This article is about the use of the term "note" in music. For other uses, see Note (disambiguation).

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).

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.

Contents [hide] 1 Note name 1.1 Note designation in accordance with octave name 2 Written notes 3 Note frequency (hertz) 4 History of note names 5 See also 6 Source 7 External links

[edit] 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.

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.

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 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).

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":