This diagram may read like a chemistry lesson for the psychoactively elated, but in fact it's Steve Cooney's unique musical notation - here shown in schematic form to show the basic outline.
Bottom left is Cooney's tonal mandala, showing the 12 points of the chromatic scale. At 12 o'clock, the note is do or C; at 2 o'clock, it's re or D; at four o'clock, it's mi or E, etc. If the melodic spiral (see top) is counter-clockwise, the melody is travelling upwards in pitch. The obverse is also the case.
The yellow-and-black column of buttons (near bottom right) represents the basic rhythmic alphabet. The single point means a basic one-one-one-one beat. At the same tempo, the smallest circle represents a one-two, like a pair of semiquavers in a row of quavers. A point inside a circle represents a triplet skip, and so on.
Now, try to trace out the first four phrases of the Chorale from Beethoven's 9th, also the European anthem (top, left to right), while (bottom, centre) is a single phrase from the Irish tune, Fainne Geal an Lae.
To the bottom right are a pair of "rhythm rings", which Cooney used in 15 minutes to teach me a complex syncopated rhythm which had baffled me, despite many attempts at untangling its classical-notation time-signatures over the years. The "shine" symbol signifies a downbeat or emphasis, and you can read that off the rhythm column to its left.
Directly above it is a more complex theoretical representation of the same rhythm.
Just how all-inclusive and bug-free Cooney's system is, time will tell. But from my astonished experience, it has very profound implications for education.