Music Notes

Notes can represent the pitch and duration of a sound in musical notation. A note can also represent a pitch class.

Notes are the building blocks of much written music: discretizations of musical phenomena that facilitate performance, comprehension, and analysis.

The term *note* can be used in both generic and specific senses: one might say either "the piece 'Happy Birthday to You' begins with two notes having the same pitch", or "the piece begins with two repetitions of the same note". In the former case, one uses *note* to refer to a specific musical event; in the latter, one uses the term to refer to a class of events sharing the same pitch. (See also: Key signature names and translations.)
The symbol of the note *A* or *La*

Names of some notes

Two notes with fundamental frequencies in a ratio equal to any integer power of two (e.g., half, twice, or four times) are perceived as very similar. Because of that, all notes with these kinds of relations can be grouped under the same pitch class.

In European music theory, most countries use the solfège naming convention do–re–mi–fa–sol–la–si, including for instance Italy, Portugal, Spain, France, Romania, most Latin American countries, Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Russia, Arabic-speaking and Persian-speaking countries. However, in English- and Dutch-speaking regions, pitch classes are typically represented by the first seven letters of the Latin alphabet (A, B, C, D, E, F and G). Several European countries, including Germany, adopt an almost identical notation, in which H is substituted for B (see below for details). Byzantium used the names Pa–Vu–Ga–Di–Ke–Zo–Ni (Πα–Βου–Γα–Δι–Κε–Ζω–Νη).

In traditional Indian music, musical notes are called svaras and commonly represented using the seven notes, Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha and Ni.

The eighth note, or octave, is given the same name as the first, but has double its frequency (first harmonic). The name octave is also used to indicate the span between a note and another with double frequency. To differentiate two notes that have the same pitch class but fall into different octaves, the system of scientific pitch notation combines a letter name with an Arabic numeral designating a specific octave. For example, the now-standard tuning pitch for most Western music, 440 Hz, is named a′ or A4.

There are two formal systems to define each note and octave, the Helmholtz pitch notation and the scientific pitch notation.

### Accidentals

Letter names are modified by the accidentals. The sharp sign ♯ raises a note by a semitone or half-step, and a flat ♭ lowers it by the same amount. In modern tuning a half step has a frequency ratio of 12√2, approximately 1.0595. The accidentals are written after the note name: so, for example, F♯ represents F-sharp, B♭ is B-flat, and C♮ is C natural (or C).

Frequency vs position on treble clef. Each note shown has a frequency of the previous note multiplied by 12√2

Additional accidentals are the double-sharp , raising the frequency by two semitones, and double-flat , lowering it by that amount.

In musical notation, accidentals are placed before the note symbols. Systematic alterations to the seven lettered pitches in the scale can be indicated by placing the symbols in the key signature, which then apply implicitly to all occurrences of corresponding notes. Explicitly noted accidentals can be used to override this effect for the remainder of a bar. A special accidental, the natural symbol ♮, is used to indicate a pitch unmodified by the alterations in the key signature. Effects of key signature and local accidentals do not accumulate. If the key signature indicates G♯, a local flat before a G makes it G♭ (not G♮), though often this type of rare accidental is expressed as a natural, followed by a flat (♮♭) to make this clear. Likewise (and more commonly), a double sharp  sign on a key signature with a single sharp ♯ indicates only a double sharp, not a triple sharp.

Assuming enharmonicity, many accidentals will create equivalences between pitches that are written differently. For instance, raising the note B to B♯ is equal to the note C. Assuming all such equivalences, the complete chromatic scale adds five additional pitch classes to the original seven lettered notes for a total of 12 (the 13th note completing the octave), each separated by a half-step.

Notes that belong to the diatonic scale relevant in the context are sometimes called *diatonic notes*; notes that do not meet that criterion are then sometimes called *chromatic notes*.

Another style of notation, rarely used in English, uses the suffix "is" to indicate a sharp and "es" (only "s" after A and E) for a flat, e.g., Fis for F♯, Ges for G♭, Es for E♭. This system first arose in Germany and is used in almost all European countries whose main language is not English, Greek, or a Romance language (such as French, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Romanian).

In most countries using these suffixes, the letter H is used to represent what is B natural in English, the letter B is used instead of B♭, and Heses (i.e., H) is used instead of B (although Bes and Heses both denote the English B). Dutch-speakers in Belgium and the Netherlands use the same suffixes, but applied throughout to the notes A to G, so that B, B♭ and B have the same meaning as in English, although they are called B, Bes, and Beses instead of B, B flat and B double flat. Denmark also uses H, but uses Bes instead of Heses for B.

### 12-Tone chromatic scale

The following chart lists the names used in different countries for the 12 notes of a chromatic scale built on C. The corresponding symbols are shown within parenthesis. Differences between German and English notation are highlighted in **bold** typeface. Although the English and Dutch names are different, the corresponding symbols are identical.

## Note designation in accordance with octave name[edit]

See also: Piano key frequencies

The table below shows each octave and the frequencies for every note of pitch class A. The traditional (Helmholtz) system centers on the great octave (with capital letters) and small octave (with lower case letters). Lower octaves are named "contra" (with primes before), higher ones "lined" (with primes after). Another system (scientific) suffixes a number (starting with 0, or sometimes −1). In this system A4 is nowadays standardised at 440 Hz, lying in the octave containing notes from C4 (middle C) to B4. The lowest note on most pianos is A0, the highest C8. The MIDI system for electronic musical instruments and computers uses a straight count starting with note 0 for C−1 at 8.1758 Hz up to note 127 for G9 at 12,544 Hz.

### Written notes

A written note can also have a note value, a code that determines the note's relative duration. In order of halving duration, they are: double note (breve); whole note (semibreve); half note (minim); quarter note (crotchet); eighth note (quaver); sixteenth note (semiquaver); thirty-second note (demisemiquaver), sixty-fourth note (hemidemisemiquaver), and hundred twenty-eighth note.

In a score, each note is assigned a specific vertical position on a staff position (a line or space) on the staff, as determined by the clef. Each line or space is assigned a note name. These names are memorized by musicians and allow them to know at a glance the proper pitch to play on their instruments.