenties, and now 40 years later, got a new keyboard!! I am pleased to add that I too found the Nederlands site, with lots of english language going on, and they are still working on it. There’s some free tunes to be had so worth revisiting. Whilst Southampton are charging for music, Holland seems to working more on releasing it free. I have a fair bit of old stuff, and will ask Holland if they will consider shareware, so we can all add in our ancient stuff, without costing a fortune.
Hope this helps, and hope by now your brain is deprogrammed from the old notation!
Best wishes, Fran, Dorset
Frances said,
January 22, 2010 @ 6:34 pm
Sorry, being a bit thick [should be in bed!] forgot to put the link in, and it’s different from the others, though you’ll see it’s connected.
The link is http://www.klavarscore.co.uk/index.php/component/content/article/103
I have had one newsletter since registering, so hope this will take off and get the music going around again.
Cheers,
Fran
Evan said,
January 22, 2010 @ 6:40 pm
Thanks for posting! I was just about to ask what the link was. 🙂
I subscribed to the newsletter too. Thanks again, Evan
Marco Mascioli said,
February 15, 2010 @ 7:10 am
Dear Frances, Dear Evan,
I arrived here while searching for the Mirck version of Klavarskribo from Mrs Mirck.
I am the person responsible for the http://www.klavarscore.co.uk website.
Thank you for subscribing to the newsletter.
I am sorry to say that, as you can see from the home page of the website, the project had to be put on stand-by. The comment from Mr Fons Doomen in a post above, “… Klavarskribo Foundation, the remains of the once very big Institute founded by Cor Pot…” says it all.
I invested reasonable figures in time and money, together with other generous investors, to re-vitalise the activities of the Foundation and give them a “vision for the future”. After three months of meetings and attempts, I had to throw the towel.
I have the possibility to create a catalogue of music in any easy-to-read notation, either klavarskribo or another, and I would welcome any suggestion.
I welcome the Mirck modifications to Pot’s notation; however, the fact that the klavarskribo notation doesn’t score very well on the musicnotation.org website stops worries me a bit. Their requirement 13 prevents Pot’s klavarskribo to qualify and I would be grateful for any explanation on how Mrs Mirck’s version is mentioned. Is it perhaps because of the horizontal staff?
Marco Mascioli said,
July 21, 2010 @ 7:53 am
The http://www.klavarscore.co.uk website is active again.
Thanks to the renewed interest for the project (and financial support!), we are now independently promoting the notation in the community.
We are preparing for a pilot scheme in the Bershire area of the United Kingdom after the summer holidays.
James Kelso said,
November 20, 2010 @ 11:58 pm
Dear Evan,
I’ve been a fan of Klavaskribo for many years and have written about it on my website. If you or anyone else is interested you can find it here:
http://www.kelsopaintings.com/JK_Paintings_Test_site/Music.html
Regards
James Kelso
The Well House
Christmas Common
Watlington
Oxon
OX49 5HJ
Evan said,
November 22, 2010 @ 11:54 am
James, great tutorial, history lesson, and rant wrapped into one! 🙂 Thanks for sharing the resource here. I enjoyed reading it.
I especially like how you changed the perspective on the keyboard, using a front-on view. That makes the mapping even more obvious. Just out of curiosity, I wonder how Klavar would look if it used squares instead of circles.
Lou said,
December 6, 2010 @ 11:54 am
Yes James, a perfect rant! I enjoyed it too 🙂
And how right you are!
I am Dutch too by the way, I was just Googling on Klavarskribo and hit this blog.
And a very interesting blog it is!
I have always loved piano’s and music. So at age 12 I took piano lessons. I was thrilled, finally I would be able to decipher those notes on paper and play them too! But soon I found out that reading music just wasn’t for me. When the lessons started I could manage to ‘read’ it but as soon as the music started to get more complicated I just couldn’t ‘get’ it anymore.
I sort of ‘blocked’ when the score turned ‘too busy’ because of the notation mess that was created a long time ago. I was stumped that music was written down in such a complicated way, so many things to remember (like key signatures) and it caused me to feel quite rebellious too. I struggled for years, getting to hate my piano and teacher. She must have thought I was really stupid!
So at 16, after four years of struggling I quit playing the piano. The fun and love for the piano was completely gone.
Several years ago at age 45 I bought an old piano in a wave of hope that certainly now as an adult I would certainly ‘get’ it! I turned out to be a fast learner at college and in my profession, so what could be the problem!
I bought all kinds of books to learn how to read music. Took lessons.. but no avail. I STILL couldn’t manage!
Then a few years ago my stepmother died, and in her belongings was a course Klavarskribo dated 1953. It was on very old fashioned faint beige paper printed ‘old typewriter style’ with brown ink. I started lesson number 1 and boy.. I went through the lessons like there was no tomorrow! At last I was able to read and play!! I sucked it all op like a sponge 😉
I wish I had known Klavar when I started playing when I was young, I missed out years of fun owning a piano, practice and I would have been a much better player now. A pity, really!
And I am not the only one.. through the years I met several people (IRL an on the internet) who experienced the same ‘blocking’ when old style (yes I call it OLD style) music gets complicated. I would really like to know what it is that some folks just get blocked reading old style music.
I read several overheated discussions on pianoforums about other notations (like Klavar), and noticed people get really irritated by the idea that someone had the nerve to develop other notation systems, as their old system is holy ánd the best. They learned it, so can you. :/
Evan said,
December 6, 2010 @ 1:08 pm
Lou, thanks so much for sharing your story. It is truly inspiring. It’s true that people can get defensive about traditional notation. After all, despite its difficulties, it is a huge success. (At least we don’t have lots of dialects to contend with.) However, it’s also a success at alienating people who would otherwise love to learn music. The great thing about Klavarskribo is that it gives them an alternative.
