Theory 101: Pt 1, Notes

Notes:

In western music (which is what we’re dealing with) we use a system of 12 pitches. Music using all 12 pitches is called Chromatic. A pitch can be defined as any frequency in Hz, specific frequencies derived from a given standard, like A440, are referred to as notes. Since we’re not dealing with any pitches that aren’t also notes, we can freely use the terms interchangeably, in fact outside of the technical realm of discussion and a very few, very specific musical situation, pitches and notes are synonymous.

Most music is based on a subgroup consisting of 7 pitches and is called Diatonic.
The Diatonic system is easy to remember, as we name the pitches using the first 7 letters of the alphabet, A B C D E F G, this pattern continues in both directions. Whether you’re learning to play guitar, piano, bass, or ANY instrument, the notes we use are the same.

In many countries, a different system of naming pitches called solfeggio is used. You’ll probably recognize it from the film “The Sound of Music”. Instead of letters, each note has a corresponding syllable, Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti . It’s a nice system, but is in rare use in the U.S. except for music conservatories.

The remaining 5 pitches are called enharmonic, because they can have more than one name. They are located in between the Diatonic pitches and are referred to as either sharps or flats. Each of the 5 pitches can be named as either a sharp or a flat, so the 5 pitches yield 10 names. A sharp (denoted by the symbol #) is located at a higher pitch than it’s diatonic partner and a flat (denoted by the symbol b) is located at a lower pitch.

Let’s use C and D as an example. Starting on C, D is the next highest in pitch diatonic note. However, there is a chromatic pitch between C and D that can be named either C# or Db. This would look like C-C#-D or C-Db-D. Which name is used depends on several factors, primarily Key, which we will talk about later.

Now lets look at 2 chromatic scales, one using sharps and another using flats.

A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G# A Bb B C Db D Eb E F Gb G Ab

Notice that there are 2 places where no enharmonic note exists, B-C and E-F. These notes have no pitch in between them, however B may still be called Cb and C may still be called B#. Keep this in mind, but you won’t need to fuss with it for right now.

Should you happen to be curious about the chromatic scale in solfeggio: (enharmonics in lowercase) Do di/ra Re ri/me Mi Fa fi/se Sol si/le La li/te Ti.
If you’re planning to attend college for music or moving to Europe or South America, you may want to give this some attention, otherwise it’s simply food for thought. There are 2 versions, fixed and movable Do. Fixed Do is more literal and is tied directly to pitches, C = Do, Always. Movable Do is very practical and ties more to Nashville style notation and traditional harmonic analysis - Do is simply HOME and can be assigned to any pitch.