Prima Vista Notes - Easy to read piano notes

[icanpiano]

www.PrimaVistaNotes.com

piano notes become visual as they seem to look on the piano.

Very easy to grasp.

[lostinidlewonder]

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Why is this better than the other adverts we have seen? Oh its not? ok then.

[icanpiano]

Well – I guess there are no flats or sharps so you don't have to think if it is a flat sign or a sharp sign.
Just go left or right.
Seems to be very intuitive.

[lostinidlewonder]

You still have to read the different colored dots as opposed to sharps or flats. And when you play big chords it will become confusing. Often it is the sharps and flats that actually help us to understand the music, such as when double sharps and flats come into the picture. This has particular interest to our ears when we notice them as double sharpened notes, not just the note they have resolved to. We also need to take notice of key signature, and thus always representing the sharps and flats without noticing the key signature is inefficient.

[icanpiano]

Well… there is a solution for double sharps and flats.
See this page:
https://www.primavistanotes.com/HowtoPlay.asp

The Prima Vista Notes system distinguishes between black keys and white keys and not looking at scales.
If you think about it there are not too many options:
F will always be sharp. So is C.
B can be only flat. So does E.

So you are left with D, G and A to find out is they are flat or sharp.

You are right about chords but in most cases they are even easer to spot.

Try it out and tell us if it is easer or harder to read.

[lostinidlewonder]

Thankyou for sharing the sheet music. I think for someone who has read normal sheet music for a long time they find that alterations to it has to make what you read more efficient. However simply looking at dots and considering them as sharp and flats constantly takes away some of our concentration. In written music nowadays key signature does not have to be repeated, you know which notes are always flat or sharp. However in this system you describe you are constantly relating notes to their natural flat or sharp positions, there is no carry on effect like in modern notation.\

If a system wants to use 1 and 0 type logic to describe black and white notes, then the should aim to be able to see groups of notes at the same time and in a shape created by white and black notes. I find myself grouping large number of notes and drawing a shape that relates to it, the shape that you find on the keyboard. Like C minor would be an upright triangle for example.

[mad_max2024]

Well – I guess there are no flats or sharps so you don't have to think if it is a flat sign or a sharp sign.

That will do wonders for all those people that can't tell the difference between a # and a b

[icanpiano]

O.K.

Let us ask our selves a real question.
There are 5 piano teachers.
One plays jazz.
One plays classical.
One teaches for 1 year and another for 10 years.
The last one never studied but what a player. He read notes poorly.

A piano student come and takes lessons.

Now - there is no doubt that all of them can give him the basic.
All of them can teach him how to play.

Who is a better teacher at that point?

We don't know because teaching has much more to it then just showing how the notes are written and how to play them or how to lay your fingers on the keyboard etc. etc.

So we say it is about the teacher's personality.
That is right but not enough.

The real thing is that the student has to put in a work of his/her own. Now if he practice 5 minutes before the lesson then nothing will help. If he/her is not such a talent then he will eventually drop out of piano lessons.

How many students did you drop on the way?
How many have started and dropped out after a year or 3 years?
Do they keep on playing?

So...
The real goal for us is to give more students the ability to play, enjoy and stay in the system so they could play when they are older. That is what I think.
In order to do that we have to find out the way to make them stay.

Because the student has a lot to do in the equation and maybe a lot more then we think,  we must find a way for him/her to achieve that.

So as for my point of view… a change in musical notes is one thing and if that helps him/her to stay in the system then we are closer to the goal.

The musical notes for that matter is the way and not the goal.

We must not put it in the front and make it saint.

[lostinidlewonder]

I think that altering the sheet music is very important but you should start with the normal notation and modify that. Circle, highlight groups, shapes at the keyboard that a group of notes cause, highlight how patterns change, which fingers stay at the same place while the other move around it, what are the max and min point of the hand, where is the centre of the hand while playing the group of notes, etc etc etc. Knowledge of key signature is critical in good sight reading, so I think that forcing the student to always read accidentals can hinder their efficiency in reading. If they need it highlight it, if not, leave it alone.

[icanpiano]

I think that forcing the student to always read accidentals can hinder their efficiency in reading. If they need it highlight it, if not, leave it alone.

I agree with you.
How do we know when they need that or not?
I think we should give them the opthion to choose.

[johnk]

It seems to me the PrimaVista notes are the wrong way around!. They look like eyes, with an oval inside the oval notehead. The pupil is white, but it still looks more like the direction the eye is looking.

So (o ) looks like it looks left and ( o) looks like it looks right. The # and b should be reversed!

Also, i dont think the composer version allows for double sharps and flats, or I couldnt see anything about it. The only difference between composer and pianist version is in the white sharps and flats, ie B# and E# and Fb and Cb.

[icanpiano]

The Prima Vista Notes based on a visual concept.

