Talk:C (musical note)

message: Surely C0 is low and C8 is high (per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighth_octave_C) - this article has high Cs with low numbers (0, -1).  Mrjcleaver (talk) 11:53, 14 April 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Is the scientific scale the wrong way around? 

message: I'm a pianist rather than a vocal specialist, but this assertion struck me as odd: "the term Tenor C is sometimes used in vocal music to refer to C5 as it is the highest required note in the standard Tenor repertoire". I don't think I've *ever* seen a tenor line go to a true C5 - it seems like a hell of a stretch, albeit I suppose I've only really had experience of scores suitable for amateur choirs. Can someone give me an example? Is there also scope for a brief explanation of notation here, given that a tenor part written with treble clef notates everything an octave higher than it's sung? I'd be bold here, but I don't really have the expertise... Bedesboy (talk) 13:08, 11 December 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: It's fairly common in opera parts, but all but nonexistent in choral music. —Wahoofive (talk) 18:11, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

text: Furthermore, "tenor C" is often used to designate C3, and "great C" to designate C2 (respectively the lowest notes of the "tenor octave" C3-B3 and the "great octave" C2-B2). The unsourced names given in this article for these notes (and also "soprano C") seem non-standard and idiosyncratic to me, a classical musician with many decades of experience and a former part-time college music-theory instructor. 72.76.9.51 (talk) 17:47, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Tenor C" 

message: Is the C 2 octaves above middle C really called "high C"? The system I was taught at school states that the C one octave above "middle C" is "high C" and two octaves above middle C is "top C" Howlingmadhowie (talk) 08:01, 9 October 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, the C two octaves above middle C is what is commonly referred to as high C.Plumadesabiduría (talk) 11:00, 11 October 2009 (UTC)

text: Tenors sometimes refer to the octave above middle C as "high C" —Wahoofive (talk) 20:15, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  High C 

message: The article says that C4 denotes middle C on the piano, and strongly implies that the "4" in this designation means this is the fourth C on the piano. Narrowly speaking, this is correct, but if the reader is wanting to understand other similar designations, such as A4, this could lead the reader to think that A4 would designate the fourth A on the piano. From info on other sites, I think that is not the case. I think A4 denotes the A above C4, which is typically the fifth A on the piano. I think the octave number is held constant from any C through the B above that C. I think the lowest 4 notes on the typical piano are A0, Bb0, B0 and C1.
24.20.64.156 (talk) 00:49, 9 January 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Defining C4 

message: Middle C used to be a redirect to the appropriate section here.  I've changed it to redirect to the full article itself, since there is a need to disambiguate the note from the newly published novel.  As it is, the lede and the TOC are both small, and the Middle C section is first anyway, so it should not cause any confusion.  See the new and improved hatnote.  I also changed the Supergrass song link to refer directly to the song's article, not the band. Choor monster (talk) 20:28, 18 March 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Middle C]] redirect changed 

message: The lead is far too technical for casual readers.  Let's be honest, if somebody doesn't know what C is, what hope do they have of understanding the opening of the article?  I'm too far removed from music theory to fix it completely.  Andrew327 04:44, 20 June 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Lead 

message: Hello.
The middle C (which is at the exact center of the keyboard) on my piano is 523.251 Hz, not 261.626 Hz. Also, when I listened to the samples, they were an octave above the specified frequencies. Can somebody offer clarification? Thanks. 2602:304:59B8:1B69:F1D9:B818:1206:C339 (talk) 19:43, 16 July 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: The physical location of Middle C depends on the keyboard you are using, how many keys it has, and any octave-shift that might be pre-configured.  In your example, the key being pressing to get 523Hz (= double the frequency) is C5, not C4 .  I would concur that the article could be clearer in explaining that middle C" is not simply the central-most physical key, but the physical key that generates a note of c.261Hz.  —Sladen (talk) 23:35, 16 July 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: My piano is standard, so how does middle C receive a categorization as the one below the center, let alone that the majority of MIDI programs and keyboards I use define it as C5? In the standard range of C0 to C10, C5 is the exact middle. Can you explain? 2602:304:6F8B:19F9:5C3A:EE32:75DD:6975 (talk) 01:16, 22 July 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: Middle C is the note on the ledger line that falls between the bass and treble staves on a musical score; hence "Middle".  The player reads this note (which corresponds to 261Hz), adds any transposition, and then chooses a combination on the instrument's input mechanism that they know will produce 261Hz.  On some instruments there is more than one way to play the same note.  —Sladen (talk) 20:44, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

