Although in the last decades the traditional theory of harmony in tonal music has often been sharply criticized, it is still in use and a better alternative has not yet been elaborated. Since it is used today mainly for the purpose of describing and teaching tonal harmony, a modern alternative should offer, above all, a better method of describing any succession of harmonies. Starting from a recently evolved system of encoding harmony objectively as a succession of harmonic interval combinations and melodic bass steps, a similar shorthand writing of harmonies with additional mnemonic qualities is suggested. This shorthand may be used in describing and teaching tonal harmony. Moreover, its use within the scope of a modern Gestalt theory of musical perception concentrating on the learning and recognizing of patterns of harmonic and melodic intervals is outlined.