notation: one size fits all

This might be of interest for anyone who's experimenting with
different equal tunings who's also interested in retaining some of the
more convenient aspects of standard notation and the five line staff.

If one shoehorns an equal tuning into the closed circle of 12 equal's
circle of fifths as 12-out-of-N, sharps and flats are defined as C
less B and double sharps and flats are defined as D less C. (This
allows that B# and Dbb always = C.)

By using an additional glyph such as / for raised by 1/N and \ for
lowered by 1/N, the traditional note names and their sharps and flats
and their accompanying keys could be notated much as they usually are.

Here's some simple examples.

22 equal in the key of C/ major would be 1 5 8 10 14 18 21 1, and
would be notated as:

----------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------
/C
---------------------------------------/B-----------
/A
-------------------------/G-------------------------
/F
-------------/E-------------------------------------
/D
-/C-

18 equal in the key of G major would be 11 14 17 1 4 7 10 11, and
would be notated as:

G
------------------------------------/#F----------
/E
----------------------/D-------------------------
/C
-----------B-------------------------------------
A
-G-----------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------

(Note the use of the additional glyph to maintain the consistent use
of traditional tonal spellings.)

Here's another -- albeit much more unusual -- example of the
additional glyph maintaining the consistent use of traditional tonal
spellings.

The key of Gb major in 11 equal would be 5 7 9 10 0 2 4 5, and would
be notated as:

bG
---------------------------------\F------------
/bE
---------------------\bD-----------------------
bC
-----------bB----------------------------------
bA
-bG--------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------

This type of a generalization will work for all equal tunings; on size
fits all. (Though compound or additional glyphs will be necessary if
one wants to use large equal tunings in this fashion.)

--Dan Stearns