A New Burst Of Bloom is a living performance practice which invites spontaneous creative partnerships through improvisation and co-composition. This is done using a modular notation which specifies numbers of people, rather than pitches or rhythm.
An example score from September 2025, Guelph ON. The blank card indicates the end of the score.
After a few years of working with this notation, I settled on the name groupings for “numbers of people”. So it made sense to call the notation itself
grouping notation.
An example score from March 2025, Nashville TN.
Groupings represent any potential duet, quartet, septet, etc. within an ensemble of performers. Moving from one grouping to the next (transitions) can be done in any way chosen by the ensemble. Groupings do not have a set duration.
Much of the work I have done with grouping notation has been with musical ensembles, but grouping notation can be used among any group of artist-performers, of any discipline or intersection of disciplines.
Grouping notation is highly adaptable to the needs/interests of individual ensembles. Scores are generally read left-to-right, bottom-to-top, but if your group find it easier to read in some other orientation, go with the consensus. Arabic numerals are commonly used, but any system of measuring cardinality can be used.
An example score from March 2024, Ann Arbor MI.
This concludes the “crash course” in grouping notation! If you’re interested in learning more, or seeing examples of more scores, you can go on to the next page.
I am available for workshops and performances in grouping notation using my kit A New Burst Of Bloom. If you would like to invite me to work with your group,
send me an email introduction!
An example score from September 2025, Guelph ON. The blank card indicates the end of the score.
