What is MathSound?

MathSound is a musical representation ecosystem that allows for the encoding and transcription of any sound information.

What problem does MathSound address?

MathSound emerges as a response to the difficulties that music students across different educational stages often encounter in learning music literacy and notation.

Learning conventional music theory can be complex and may generate a high cognitive load for learners (Sweller, 1988). This is because reading or performing music fluently requires the assimilation of numerous concepts, symbols, and rules, most of which are highly abstract. This complexity increases further because learners must process several sound parameters simultaneously—such as pitch, dynamics, and duration—making traditional Western notation a system that demands considerable cognitive effort (Hargreaves, 1986; Hallam, 2006).

Furthermore, learning to read music depends on various factors, including educational context, prior experience, and other variables that can make the understanding of traditional Western music notation less effective for some learners. For this reason, authors such as Cheng et al. (2024) argue that it is worthwhile to explore alternative approaches that provide a simpler and more accessible entry point into musical language. Added to this is the complexity associated with the use of specialized music notation software and related applications, which generally require prior knowledge of traditional music notation and the symbols and conventions on which it is based (Wilde et al., 2024).

This challenge is further compounded by the limitations that traditional score-editing software may present in certain educational contexts, particularly when the goal is to write music quickly, collaboratively, or using everyday digital devices.

What other goals does it pursue? 

Aside from the intention of facilitating and improving musical literacy and instrumental practice, other specific objectives exist, among which the following stand out:

• Democratizing access to musical literacy and instrumental practice.

• Creating sound maps in any location and context.

• Exchanging MapSounds anywhere in the world instantly, universally, and accessibility.

• Offering musical learning alternatives with respect to current learning standards.

• Making musical teaching flexible and adaptable to any context or situation.

• Adapting musical learning to different educational, social, and cultural realities.

• Enhancing emotions and psychoacoustics through musical proposals.

• Establishing interdisciplinary and transversal connections of all kinds, at any educational stage.

• Adequately addressing plurality, diversity, and neurodivergence.

• Expressing any artistic-musical idea immediately.

• Favoring the analysis of works from any genre or historical period, from a pedagogical perspective in line with current educational approaches.

• Musicalizing the world in which we live.

• Representing simple and elaborate musical ideas.

• Promoting improvisation, creativity, and emotional expression (Green, 2008; Orff, 1978).

• Showcasing contemporary musical practices, including analog and digital, innovative and traditional contexts, and other forms of creation not contemplated in conventional notation (Wilde et al., 2024).

What does it consist of?

The ecosystem is composed of a series of modules or sound representation interfaces known as MapSounds. This concept refers to the different translations or transcodings that a musical score can adopt and is grounded in the idea that the representation of a phenomenon should not be confused with the phenomenon itself (Schaeffer, 1966; Korzybski, 1933). In other words, the sonic reality constitutes the territory, while the systems used to represent it act as maps of that reality. Consequently, MapSounds are understood as different ways of representing the same musical reality. Although they employ different codes, symbols, and reading structures, they all preserve the musical information they represent intact, ensuring that the sonic content remains unchanged regardless of the interface used.

In this regard, each interface is deliberately linked to one or more of the intelligences proposed by Gardner (1983)—musical, visual-spatial, or logical-mathematical, among others. Likewise, it aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and with the competencies and learning outcomes intended for development. Furthermore, it can be adapted to the characteristics and needs of each learning group, promoting attention to diversity and the inclusion of different neurodivergent profiles.

Overall, the MathSound system can be understood as a tool that supports pedagogical scaffolding, drawing on the contributions of Vygotsky (1978). Indeed, the design of each interface enables learners to progressively acquire the concepts required to read or interpret different sound maps according to their cognitive development and individual capabilities. To achieve this, the ecosystem includes a variety of cross-curricular and interdisciplinary modules organized into progressively increasing levels of complexity, ranging from simpler and more accessible proposals to more sophisticated ones. This structure ensures a gradual musical learning process adapted to the specific needs of each learner.

In this way, MapSounds provide access to the same musical information through different communicative pathways, creating learning environments that are more accessible, flexible, and inclusive (Duffy, 2022; Waldron et al., 2021).

How is it structured?

In essence, each MapSound represents musical information through an alternative coding system. Although some interfaces are directly based on and related to conventional music notation, most share a common adiastematic foundation; that is, the exact pitch of the sounds is not explicitly displayed. This characteristic makes it possible to transcribe different sound parameters using plain text, for example through a WhatsApp message or a Google document.

How can a score be transcoded?

Any conventional musical score can be transcoded using one of the sound representation interfaces offered by the MathSound ecosystem.

First, it is necessary to determine the objectives to be achieved and then select the MapSounds that best suit the characteristics and needs of each learning environment. Although the system offers a wide variety of transcoding interfaces, all of them are designed to ensure that the sonic meaning they represent remains intact.

Depending on the modules selected, scores can be written using letters, numbers, symbols, icons, or emojis, without the need for specialized music notation software, thereby facilitating the creation of sound maps through everyday digital tools (Wilde et al., 2024).

How is it used? 

To carry it out, you can write either analogically in a notebook or on a whiteboard, or digitally, on an electronic device (mobile phone, tablet, computer) that has a conventional (QWERTY) keyboard.