How do I convert sheet music to jianpu?

Export your sheet music as MusicXML or MIDI from your notation app (MuseScore, Finale, Sibelius all support this), then upload it to DomiSol's editor. The conversion runs in your browser, your file never leaves it. You get back an editable jianpu score with proper octave dots, beam underlines, and bar lines.

What's the relationship between staff notation and jianpu?

Staff notation uses fixed pitches anchored to a clef. Jianpu is movable-do: '1' is always the tonic of the current key, regardless of the actual pitch. So in C major, 1=C; in G major, 1=G; in F major, 1=F. The conversion just relabels each pitch with its scale-degree number.

What file formats can I import?

DomiSol accepts MusicXML (.musicxml or .xml, uncompressed) and standard MIDI (.mid or .midi). Compressed MusicXML (.mxl) isn't supported yet, re-export as plain .musicxml from your notation app. Multi-track MIDI is converted with one part per track; polyphonic chords collapse to the highest note.

Will the conversion preserve key signature, time signature, and tempo?

Yes. Key signature is read from the file when present and used as the tonic for jianpu conversion ('1 = X'). When the file doesn't declare a key (common with MIDI exported from DAWs), DomiSol detects the key from the pitch distribution. Time signature and tempo are preserved exactly.

Can I convert jianpu back to staff notation?

Yes. DomiSol exports a staff-notation PDF (one stave per voice) straight from the Export menu, and a MIDI file for opening in MuseScore, Finale, or any DAW. The bilingual workflow, write in jianpu, share the jianpu PDF to your erhu / dizi / guzheng player, share the staff PDF to a Western-trained musician, works out of the box.

Why convert staff to jianpu instead of learning to read staff?

Most repertoires for the erhu, dizi, guzheng, gamelan, and Chinese folk traditions live in jianpu, that's the first language for over a billion musicians across China, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Myanmar. A composer with a Western staff score and a jianpu-reading ensemble needs translation, not retraining. Jianpu also makes transposition trivial.

6 min read · Updated 2026-05-26

How to convert

Sheet music to jianpu, in your browser.

Upload MusicXML or MIDI from MuseScore, Finale, Sibelius, or any DAW. DomiSol converts it to editable jianpu (1 2 3 4 5 6 7) in seconds, no upload, the parsing runs locally in the browser.

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Why convert staff to jianpu?

Jianpu is the lingua franca of Chinese, Taiwanese, Indonesian, and Burmese music, and the standard notation for most erhu, dizi, guzheng, pipa, and gamelan repertoire. Composers and arrangers who write Western staff scores but want to share with jianpu-reading musicians need a translator, not a retraining program.

In practice that means Chinese diaspora composers writing for ensembles back home, Indonesian church musicians whose congregations read angka, and music educators teaching across both traditions in the same classroom, anyone whose score and whose players speak different notations.

How the conversion works

Staff notation uses fixed pitches: every note on the staff has an absolute pitch determined by the clef. Jianpu is movable-do: 1 is always the tonic of the current key. The mapping is a one-step relabel:

In C major: 1=C, 2=D, 3=E, 4=F, 5=G, 6=A, 7=B
In G major: 1=G, 2=A, 3=B, 4=C, 5=D, 6=E, 7=F♯
In D major: 1=D, 2=E, 3=F♯, 4=G, 5=A, 6=B, 7=C♯

Octave is marked with dots above (higher) or below (lower) the number. Sharps and flats sit in front of the number (#4, b7).

Duration works differently from staff notation, and this is the part worth learning properly:

A plain number is one beat, the equivalent of a quarter note.
Underlines beneath shorten it: one line halves it to an eighth, two lines to a sixteenth. Consecutive short notes share a continuous underline, exactly as staff notation beams them.
Dashes after lengthen it: 5 - is two beats, 5 - - - is four.
An augmentation dot after the number adds half again, same as on a staff.
0 is a rest, and takes the same underlines and dashes as any note.

Step 1, export your sheet music

MusicXML is the music industry's interchange format. Most notation apps export it cleanly:

MuseScore: File → Export → MusicXML (uncompressed)
Finale: File → Export → MusicXML
Sibelius: File → Export → MusicXML (Sibelius 7+)
Dorico: File → Export → MusicXML
Any DAW (Logic, Cubase, Ableton): Export as MIDI
Printed score (no source file): Use DomiSol's image-to-score feature, drop a photo or PDF

Step 2, open the DomiSol editor

Go to https://dash.domisol.app and sign in. Free during beta. Works in any modern browser.

Step 3, drop the file

In the editor, click the AI tab in the toolbar, then Import file. Drag your MusicXML or MIDI file into the modal. DomiSol parses it locally, detects the key, converts every note to its scale-degree number, and renders the result in jianpu.

Toggle to staff or solfa at any time, the underlying score data is the same; only the visual rendering changes.

Step 4, edit, play, share, export

Your score now appears in jianpu. You can edit any note, add lyrics, play back the audio, harmonize a melody to SATB with AI, transpose, export to PDF, or share via URL.

What DomiSol doesn't (yet) translate

Polyphonic chords are collapsed to the highest voice.
Tuplets and triplets beyond the standard duration set get rounded.
Mid-piece key changes are flattened to the first key.
Slurs, ties, and dynamics are best-effort.

Try it now

DomiSol is the only web-based editor where jianpu is the editing model, not an export format. MusicXML and MIDI importers route staff music straight into that model.

Open the free jianpu editor → , or jump straight into the app to import your first file.