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Notes Explained
Notes Explained
This text will first of all tell you what a note is and then how that is related to the guitar fretboard, it will also go through concepts like pitch, pitch class, accidentals, semi-tone, chromatic-scale, octave and concert-pitch.
;This is the first part of a three part tutorial on music theory for guitarists, here you can find part two on scale degrees and intervals, and part three on harmonizing scales and the Nashville number system. This three part tutorial on music theory will give you a language to reason about music both with your self and band mates, and it will also give you knowledge that will help you figure out how songs are played and also to improvise and write your own songs and solos etc.
;Notes & Pitch - A note is the pitch and duration of a sound. Pitch is a perceptual property of sounds that makes it possible to tell if one sound is higher or lower than another. Pitch is usually associated with a specific frequency, lower frequency for bass and higher for treble.
;Pitch class - In English, pitch classes are labeled using the first seven letters of the Latin alphabet, A, B, C, D, E, F and G. It is common to label notes by its pitch class. If a note has a pitch twice or half the frequency of another note they are perceived as very similar and are said to belong to the same pitch class.
;In musical notation or modern staff notation in specific, notes are written using notehead symbols (𝅝 𝅗𝅥 𝅘𝅥 𝅘𝅥𝅮) placed on different staff lines to represent different pitches.
;Accidentals - In western music most instruments are tuned to play twelve pitch classes. To be able to name each of the twelve pitches using only seven letters the names are extended with accidentals. The accidentals are called flat and sharp and are represented by the characters "♭" and "♯".
;| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | A♯ B♭ | B | C | C♯ D♭ | D | D♯ E♭ | E | F | F♯ G♭ | G | G♯ A♭ |
Semi-tone - A♯ and B♭ have the same pitch, A♯ says it's one semi-tone up from A and B♭ says it's one semi tone down from B. Using a flat or sharp to label a pitch depends of context.
;Chromatic scale - The twelve adjacent notes from the related twelve pitch classes forms the chromatic scale, the twelve adjacent notes are said to be one semi-tone or half-step apart.
;To calculate frequencies for the pitches this formula is used c2^(1/12n), c is the frequency for the reference pitch and n is the number of semitones above or below the reference.
;Concert pitch - According to the International Organization for Standardization pitch class A holds a pitch of frequency 440Hz, and is commonly used as a reference for concert pitch. To distinguish pitches in a pitch class pithes are numbered, A0 A1 A3 A4 and A5 etc. A4 is 440Hz, A3 is 220Hz, and A5 is 880Hz. On a guitar in standard tuning the open A string is tuned to A2, and an A4 can be found at fifth fret on the high E string.
;| A | A♯ B♭ | B | C | C♯ D♭ | D | D♯ E♭ | E | F | F♯ G♭ | G | G♯ A♭ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 220 | 233 | 247 | 262 | 277 | 294 | 311 | 330 | 349 | 370 | 392 | 415 |
| 440 | 466 | 494 | 523 | 554 | 587 | 622 | 659 | 698 | 740 | 784 | 831 |
Octave - If a note has a pitch twice the frequency of another it is said to be one octave up, and a note half the frequency of another is said to be one octave down.
;Fretboard - The guitar fretboard has six strings or more and about 22 frets. Each fret can play the frequency of a pitch of a note. Each fret is tuned one semi-tone/half-step apart. After the 12th fret the note pattern is repeated. Each string from low E and up are tuned 5 semitones up, except for the B string that is tuned 4 semi-tones up.
;Learn the notes on the fretboard
;To learn the notes of the fretboard start with the E-string and learn the notes without accidentals first, notes with accidentals can have two names, but are easily figured out if you know the rest. Then learn the A string, same order as the E-string but starts at A instead of E. Then you can learn the rest of the strings by finding patterns betwen the strings. If it was not for the one semi-tone offset for the B-string this would have been a tad easier, standard bass tunings are usually the same betwen strings.
