The term note has two primary meanings: 1) a sign used in music to represent the relative duration and pitch of a sound; and 2) a pitched sound itself. Notes are the "atoms" of much Western music: discretizations of musical phenomena that facilitate performance, comprehension, and analysis (Nattiez 1990, p.81n9). Look up note in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Note refers to a musical note. ... For other uses, see Music (disambiguation). ... Pitch is the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. ... This article is about audible acoustic waves. ... Musical analysis can be defined as a process attempting to answer the question how does this music work?. The method employed to answer this question, and indeed exactly what is meant by the question, differs from analyst to analyst. ... Musical analysis can be defined as a process attempting to answer the question how does this music work?. The method employed to answer this question, and indeed exactly what is meant by the question, differs from analyst to analyst. ...

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. For the song by The Beatles, see Birthday (song). ...

Note name

Two notes with fundamental frequencies in a ratio of any power of two (e.g. half, twice, or four times) will sound 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) and various modifications added to these letters (more on this below). The span of notes between one pitch and another that is twice (or half) its frequency is called an octave. In order 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. In music and music theory a pitch class contains all notes that have the same name; for example, all Es, no matter which octave they are in, are in the same pitch class. ... For other uses, see Octave (disambiguation). ... This article or section may be confusing for some readers, and should be edited to be clearer or more simplified. ... The naming of individual Cs using the Helmholtz system Helmholtz pitch notation is a musical system for naming notes of the Western chromatic scale. ... This article or section may be confusing for some readers, and should be edited to be clearer or more simplified. ...

Letter names are modified by the accidentals sharp (♯, similar to the symbol #) and flat (♭, similar to the letter b). These symbols respectively raise or lower a pitch by a semitone or half-step, which in modern tuning will multiply or divide (respectively) the frequency of the original note by , approximately 1.059. They are written after the note name: so, for example, F♯ represents F-sharp, B♭ is B-flat. Other accidentals, such as double-sharps and double-flats (which will raise or lower the frequency by two semitones), are also possible in traditional music theory: avoiding sharps/flats in the key signature, "C♯♯" yields D, when D's sharp is in the signature. Assuming enharmonicity, it is possible that use of 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 the elimination of all such equivalences, however, the complete chromatic scale adds five additional pitch classes to the original seven lettered notes for a total of 12, each separated by a half-step. An accidental is a musical notation symbol used to raise or lower the pitch of a note from that indicated by the key signature. ... Figure 1. ... Number sign is one name for the symbol #, and is the preferred Unicode name for the codepoint represented by that glyph. ... Figure 1. ... For other uses of B, see B (disambiguation). ... A semitone (also known in the USA as a half step) is a musical interval. ... An equal temperament is a musical temperament — that is, a system of tuning intended to approximate some form of just intonation — in which an interval, usually the octave, is divided into a series of equal steps (equal frequency ratios). ... This key signature – A major or F# minor – consists of three sharps placed after the clef In musical notation, a key signature is a series of sharp symbols or flat symbols placed on the staff, designating notes that are to be consistently played one semitone higher or lower than the... In music, an enharmonic is a note which is the equivalent of some other note, but spelled differently. ... The chromatic scale is a scale with twelve pitches, each a semitone or half step apart. ...

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. In music theory, a diatonic scale (from the Greek diatonikos, to stretch out; also known as the heptatonia prima; set form 7-35) is a seven-note musical scale comprising five whole-tone and two half-tone steps, in which the half tones are maximally separated. ... In Music theory, the diatonic major scale (also known as the Guido scale), from the Greek diatonikos or to stretch out, is a fundamental building block of the European-influenced musical tradition. ... In music, chromatic indicates the inclusion of notes not in the prevailing scale and is also used for those notes themselves (Shir-Cliff et al 1965, p. ...

In musical notation, alterations to the seven lettered pitches in the scale are indicated by placing an accidental immediately before the note symbol, or by use of a key signature. The natural symbol (♮), can be inserted before a note to cancel a previously indicated flat or sharp (so as "F♮" an F-sharp would become simply F). This key signature – A major or F# minor – consists of three sharps placed after the clef In musical notation, a key signature is a series of sharp symbols or flat symbols placed on the staff, designating notes that are to be consistently played one semitone higher or lower than the...

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":

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. The naming of individual Cs using the Helmholtz system Helmholtz pitch notation is a musical system for naming notes of the Western chromatic scale. ... This article or section may be confusing for some readers, and should be edited to be clearer or more simplified. ... Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI, is a system designed to transmit information between electronic musical instruments. ...

La or A is the sixth note (submediant) in the C Major scale. ...

Written notes

A written note can also have a note value, a code which determines the note's relative duration. These note values include quarter notes (crotchets), eighth notes (quavers), and so on. Parts of a note In music notation, a note value indicates the relative duration of a note, using the color or shape of the note head, the presence or absence of a stem, and the presence or absence of flags. ... A duration is an amount of time or a particular time interval. ...

