Music is as old as humankind. Ancient chants told stories that were handed generation to generation, and emotions were embodied in melodies and rhythms. As music evolved along with the written word, musicians desired a means to pass songs to one another – thus the Masallan system of Musical Writing was born. The standard seven notes were given symbols, and enhancing marks delivered certain values to those notes.

Here are the seven unenhanced notes –

Enhancements are placed above, below, or within each note. The three positions which can contain an enhancement are shown below, marked with a sondé. Also shown is the ½ full count slash, called a fiel.

All notes will be enhanced in one way or another. Enhancements give a note a count value, and also indicate minor notes, which are played down to make them low notes (equivalent to your sharp or flat notes). Here you will see the Kaan note marked with different count enhancements.

If two, or even three, notes are to be played as one, they are tied with a cuel (shown below).  These are known as cuels or cuelnotes.

Your counting beat is usually a two count beat, a three count beat, or a four count beat.

Lulaekaan is set before lines of notes to be counted with a two-count.

Lulefil is set before lines of notes to be counted with a three-count.

Luleshay marks a four-count.

Rests are marked as follows.

A low note is marked with a tine. Tined notes are shown below.

If a section of music is to be repeated, it is marked with a Suldé before and after the section to be repeated.

Some instruments, especially the rare and almost extinct piano, as well as quite a few foreign instruments, are capable of playing two lines of notes simultaneously. Such lines are joined with a cuel (shown below), which simply indicates that they are to be played together.

Finally, the musician wants to know whether or not they should be playing on the primary string, the high string, the low string, or at even more distant strings.  (A string is the equivalent of your octave.)

The primary string, with notes of moderate pitch, is unmarked. Notes played higher are marked as below on the Mona note. One bar indicates one string higher, another bar indicates two strings higher, etc. Bottom bars indicate the opposite.

The system is considered simple, easy to learn, and versatile, and allows much in the way of elaboration by the musician. Other cultures have different methods of writing music, but the Masallan System is the one used most often in the Old and New World cultures.

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