If you think music is a universal language - a beg of you to tell the eskimo next door his pants are on fire using a kazoo!!

I remember seeing a French piece titled “yada-yada for Mi-‘flat sign’ saxofone”, mean-ing E-b alto. Many years ago, in Berkeley, neighbors returned from PhD Sociology research in India. The husband showed me these SriLankan “saxophones” they played. Long, wooden, double reed things similar to large simple oboes. The double reeds were made out of popsicle sticks, it seemed. Very hard to blow. Point is: you know how actual Sanskrit writing looks? Their music is written similarly. No lines, no spaces, no notes. Written as Sanskrit-looking text, viz., rows written left to right. For example, a particular word-looking design might be a dotted-quarter F-sharp. Perhaps these links – not related to Sanskrit music! – might help answer your question re Do-Re-Mi and flats/sharps in Western-oriented cultures. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solfege en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentatonic en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatonic_scale en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Note Re SaxMom’s lead: Wasn’t there something in the film “Amadeus” where they argued whether German or Italian should be the accepted language of music (Western). So yea, “pianissimo” and everything is, by accepted convention, Italian.