Guitar Lessons

Musical notes

Figure 1 illustrates note names on a keyboard octave. The keyboard is based on intervallic patterns of diatonic scale.

Fig. 1 Note names on piano keys

C D E F G A B - white keys, the C major scale (7)
C# D# F# G# A# - black keys (5)
12 notes

# - sharp, raises a note by semitone up
b - flat, lowers a note by semitone down

It's easy to remember the musical alphabet when you think of it this way:

• it's very much like the alphabet that you use everyday but its last letter is G - A B C D E F G
• there additional semitones between with the exception of E-F and B-C (there are two black keys missing, take a look at the keyboard illustration above)

Musical notes have unique frequencies. The unit of frequency in Hertz.

1 Hz = 1/s

1 Hertz means one per second. With a string instrument it's one string oscillation per second.

Table 1 represents musical notes and their frequencies divided into octaves.

Table 1 Musical notes and their frequencies divided into octaves