Musical note

This article is about the musical term. For other uses, see Musical note (disambiguation).

In music, the term note has two primary meanings:

1. A sign used in musical notation to represent the relative duration and pitch of a sound;
2. A pitched sound itself.

Notes are the "atoms" of much Western 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.

The 'A' note

Note name

Key signature names and translations

Two notes with fundamental frequencies in a ratio of any 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 traditional music theory pitch classes are represented by the first seven letters of the Latin alphabet (A, B, C, D, E, F and G) (some countries use other names as in the table below). The eighth note, or octave is given the same name as the first, but has double its frequency. The name octave is also used to indicate the span of notes having a frequency ratio of two. 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 ways to define each note and octave, the Helmholtz system and the Scientific pitch notation.

Accidentals

Frequency vs Position on Treble Clef. Each note shown has a frequency of the previous note multiplied by ${\sqrt[{12}]{2}}$

Letter names are modified by the accidentals. A sharp ♯ 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 ${\sqrt[{12}]{2}}$, approximately 1.059. The accidentals are written after the note name: so, for example, F♯ represents F-sharp, B♭ is B-flat.

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 an unmodified pitch. Effects of key signature and local accidentals do not cumulate. If the key signature indicates G-sharp, a local flat before a G makes it G-flat (not G natural), 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 or a Romance language.

In most countries using this system, the letter H is used to represent what is B natural in English, the letter B represents the B♭, and Heses represents the B♭♭ (not Bes, which would also have fit into the system). Belgium and the Netherlands use the same suffixes, but applied throughout to the notes A to G, so that B♭ is Bes. Denmark also uses H, but uses bes instead of heses for B♭♭.

This is a complete chart of a chromatic scale built on the note C4, or "middle C":

Style	Type	prime		second		third	fourth		fifth		sixth		seventh
English name	Natural	C		D		E	F		G		A		B
	Sharp		C sharp		D sharp			F sharp		G sharp		A sharp
	Flat		D flat		E flat			G flat		A flat		B flat
Symbol	Sharp		C♯		D♯			F♯		G♯		A♯
	Flat		D♭		E♭			G♭		A♭		B♭
Northern European name	Natural	C		D		E	F		G		A		H
	Sharp		Cis		Dis			Fis		Gis		Ais
	Flat		Des		Es			Ges		As		B
Dutch name (sometimes used in Scandinavia after 1990s)	Natural	C		D		E	F		G		A		B
	Sharp		Cis		Dis			Fis		Gis		Ais
	Flat		Des		Es			Ges		As		Bes
Byzantine	Natural	Ni		Pa		Vu	Ga		Di		Ke		Zo-
	Sharp		Ni diesis (or diez)		Pa diesis			Ga diesis		Di diesis		Ke diesis
	Flat		Pa hyphesis		Vu hyphesis			Di hyphesis		Ke hyphesis		Zo hyphesis
Southern & Eastern European	Natural	Do		Re		Mi	Fa		Sol		La		Si
	Sharp		Do diesis		Re diesis			Fa diesis		Sol diesis		La diesis
	Flat		Re bemolle		Mi bemolle			Sol bemolle		La bemolle		Si bemolle
Variant names		Ut		-		-	-		So		-		Ti
Indian style		Sa	Re Komal	Re	Ga Komal	Ga	Ma	Ma Teevra	Pa	Dha Komal	Dha	Ni Komal	Ni
Approx. Frequency [Hz]		262	277	294	311	330	349	370	392	415	440	466	494
MIDI note number		60	61	62	63	64	65	66	67	68	69	70	71

Note designation in accordance with octave name

The table of each octave and the frequencies for every note of pitch class A is shown below. 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 to 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.

Octave naming systems				frequency of A (Hz)
traditional	shorthand	numbered	MIDI nr
subsubcontra	Cˌˌˌ – Bˌˌˌ	C-1 – B-1	0 – 11	13.75
sub-contra	Cˌˌ – Bˌˌ	C0 – B0	12 – 23	27.5
contra	Cˌ – Bˌ	C1 – B1	24 – 35	55
great	C – B	C2 – B2	36 – 47	110
small	c – b	C3 – B3	48 – 59	220
one-lined	c′ – b′	C4 – B4	60 – 71	440
two-lined	c′′ – b′′	C5 – B5	72 – 83	880
three-lined	c′′′ – b′′′	C6 – B6	84 – 95	1760
four-lined	c′′′′ – b′′′′	C7 – B7	96 – 107	3520
five-lined	c′′′′′ – b′′′′′	C8 – B8	108 – 119	7040
six-lined	c′′′′′′ – b′′′′′′	C9 – B9	120 – 127 up to G9	14080

Written notes

A written note can also have a note value, a code that determines the note's relative duration. These note values include half notes (minims), quarter notes (crotchets), eighth notes (quavers), sixteenth notes, and thirty-second notes.

In order of halving duration, we have: double note (breve); single note (semibreve); half-note (minim); quarter-note (crotchet); eighth-note (quaver); sixteenth-note (semi-quaver). Smaller stlll are the demi-semi-quaver, and hemi-demi-semi quaver.

When notes are written out in a score, each note is assigned a specific vertical position on a staff position (a line or a 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 for each note-head marked on the page.

The C Major scale

The staff above shows the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C and then in reverse order, with no key signature or accidentals.

Note frequency (hertz)

In all technicality, music can be composed of notes at any arbitrary frequency. Since the physical causes of music are vibrations of mechanical systems, they are often measured in hertz (Hz), with 1 Hz = 1 complete vibration per second. For historical and other reasons, especially in Western music, only twelve notes of fixed frequencies are used. These fixed frequencies are mathematically related to each other, and are defined around the central note, A4. The current "standard pitch" or modern "concert pitch" for this note is 440 Hz, although this varies in actual practice (see History of pitch standards).