text: If you check the key numbers on Piano key frequencies, you will note that Middle C is actually closer to the centre than C5 is (that remains true even if you ignore the black keys). Also, the standard range of General MIDI (see the MIDI note number section here) is not C0 to C10, but C-1 to G9 (since C10 vibrates at nearly 17 kHz – close to the The Mosquito's frequency! –, out of the range of most adults, or at the very limit of hearing at best, it makes no sense to include it in any standard range). So Middle C is appropriately named after all. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 09:53, 7 December 2013 (UTC)

text: I'm curious to know which MIDI programs and keyboards exactly define Middle C as C5, and in which way(s) exactly. That claim sounds quite strange to me. Frankly, it is hard to assume good faith here, and I have to wonder if you are trolling. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 10:03, 7 December 2013 (UTC)

text: FWIW, Apple GarageBand mislabels Middle C as "C3", and its keyboard ranges from "C-2" to "G8", i. e., C-1 to G9 – the standard range of General MIDI as mentioned above. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 10:38, 7 December 2013 (UTC)

text: OK, sorry, I think you are honestly confused now, not trolling. See this source, which indicates that various programs variously designate C4 (c') as either C3 or C5, which is of course outrageous. Also, :de:Oktave#Alternative Bezeichnungssysteme says that some MIDI programs offer a range from C0 to B9 (though this is hardly "the standard range" and far from implying that Middle C is C5), while explicitly noting that the upper limit makes little sense. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 11:21, 7 December 2013 (UTC)

text: The tone samples for C-1, C0, C1 indeed seem to be one octave higher than the specified frequencies, as a spectrum analysis shows. Pluie.noire (talk) 20:13, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Middle C 

message: Should a better format be used for sample sounds, as described in WP:Audio?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by VIOLENTRULER (talk • contribs) 06:59, 23 March 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  audio format 

message: Why does it say "natural scale"? The link goes to natural minor scale. Misty MH (talk) 02:13, 27 September 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Natural scale" 

message: MIDI is not implemented consistently across all operating systems, browsers, players, and hardware. The instrument banks vary a lot in my experience. Not to mention that Chrome, at least, won't play a .mid file back inline, but downloads it.
I feel like the tone samples should be in some standard pre-sampled format that can be played/streamed inline on the page. They could even be generated live in JS.
(Edit: Not that MIDI samples are bad. I could see offering both an inline sample playback and downloadable versions in MIDI, OGG, web audio, or whatever too. These may all be useful to some reader at some point.)
I don't know much about how audio samples are normally handled on WP, and I don't want to mess with a page that's well outside my normal sphere of knowledge, but I do know the way it is right now sucks for someone exactly like me. Felice Enellen (talk) 08:45, 17 March 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Using .mid files for samples seems like a bad idea 

message: The insertion of the nouns "B-sharp" and "D-double flat", the enharmonic notes of C, is not an error. These reversions are injust.
179.99.165.113 (talk) 03:47, 16 September 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Words "B-sharp" and "D-double flat" 

message: No way C2 is considered "easy" for a bass to sing. The typical low end for bass is E2. 2600:1008:A118:3AC3:3047:8269:246F:8AE5 (talk) 23:58, 13 March 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: there is also no source for this fallacious claim 2600:1008:A118:3AC3:3047:8269:246F:8AE5 (talk) 23:59, 13 March 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Low C 

message: The audio samples contain the C in question and then the octave above. This is utterly misleading, and I am minded to delete all them forthwith. MinorProphet (talk) 15:43, 1 June 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Audio samples