thanks, John, though I confess I still don't see it. I haven't got anything like absolute pitch but I have got very good relative pitch and I find the intervals are perfectly clear from conventional notation - which is what you are left with if you take the shapes away. I suppose it's just a matter of people visualising things in different ways.
Best CB To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html