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 the musician and allows him or her to know at a glance the proper pitch to play on his or her instrument for each note-head marked on the page. Sheet music is written representation of music. ... In musical notation, the staff or stave is a set of five horizontal lines on which note symbols are placed to indicate pitch and rhythm. ... In musical notation, the staff or stave is a set of five horizontal lines on which note symbols are placed to indicate pitch and time. ... For other senses of this word, see clef (disambiguation). ... For the popular-music magazine, see Musician (magazine). ...

The C Major scale

The staff above shows the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C listen (help· info) and then in reverse order, with no key signature or accidentals. Image File history File links C_Major_scale_(up_and_down). ... Image File history File links C_Major_scale_(up_and_down). ... In musical notation, the staff or stave is a set of five horizontal lines on which note symbols are placed to indicate pitch and time. ... Image File history File links CDEFGABC.MID‎ Created this myself. ...

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). For other uses, see Frequency (disambiguation). ... This article is about the SI unit of frequency. ... In music, pitch is the perception of the frequency of a note. ... Pitch is the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. ...

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: An accidental is a musical notation symbol used to raise or lower the pitch of a note from that indicated by the key signature. ... Not to be confused with Natural number. ... A negative number is a number that is less than zero, such as −3. ... A negative number is a number that is less than zero, such as −3. ... An equal temperament is a musical temperament — that is, a system of tuning intended to approximate some form of just intonation — in which an interval, usually the octave, is divided into a series of equal steps (equal frequency ratios). ...

f = 2^n/12 × 440 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 × 440 Hz ≈ 523.2511 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 × 440 Hz ≈ 349.2290 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 × 440 Hz = 2^k × 440 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 1.0005777895 The cent is a logarithmic unit of measure used for musical intervals. ...

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

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. ABCs redirects here. ... The 6th century is the period from 501 - 600 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era. ... For other people of the same name, see Boethius (disambiguation). ...

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.) It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Letter case. ... Gamma (uppercase Γ, lowercase γ) is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. ... In music, a hexachord is a collection of six tones. ...

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 b. These evolved into the modern flat and natural symbols respectively. The sharp symbol arose from a barred b, called the "cancelled b". This article is about modes as used in music. ... For other uses, see Tritone (disambiguation). ...   The Gothic alphabet is an alphabetic writing system attributed by Philostorgius to Wulfila, used exclusively for writing the ancient Gothic language. ...

In parts of Europe, including Germany, Poland and Russia, the natural symbol transformed into the letter H: in German music notation, H is B♮ (B-natural) and B is B♭ (B-flat).

In Italian, Portuguese, Greek, French, Russian, Romanian, Spanish and Hebrew notation the notes of scales are given also 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 which the hymn is dedicated). Guido of Arezzo or Guido Monaco (995-1050) is regarded as the inventor of modern musical notation (staff notation) that replaced neumatic notation. ... Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song of the Roman Catholic Church. ... Ut queant laxis or Hymnus in Ioannem is a hymn to Saint John the Baptist written by Paolo Diacono (ca 720 - 799) of Italy. ... Sol-fa redirects here. ...

See also

• Money note
• Pensato
• Solfege
• grace note
• ghost notes
• Diatonic and chromatic
• Piano key frequencies
• Note value

A money note is a vocal moment in a piece of music which causes a person to take notice. ... In music, a pensato is a composed imaginary note. ... Sol-fa redirects here. ... A grace note is a kind of music notation used to denote several kinds of musical ornaments. ... Ghost notes are musical notes occuring in a rhythmic figure which are purposely deemphasized, often nearly to the point of silence. ... Diatonic and chromatic are important terms in Western music theory. ... This is a virtual piano with 88 keys tuned to A440, showing the frequencies, in cycles per second (Hz), of each note (i. ... Parts of a note In music notation, a note value indicates the relative duration of a note, using the color or shape of the note head, the presence or absence of a stem, and the presence or absence of flags. ...

Source

• 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.

Jean-Jacques Nattiez is a musical semiologist or semiotician and professor of Musicology at the University of Montreal. ...

External links

• This web service converts frequencies to note name, +/- cents, this table gives note names, keyboard positions, frequencies and MIDI numbers.
• These tables show the frequencies of musical notes.

v • d • e Musical notation and Development
Staff	Bar & Bar line · Clef · Coda · Da Capo · Dal Segno · Key signature · Ledger line · Musical mode · Musical scale · Rehearsal letter · Time signature · Transposition · Transposing instrument
Notes	Accidental (Flat · Natural · Sharp) · Dotted note · Grace Note · Note value (Beam · Note head · Stem) · Octave · Pitch · Rest · Semitone · Letter notation
Articulation	Dynamics · Ornament · Ossia · Portato · Accent · Legato · Tenuto · Marcato · Staccato · Staccatissimo · Tie · Slur
Development	Exposition · Harmony · Melody · Motif · Recapitulation · Rhythm (Beat · Meter · Tempo) · Theme
Related	Chord chart · Figured bass · Graphic notation · Lead sheet · Eye music · Modern musical symbols · Neume · Tablature