Since we're getting onto more "technical" stuff now I wanted to make an observation about the actual notation of music. I realize that some people here don't read or write staff notation but I always like to make sure that my melodies and chords are written down, firstly so that I can give them to other people to play, secondly so that I've got a record for copyright reasons, and thirdly so that I don't forget them myself! (You have no idea how many times I've forgotten my own tune and had to write a new one.)
For some reason, I seem to be writing a lot in 12/8 time recently. Both of my most recent songs have been in 12/8, although I wasn't aware of that until I started trying to write them down! In case anyone doesn't know, that means four beats in the bar, with each beat divided into three quavers. It seems to be quite good for swing and jazz tunes generally.
But it's a nightmare to write out in conventional staff notation. Each beat is represented by a dotted crotchet, so if I want to write a note that's three beats long, I can't do it with a single note symbol - I have to write a dotted minim (two beats) tied to a dotted crotchet (one beat). There is simply no single symbol to represent a note that's nine quavers long, even though they crop up all the time in 12/8.
In some ways it would be simpler to write the time signature as 4/4 and notate the whole thing in triplets - but then you run up against the problem that you're using the same symbol (crotchet) to represent a single beat and two-thirds of a beat. They're only distinguished by the fact that the latter has the "-3-" bracket symbol over it, and I get a bit fed up with writing them throughout the whole song. (Yes, I still write sheet music out by hand - I've got some music printing software but still haven't got to grips with it.)
In my fantasy notation system, there'd be a variable relationship between crotchets and quavers. The time-signature would tell you not only how many crotchet beats in a bar, but how many quavers in a crotchet. So ordinary 4/4 time would be "4 x 2" and 12/8 time would be "4 x 3". You'd need an extra symbol to represent two-thirds of a beat - perhaps the mirror image of a quaver?
Maybe this doesn't bother too many people here but it drives me nuts!