Q: bill that may sound weird but do you have any tips on how to write down a melody without using sheet music but just a txt? something that includes the notes, whether they are going up or down, the rhythms, accents maybe, but without using traditional notation and generally not symbols (at least not many). not necessarily suitable for others to read, just for my reference. like what if i wanted to write down "twinkle twinkle little star" in the key of C. i thought of writing it down as (without including the tempo right now): TREBLE, C, 4/4: C(4)q-Cq+Gq+Gq|Aq-Aq_Gh|Fq-Fq_Eq-Eq|Dq-Dq_Ch so i'm using a dash when the pitch stays the same, a + when it ascends and an underscore when it descends. after the letter of the note i use q for quarter, h for half, i'd probably use h. for dotted half etc. but what would i do if i wanted to write staccato markings or slur notes together, or maybe write chords as well. i think as an idea it looked good at the beginning but i'm starting to see the impracticality of it
A: i do have a system for this. if you want to really display 'enough' information, it's gonna be a lot of information. but i do it in 4 lines. (actually for the melody it's just 2 lines, notes and rhythm. but i usually have a nother line for lyric, and another line for chords). i was looking for an example on my phone but unfortunately all the examples are of songs that haven't been recorded yet, and as much as i would love to spoil a future song i'm not going to. but here is what it would look like for part of one of my songs, assuming i wrote this on a plane or something, which i did not, but this is whati would have done: