Towards a notation and tablature for the kora and its application to other instruments

Abstract

It is apparent, when looking over the recent publications on African music, that we are entering a very important and long overdue stage in the development of our study that of devising and using notation systems specifically for, and appropriate to, the music being studied. The new transcriptions show a consistency with the music being transcribed, both in conception and format, and encourage one to think that the researcher and the musician are moving closer in their perception of the music. The reader, too, can be reasonably assured of learning the music in its proper framework if that framework is represented in the transcription