TUBS
Time Unit Box System (TUBS) notation is an existing notation system used to notate rhythms in a visual manner.
For example, this is flip-flop delay.
description
As Koetting, one of the authors of this notation system, states:
"Each box in TUBS represents one fastest pulse...with subvisions within the fastest pulse being notated with special techniques...The box is left empty if no sound occurs in the time unit represented by the box, and is filled [with] one or more symbols to indicate any sounds occurring and to characterize their sonority by representing the techniques used by the performers to produce the pitch, loudness, tone quality, and carrying power of the sounds."
Custom symbols within the boxes can be used in order to convey different techniques or instruments. In the above example with flip-flop delay, dots are used for all techniques.
uses
TUBS notation is particularly useful to notate polyrhythms, as the visual groupings of each hand are easy to see.
differences with Western musical notation
Koetting states that:
"TUBS avoids the time signatures and bar lines of Western notation...there is no inherent hierarchy of stress or accent in the sequence of fastest pulses, and in the notation no one box is more significant than another."
authorship
TUBS notation was authored by Philip Harland in collaboration with the Ashanti master drummer Robert Bonsu and the Ewe master drummer Robert Ayitee, with further development by James Koetting in collaboration with Ayitee and the Ashanti master drummer Kwasi Badu. It was originally used in their studies of West African drum ensemble music.
sidenote
While asalato players use notation systems similar to TUBS, it is unlikely they encountered it in its original form or purpose, and it likely independently arose multiple times.
Here are examples from KOH and @fumi._fumi23 (Instagram) that use similar notation systems.
sources
Koetting, James. 1970. “Analysis and Notation of West African Drum Ensemble Music.” In Selected Reports (University of California, Los Angeles: Institute of Ethnomusicology) 1(3): 115-147.