More thoughts about the octave notation system in The Horn Call

A glance at my phone on my music stand the other day made me want to revisit a recent topic: the octave designation system used in The Horn Call.

A couple of months ago, I argued for The Horn Call to use scientific pitch notation (SPN) instead of the outdated and impractical Helmholtz notation to distinguish octaves.

As a quick reminder, here are the Helmholtz and scientific pitch notation systems for identifying the different octaves:

Here’s another diagram that illustrates more clearly, using a piano keyboard, how the octave ranges are numbered.

In my September post, I wrote about the advantages of scientific pitch notation. Compared to Helmholtz notation, scientific pitch notation is:

• Easier to read
• Easier to write
• Easier to understand
• Easier to say out loud

A few days ago, I noticed afresh something that I’ve seen many times - the tuner screen of my favorite music app - TonalEnergy Tuner & Metronome. It is using scientific pitch notation to distinguish between octaves. The three screenshots below show C₄ (middle C), C₅ (third-space C), and C₆ (high C).

Many musicians use this app. I see it frequently on other stands in the orchestras I play in. It is the most popular music app on the App Store.

For my day job, I’ve been a software developer for the past 30 years. I cannot imagine any app developer using Helmholtz notation, with its subscript and superscript stacked prime symbols, instead of the relatively simplicity and uniformity of scientific pitch notation.

This is another indication to me that Helmholtz notation is outdated. It is not the notation that musicians will see on their mobile devices and computers, and its use will continue to decline.