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Simplicio --
Your are entirely correct that hundreds of "reforms" of traditional music notation have been proposed over the years, and have failed to make a significant commercial or artistic impact.
But ThumLine(tm) notation (and the ThumMusic(tm) PLUS System in general) is not a "reform" of traditional notation; that is, it is not intended to be used by players of traditional instruments. It is intended only for use by jammer-players, the way guitar tab is used by guitarists. Guitar tab could be considered a "failure" for not having "reformed" traditional notation, but it was never intended to do so. It was only intended to make learning and playing the guitar easier, and it has been a clear success at meeting this objective.
To succeed, previous music notation proposals faced a "chicken or egg" dilemma: why should a publisher print music in a notation that few people know? -- and, why should anyone learn a notation in which few pieces have been published?
Because modern computer-based music notation programs can be updated with plug-ins to display music in ANY notation, learning ThumLine staff notation (rather than traditional staff notation) can still give you access to all of the music in the world. Just install the ThumLine plug-in (which we haven't written yet!), and any music that you could display in traditional notation or guitar tab can then be displayed in ThumLine, too.
When leanring music on a jammer or QWERTY keyboard, using ThumLine staff notation -- as part of the ThumMusic PLUS System -- makes music easier to teach, learn, and play, and delivers these benefits with essentially no incompatibility cost to the student or teacher. No previous notation "reform" has ever offered such significant benefits at so little cost.
That's why I think that the ThumMusic PLUS System, including ThumLine notation, will eventually "succeed."
But...only time will tell. We shall see.
Thanks! :-)
Jim Plamondon
CEO, Thumtronics Ltd
The New Shape of Music(tm)
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