;This text will first of all tell you what a note is and then how that is related to the guitar fretboard, it will also go through concepts like pitch, pitch class, accidentals, semi-tone, chromatic-scale, octave and concert-pitch.
;This is the first part of a three part tutorial on music theory for guitarists, here you can find part two on scale degrees and intervals, and part three on harmonizing scales and the Nashville number system. This three part tutorial on music theory will give you a language to reason about music both with your self and band mates, and it will also give you knowledge that will help you figure out how songs are played and also to improvise and write your own songs and solos etc.
;Notes & Pitch - A note is the pitch and duration of a sound. Pitch is a perceptual property of sounds that makes it possible to tell if one sound is higher or lower than another. Pitch is usually associated with a specific frequency, lower frequency for bass and higher for treble.
;Pitch class - In English, pitch classes are labeled using the first seven letters of the Latin alphabet, A, B, C, D, E, F and G. It is common to label notes by its pitch class. If a note has a pitch twice or half the frequency of another note they are perceived as very similar and are said to belong to the same pitch class.
;In musical notation or modern staff notation in specific, notes are written using notehead symbols (𝅝 𝅗𝅥 𝅘𝅥 𝅘𝅥𝅮) placed on different staff lines to represent different pitches.
;Accidentals - In western music most instruments are tuned to play twelve pitch classes. To be able to name each of the twelve pitches using only seven letters the names are extended with accidentals. The accidentals are called flat and sharp and are represented by the characters "♭" and "♯".
;| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | A♯ B♭ | B | C | C♯ D♭ | D | D♯ E♭ | E | F | F♯ G♭ | G | G♯ A♭ |
Semi-tone - A♯ and B♭ have the same pitch, A♯ says it's one semi-tone up from A and B♭ says it's one semi tone down from B. Using a flat or sharp to label a pitch depends of context.
;Chromatic scale - The twelve adjacent notes from the related twelve pitch classes forms the chromatic scale, the twelve adjacent notes are said to be one semi-tone or half-step apart.
;To calculate frequencies for the pitches this formula is used c2^(1/12n), c is the frequency for the reference pitch and n is the number of semitones above or below the reference.
;Concert pitch - According to the International Organization for Standardization pitch class A holds a pitch of frequency 440Hz, and is commonly used as a reference for concert pitch. To distinguish pitches in a pitch class pithes are numbered, A0 A1 A3 A4 and A5 etc. A4 is 440Hz, A3 is 220Hz, and A5 is 880Hz. On a guitar in standard tuning the open A string is tuned to A2, and an A4 can be found at fifth fret on the high E string.
;| A | A♯ B♭ | B | C | C♯ D♭ | D | D♯ E♭ | E | F | F♯ G♭ | G | G♯ A♭ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 220 | 233 | 247 | 262 | 277 | 294 | 311 | 330 | 349 | 370 | 392 | 415 |
| 440 | 466 | 494 | 523 | 554 | 587 | 622 | 659 | 698 | 740 | 784 | 831 |
Octave - If a note has a pitch twice the frequency of another it is said to be one octave up, and a note half the frequency of another is said to be one octave down.
;Fretboard - The guitar fretboard has six strings or more and about 22 frets. Each fret can play the frequency of a pitch of a note. Each fret is tuned one semi-tone/half-step apart. After the 12th fret the note pattern is repeated. Each string from low E and up are tuned 5 semitones up, except for the B string that is tuned 4 semi-tones up.
;Learn the notes on the fretboard
;To learn the notes of the fretboard start with the E-string and learn the notes without accidentals first, notes with accidentals can have two names, but are easily figured out if you know the rest. Then learn the A string, same order as the E-string but starts at A instead of E. Then you can learn the rest of the strings by finding patterns betwen the strings. If it was not for the one semi-tone offset for the B-string this would have been a tad easier, standard bass tunings are usually the same betwen strings.
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