Only a 1x can be followed by an action in that same hand in normal tempo patterns.īy default we’ll assume that no hurrys are intended, this will be important later. In passing this would be considered a “hurry”. With dNote and short synch notation you have to watch out to not give a hand too much work, if it has to do an action twice in a row it could be hard to do in a normal rhythm. For example you can alternate between synch and asynch with 4x1x(3,1x)! 0 4x There is a very obscure notation using ! to denote a ‘short’ synch throw, I discovered it by accident when juggle lab suggested a transition for me which used it. From the dNote it becomes easy to see which ball goes to which hand, and that it doesn’t loop.Īll that I want to describe with dNote so far can be described with siteswap, even patterns that make use of the 0 0 that comes after a synch throw. However, if I write down every beat it becomes less hard to understand: 0 3ĭespite this now being a 5 beat pattern, it is still one sided. Patterns with odd numbered x throws are very rare to describe in juggling, I had never used them until now because it is hard to understand what is going on with the common methods we use to think about synch siteswaps. This makes it much easier to work out transitions between synch and asynch siteswaps, for example consider the pattern 34x1x(4x,3). Beatmap is more consistent than dNote with the use of the x notation by saying every same hand throw is without x and every crossing throw is with x, but in order to be more compatible with siteswap and less redundant (you’ll have a lot of x’s in standard patterns with beatmap) we will stick to x meaning crossed for even throws and straight for odd throws.

This may seem insignificant, but in traditional siteswap we are usually not thought about this beat and instead use a (left hand) 4 in this pattern because the right hand takes up a beat too, so that each “beat” is a hand just like in alternating siteswap.īeatmap and MHN have already done away with this system of forcing alternating hands and both put synch and asynch siteswaps in the same grid. It now becomes obvious that a 4 still takes 4 beats to land. This still works with the normal ladder diagram arcs, which I often add on paper, but here is a poor ascii attempt:

The siteswap 441 could be written as: L R I would like to reimagine siteswap by displaying the siteswap of every hand on every beat.įor now, I’m putting time on the x axis.

They are a very common part of juggling which are required for every single pattern or sequence, but they are very hard to describe except using the Harmonic Throws grid. I will show how dNote solves all of these issues from all 3 systems, but at the same time taking inspiration from them.Īs a bonus, I’d like to include starts and stops into juggling. Designed to communicate with juggling software, not necessarily with jugglers.A pattern with more than 1 hand or manipulator comes with a lot of redundant information.One is encouraged to differentiate between a cascade as (2x,1)* and (3x,0)* but since the pattern does not describe catches and most juggling happens in exchanging throws (the catch in a hand and thus the hold takes place the same beat as the throw from that same hand) this differentiating is often irrelevant.It can be confusing for people who are used to siteswaps since typically a throw is written down one number lower than with siteswaps.I intend to solve for all of these problems by combining siteswaps with beatmap or multi hand notation (MHN).īut both beatmap and MHN have issues of their own. Siteswap for multiple people becomes one unreadable global siteswap or a few disconnected local siteswaps.It is difficult to add in a third hand/foot/elbow etc.It is hard to combine synchronous with asynchronous siteswaps.In dNote you denote every relevant hand on every single beat. This is my first draft of an alternative system for siteswaps, with the working title dNote.

Dnote exchange