It is not reversed.
You always play what is in black so when you get to an eye note (i.e. i-note) you play the side that is black.

The idea is visual rather than you have to think if it is # or b.

https://www.primavistanotes.com/Concept.asp

That is why it is working so well. When you play the piano while reading you look at the piano every once in awhile and when that happens you can see exactly how your fingers are laid on the piano.

The trick is that the black note sign is really built up of 2 notes.

A white one and a black one.

They are put together into one sign, so you might say that there are some notes that are added to the piece but are not played. They are like an anchor on the staff which is changing its place all of the time.

The only thing a pianist can tell on the spot is whether he plays a black key or a white key. That is because the black keys are a bit higher than the white one.

The EYENOTE reminds you if you are on a black key or a white one every few notes (depending on the scale). So... what happens is that all your notes reading is relatively to the notes you have read before since you can easily see the distance.
You can also identify the next upcoming black notes with a glimpse of look so reading became more fluently. Especially with 2 hands at first time.

Once the notes or some of them are visual it become easer to read.
Klavarskribo is an example for that:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klavarskribo

The difference is that Prima Vista Notes looks like regular notes and in that sense they can improve sight reading to regular notes.

Double Sharps and flats have their signs. You can see the table at the bottom of the page:

https://www.primavistanotes.com/HowtoPlay.asp

[johnk]

On my computer the table does not show - it is just a red cross in a box. Can you show me an example of double sharp or flats?

Interesting that they call the black keys "i-notes". I thought of calling the black keys HIJK and L over 40 years ago. The two "eyes of the duck" (C# and D#) are the pair of dotted letters I and J. i is also the mathematical letter used for the "imaginary" number square root of minus one (which is actually quite real in a sense).

I understand that you play the side of the note that is black, but they should have made this part round instead of crescent shaped. Then it would look like the eye was looking in that direction. As it is, I see the eyes as lookng the opposite direction!

[icanpiano]

Attch is the table john.

I understand that you play the side of the note that is black, but they should have made this part round instead of crescent shaped. Then it would look like the eye was looking in that direction. As it is, I see the eyes as lookng the opposite direction!

It is not an eye. It just the way it looks on the piano.
F# is to the right side of F and it is black. That's why F# in Prima Vista Notes is colored black on the right side and not on the left one.

I guess you can get used to it and see if it workd out for you.

[johnk]

You have made the note for a double sharp the same as a note for a "white" sharp. Thus Fx looks similar to E #. What about E double sharp then

[icanpiano]

I have never met an E double sharp.
In what scale does it exist?

[johnk]

Well if you are in A minor, and you take the dominant triad (E G# B) and decorate each of the notes with lower auxiliary notes (such as in Mexican at Dance), you could have E D# E, G# Fx G#, B A# B.

Now transpose this all into the key of G# minor. The dominant triad is D# Fx A#. Decorating the leading note Fx with a lower auxiliary note gives Ex.

Admittedly it would be uncommon, but I would not say it has never been used.

[icanpiano]

Well...
Prima Vista Notes does not have a solution for such a move in notes.

I do however have a graphic solution for that matter but it is far a way from what i am looking to achieve at that point.

Prima Vista Notes is design to improve piano sight read so i guess when you reach that point where you meet Ex you could easily read traditional notes.

[pianisten1989]

Seriously! There is no shotcut to goot sight reading. You have to practise, with real notes, and play the notes, on a real piano!

[comsmcsc]

O.K.

Let us ask our selves a real question.
There are 5 piano teachers.
One plays jazz.
One plays classical.
One teaches for 1 year and another for 10 years.
The last one never studied but what a player. He read notes poorly.

A piano student come and takes lessons.

Now - there is no doubt that all of them can give him the basic.
All of them can teach him how to play.

Who is a better teacher at that point?

We don't know because teaching has much more to it then just showing how the notes are written and how to play them or how to lay your fingers on the keyboard etc. etc.

So we say it is about the teacher's personality.
That is right but not enough.

The real thing is that the student has to put in a work of his/her own. Now if he practice 5 minutes before the lesson then nothing will help. If he/her is not such a talent then he will eventually drop out of piano lessons.

How many students did you drop on the way?
How many have started and dropped out after a year or 3 years?
Do they keep on playing?

So...
The real goal for us is to give more students the ability to play, enjoy and stay in the system so they could play when they are older. That is what I think.
In order to do that we have to find out the way to make them stay.

Because the student has a lot to do in the equation and maybe a lot more then we think,  we must find a way for him/her to achieve that.

So as for my point of view… a change in musical notes is one thing and if that helps him/her to stay in the system then we are closer to the goal.

The musical notes for that matter is the way and not the goal.

We must not put it in the front and make it saint.

I agree.  The method used by a teacher to teach should depend upon the way the student learns.