Johannes K. Drinda said,
September 4, 2011 @ 7:31 am
I successfully transformed my traditional zebra Synth Kbd to a 3-row JANKO ( http://www.live-styler.de/home/Janko%20Project.pdf ) , yet I soon lost the patience to relearn JANKO by ear.
The problem is Klavarskribo is written for the traditional zebra Kbd layout.
Solution and promise:
If someone of your smart programmers could create a program, for the JANKO Kbd (3 & 6 layers) layout that would tempt many more young people to rediscover and enjoy the great benefits of the JANKO and its appropriate notation.
I already developed a design idea for it.
Albert Van't Zelfde said,
February 10, 2012 @ 3:55 pm
I read your article with great interest. I started with Klavarskribo when I was 10 years old (I am now 81) after a short time trying to learn convetional music notation. During the years I collected a large amount of Klavar music and advancied to grade d and even some e. I sometimes play piano concerts at our retirment village. But I have a problem: I live in Melbourne, Australia and here they have never heard about Klavarskribo. I wish I could find a contact in Australia to communicate with about our music. I don’t know your age, but you will find Klavarskribo very satisfying, easy to learn and “to get it into your brain”.
Bob said,
September 8, 2012 @ 6:10 pm
Hi Evan,
Thanks for your very interesting introduction to Klavarscribo. As a professional programmer and amateur organist currently wresting with Bach in conventional notation I fully agree with your analysis of the limitations of the older format. I am keen to try Klavar but it does suffer from one practical limitation in that there is a wealth of free classical pdf scores in conventional notation on the web, but Klavar equivalents can only be sourced from only one company at significant cost. It would be possible of course to use KlavarScript to translate from midi to Klavar scores, but that would be time-consuming and midi files vary in quality such that many may not accurately reflect the original scores.
Albert van't Zelfde said,
February 10, 2013 @ 7:19 pm
After many earlier attempts to find a fellow Klavar player in Australia, at last somebody else wh needs contact.
I may be one of the oldest Klavar players still actively playing this notation on my piano. I started just after the war came to Holland in 1945. I was 15 yeas A cousin, who had been called up during the mobilisation had stayed with us and when de war started had to join the war. He left a piece of Klavarskribo sheet music behind. It was Rachmaninov’s famous Prelude. That’s how I started learning to play. I have played ever since including playing some recitals for friends and acquaintances. My favorites are Beethoven, :Liszt, Rachmaninov and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. I have advanced to play d and some e grades.
If anybody would like to contact me through this forum about this wonderful music notation, please do so. I live in Macleod, a suburb of Melbourne.
Evan said,
February 10, 2013 @ 8:07 pm
Albert, thanks so much for your fascinating story! I’m glad Klavarskribo has served you so well all these years of music-making!
piano sheet music pdf said,
February 1, 2017 @ 11:07 pm
Why viewers still make use of to read news papers when in this technological
globe all is available on net?
free sheet Music online said,
February 2, 2017 @ 1:20 am
What i don’t realize is actually how you’re now not really much more well-preferred than you might be now.
You are very intelligent. You already know thus significantly
in relation to this matter, made me personally imagine it from numerous
varied angles. Its like women and men aren’t interested until it is something to accomplish
with Woman gaga! Your individual stuffs nice.
At all times care for it up!
Yenovk said,
February 28, 2017 @ 1:30 pm
Hi Evan, could you get in touch with me?
John Westendorp said,
December 24, 2017 @ 11:59 pm
I taught myself Klaverskribo at the age of 10 after my Uncle visited Holland c.1955 and brought back a lesson book. I have been privileged to use it for accompanying congregational singing on a pipe organ in Gellong and in various other places. Some years ago my brother, a church organist in Victoria, transcribed a whole hymn book into Klaverskribo. I love the software provided by the Dutch foundation. All you need is to find a midi file of the music and it transposes it into Klaverskribo notation.
John Bentley said,
March 10, 2020 @ 4:50 am
Hello, I’m new here, just wondering if anyone knows of anywhere one can get ordinary notation sheet music transcribed into Klavar notation please, it is so much easier to read.
Thanks.
RalphDit said,
April 10, 2020 @ 2:54 pm
ariana grande naked
jem wolfie nude
dove cameron naked
chloe bennet nude
sarah hyland nude
lindsey pelas nude
RaymondNor said,
April 10, 2020 @ 3:02 pm
becky g nude
dove cameron nude
katee owen nude
pokimane nude
sexy youtubers
sophie turner nude
Maksimwer said,
April 29, 2020 @ 10:28 pm
Ð¡ÐµÐ³Ð¾Ð´Ð½Ñ Ð²ÐµÑ‡ÐµÑ€Ð¾Ð¼ анализировал контент Ñети, и к Ñвоему удивлению открыл краÑивый реÑурÑ. Вот глÑньте: маÑки от коронавируÑа . Ð”Ð»Ñ Ð½Ð°Ñ Ð´Ð°Ð½Ð½Ñ‹Ð¹ Ñайт оказалÑÑ Ð´Ð¾Ð²Ð¾Ð»ÑŒÐ½Ð¾ важным. Ð’Ñего наилучшего!
Dianavax said,
June 20, 2020 @ 11:34 pm
telecharger michou d’auber
gaelle tchakalov
underground railroad telerama
gerard grimbert
brouette editions
regis brun