Dranyen Experiments

How dranyen music is written

Numbers, not staves

Tibetan lute melodies are traditionally passed down by ear, but when they are written, they use a numbered notation: the digits 1–7 stand for the seven scale degrees — Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti — with underlines for shorter notes, a dash to hold, and a dot beneath the re-entrant low notes. It is the same shorthand a master player jots in the margin of a songbook.

This little editor lets you write in exactly that language, hear it on a real dranyen, and carry the result out as sheet music a cellist could read — so a melody once kept only in memory can be saved, shared, and played again.