Because when you’re writing something for a large ensemble and you need them to play the right notes and rhythms there needs to be a standard way to notate music. Otherwise you waste time teaching individual parts.
And it does mostly make sense. It’s just that there’s room for interpretation.
I watched a documentary a while ago that explored the history of music notation. It’s something that evolved, it wasn’t meticulously planned out. And it turns out the notation we use today is very good to being able to read music quickly (compared to other historical methods).
Exactly what I was shouting into the void when taking music history/theory at uni and struggling.
“Why is it this way? None of this makes sense!”
“Some dudes 400 years ago started it this way and we’ve only slightly changed it since”
Because when you’re writing something for a large ensemble and you need them to play the right notes and rhythms there needs to be a standard way to notate music. Otherwise you waste time teaching individual parts.
And it does mostly make sense. It’s just that there’s room for interpretation.
I watched a documentary a while ago that explored the history of music notation. It’s something that evolved, it wasn’t meticulously planned out. And it turns out the notation we use today is very good to being able to read music quickly (compared to other historical methods).