Notation started out of a simple necessity for communication, a way to describe what was going​​ on with the pen and hand. Given the intricacies of pen spinning, creating and naming new tricks​ would have required thousands of names. Communities of pen spinners got together and ​decided to organize notation, the Universal Pen Spinning Board, an international pen spinning​ community, acquired a Research Department, dedicated to improving all aspects of pen spinning.  One of the largest projects of the Naming Committee was the creation of common pen spinning notation standards.



An article on Interrupted Trick Notation (hybrid notation) was released by the naming committee in late 2007, and still serves as the basis on which pen spinners

notate their combos.  Later revisions in collaboration with the French Pen Spinning Board were made in the form of Expanded Trick Notation the last major change and article on notation released by UPSB. 



Hybrid notation, put simply, introduced the use of the tilde (~) to describe interrupted tricks. By naming the initial trick and finger slot followed by the ~ it is typically given that the initial trick pushes the pen and the trick following the ~ serves as the catch or second half of the trick. In reality this is an oversimplification. 



In the following years, the French Pen Spinning Board released articles of its own, including finger cross notation, this was especially useful due to an emerging style of pen spinning in the French community, which included intricate finger switching, and palm side notation, which introduced a new modifier which described the angle of the palm relative the ground.



There are also many unofficial  forms of notation, common notation is useful in describing 1p1h (1 pen 1 hand), but other forms of notation are necessary for 1p2h (1 pen 2 hands) or 2p2h, or any larger variation. There have also been attempts to include rhythm into notation, or notate "stage spinning" pen spinning on stage. Most forms of notation share a common basis in 1p1h notation.



<<Pen Spinning Background

 

Interrupted Trick Notation: http://www.upsb.info/wiki/index.php?title=Interrupted_Trick_Notation

 

Expanded trick notation: http://www.upsb.info/wiki/index.php?title=Expanded_trick_notation