According to his pupil Frans Sweerts (Franciscus Sweertius), writing in "Athenae belgicae" (1628), he was an innovator of solmization for which he devised two new methods. The composer first added "si" to the six syllables of the hexacord and then repeated "ut" to make a full octave. He then created a new method with these new syllables. The second invention involved the creation of an octave using eight syllables with new names all different from the existing names of notes. The new names are: BA, NI, MA, LO, GA, DI, SE and BO. The innovations were intended to address the problems inherent to the existing Guidonian system which used three overlapping hexacords and the difficulties of mutation.