The note-naming convention specifies a letter, any accidentals (sharps/flats), and an octave number. Any note is an integer of half-steps away from middle A (A4). Let this distance be denoted n. If the note is above A4, then n is positive; if it is below A4, then n is negative. The frequency of the note (f) (assuming equal temperament) is then:

$f=2^{n/12}\times 440\,{\mbox{Hz}}\,$

For example, one can find the frequency of C5, the first C above A4. There are 3 half-steps between A4 and C5 (A4 → A♯4 → B4 → C5), and the note is above A4, so n = +3. The note's frequency is:

$f=2^{3/12}\times 440\,{\mbox{Hz}}\approx 523.2\,{\mbox{Hz}}$

To find the frequency of a note below A4, the value of n is negative. For example, the F below A4 is F4. There are 4 half-steps (A4 → A♭4 → G4 → G♭4 → F4), and the note is below A4, so n = −4. The note's frequency is:

$f=2^{-4/12}\times 440\,{\mbox{Hz}}\approx 349.2\,{\mbox{Hz}}$

Finally, it can be seen from this formula that octaves automatically yield factors of two times the original frequency, since n is therefore a multiple of 12 (12k, where k is the number of octaves up or down), and so the formula reduces to:

$f=2^{12k/12}\times 440\,{\mbox{Hz}}=2^{k}\times 440\,{\mbox{Hz}}$

yielding a factor of 2. In fact, this is the means by which this formula is derived, combined with the notion of equally-spaced intervals.

The distance of an equally tempered semitone is divided into 100 cents. So 1200 cents are equal to one octave — a frequency ratio of 2:1. This means that a cent is precisely equal to the 1200th root of 2, which is approximately 1.000578.

For use with the MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) standard, a frequency mapping is defined by:

$p=69+12\times log_{2}{f \over 440\,{\mbox{Hz}}}$

For notes in an A440 equal temperament, this formula delivers the standard MIDI note number. Any other frequencies fill the space between the whole numbers evenly. This allows MIDI instruments to be tuned very accurately in any microtuning scale, including non-western traditional tunings.

History of note names

Music notation systems have used letters of the alphabet for centuries. The 6th century philosopher Boethius is known to have used the first fifteen letters of the alphabet to signify the notes of the two-octave range that was in use at the time. Though it is not known whether this was his devising or common usage at the time, this is nonetheless called Boethian notation.

Following this, the system of repeating letters A-G in each octave was introduced, these being written as minuscules for the second octave and double minuscules for the third. When the compass of used notes was extended down by one note, to a G, it was given the Greek G (Γ), gamma. (It is from this that the French word for scale, gamme is derived, and the English word gamut, from "Gamma-Ut", the lowest note in Medieval music notation.)

The remaining five notes of the chromatic scale (the black keys on a piano keyboard) were added gradually; the first being B, which was flattened in certain modes to avoid the dissonant tritone interval. This change was not always shown in notation, but when written, B♭ (B-flat) was written as a Latin, round "b", and B♮ (B-natural) a Gothic or "hard-edged" b. These evolved into the modern flat and natural symbols respectively. The sharp symbol arose from a barred b, called the "cancelled b".

In parts of Europe, including Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Russia, the natural symbol transformed into the letter H (possibly for hart, German for hard): in German music notation, H is B♮ (B-natural) and B is B♭ (B-flat). Occasionally, music written in German for international use will use H for B-natural and B^b for B-flat (with a modern-script lowercase b instead of a flat sign). Since a B♭ in Northern Europe is fairly rare, it is generally clear what this notation means.

In Italian, Portuguese, Greek, French, Russian, Flemish, Romanian, Spanish, Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, Bulgarian and Turkish notation the notes of scales are given in terms of Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Si rather than C-D-E-F-G-A-B. These names follow the original names reputedly given by Guido d'Arezzo, who had taken them from the first syllables of the first six musical phrases of a Gregorian Chant melody Ut queant laxis, which began on the appropriate scale degrees. These became the basis of the solfege system. "Do" later replaced the original "Ut" for ease of singing (most likely from the beginning of Dominus, Lord), though "Ut" is still used in some places. "Si" or "Ti" was added as the seventh degree (from Sancte Johannes, St. John, to whom the hymn is dedicated). The use of 'Si' versus 'Ti' varies regionally.

In a newly developed system notes of scales become independent to the music notation. In this system the natural symbols C-D-E-F-G-A-H refer to the absolute notes, while the names Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti are relativized and show only the relationship between pitches, where Do is the name of the base pitch of the scale, Re is the name of the second pitch, etc. The idea of so called movable-do, originally suggested by John Curwen in the 19th century, was fully developed and involved into a whole educational system by Kodály Zoltán in the middle of 20th century, which system is known as Kodály Method or Kodály Concept.

See also

• Diatonic and chromatic
• Ghost note
• Grace note
• Money note
• Musical temperament
• Note value
• Pensato
• Piano key frequencies
• Solfege
• Universal key

Bibliography

• Nattiez, Jean-Jacques (1990). Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music (Musicologie générale et sémiologue, 1987). Translated by Carolyn Abbate (1990). ISBN 0-691-02714-5.

External links

• Converter: Frequencies to note name, +/- cents
• Note names, keyboard positions, frequencies and MIDI numbers
• Music notation systems − Frequencies of equal temperament tuning - The English and American system versus the German system
• Frequencies of musical notes