Early Efforts to Create a Form of Music Notation.

Early systems of music notation were developed by the ancient Sumerians, by the Egyptians, by the Chinese in the 3rd century BC, and later by the ancient Greeks and Romans. Most likely music notation developed alongside written language, and that the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians devised symbols to accompany the system of hand signs they used, indicating the pitch and shape of the melody; the Chinese had a sophisticated system of notation as early as the 3rd century BC. During the 7th century the medieval Church members were about the only people who could read and the general public needed a method to note their plainsong music (that was an oral/aural tradition). A form of notation using signs called Neumes appeared noting accents representing the rise and fall of the melody, but did not give a precise placing of pitch or rhythm.
(Notation, 2004)

Neums developed into a complex system in which an individual Neume could represent a single note or as many as four notes in a particular sequence. The Neumic system gave a very graphic indication of the shape of a melody, but the addition of a horizontal line removed its main drawback by fixing an absolute pitch as a point of reference.
(Abeles, 1995)

These graphic signs showed the rise and fall of the notes of a melody. The system of using notes on a stave or staff of horizontal lines first appeared in the 11th century, and was invented by an Italian monk, Guido of Arezzo.
(Notation, 2004)

N.A. (2004). "Notation". Retrieved online 01/21/2009 from: http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/notation+(music)

Abeles, H. F.; Hoffer, C. R.; Klotman R. H. (1995). Foundations of Music Education. Belmont, California: Thomson Schirmer.