[caillancm]

>And I'm not just talking about Western notation, either - the number-based notation that's in widespread use in East Asia is also highly intuitive and perhaps more so.

Do you have any more information about this? Fpr example, scores of Chinese music using the Indian/Arabic number system? I know that number notation is used as a mataphor for gamelan music—by westerers, which has caught on natively (although which might be frowned upon) for archival purposes, at least.

The number metaphor for tones clashes with the number metapor for the counting of beats, which is ubiquitous in Western music. But perhaps there are different metaphores in East-Asian music.