Originally Posted By: ZeroZero

You have some good points, but the vehicle "classical notation" is not realy fit for purpose. I once saw someone try to notate a sax solo exactly, they ended up with a mess of hemi-demi-semiquavers, Notation is VERY bad at many things.

I understand what you're saying, BUT I would argue that what you're describing is a result of a lack of understanding of the additions of Jazz notation, which has its own dialect of marks (rises, falls etc.)

Originally Posted By: ZeroZero

In particular iot's bad for learners creativity, because it gives them a two dimensional understanding. By giving them the notes, it takes away the task of UNDERSTANDING what they are playing - so they play liek a photocopier copies an image, without realyl knowing what the picture is. It would be much better IMO that learners were told the interval name only, and then asked to find that interval. There is so much else about notation that is needlesly intimidating, needlessly confusing and needlessly obscure. Yes we need it, but it would be better if we could redesign the whole thing, if we could achieve universal acceptance, which is sadly unlikely
How many children have been turned off by classical notation |I sdont know, but I suspect its many.
Z

I would argue that's more a shortcoming of the teacher, and perhaps the teachers understanding, rather than the system itself.

I'm not trying to suggest the notation system we use is perfect, nothing is, but I think it's better than you're giving it credit for.

In particular, jazz musicians understand that the dots are "just a guide", and that the time they spend learning conventions associated with reading the notation are just as important as learning the notation itself. The "dialect" differences mentioned above, which successfully simplify the notation without losing the nuances, yet still allowing for the individual musicians interpretation.

One of the simplest examples of this is swing. The notation has quavers (eighths if you prefer) but we play in the general feel of crotchet/quaver (4th/8th) triplets. Not exactly of course but close enough for a short written approximation. If you were to write it as played, the notation would be much more complex, but still capable of representing tha actual desired result. It is the conventions, the dialect, that makes useful simplification possible... but you have to know the dialect.

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