Notes

This lesson applies to all instruments, even guitar, violin and the like; not just the piano. The piano layout given, is just for us to be able to understand the arrangement of notes better visually.

Notes are sounds with a name.

We name notes using the first 7 alphabets – A, B, C, D, E, F and G. However, there are more than just these 7 notes. The other notes are named using these 7 notes.

The steps between two notes are counted as Semitones and Tones.

• Semitone is a 1-note step.
• Tone is a 2-note step.

• Sharp (♯) is a semitone higher than the note.
  • For example: C♯ – the note higher than C by 1 semitone.
• Flat (♭) is a semitone lower than the note.
  • For example: E♭ – the note lower than E by 1 semitone.
• Double Sharp (𝄪) is a tone higher than the note.
  • For example: F𝄪 – the note higher than F by 1 tone, that is, G.
• Double Flat (𝄫) is a tone lower than the note.
  • For example: B𝄫 – the note lower than B by 1 tone, that is, A.
• Natural (♮) means the note is neither a sharp nor a flat. We will learn about this in the upcoming lessons.

Coming back to semitones and tones, we now understand that C♯ is a semitone higher than C, and D♭ is a semitone lower than D, which means that the note in between C and D has 2 names – C♯ and D♭. However, when we can use the name C♯ and when we can use the name D♭, depends on the scale that we are in and other conditions, which we will be learning in the next lesson.

We can observe that all 7 alphabets do have sharps and flats. Notes such as E♯, F♭, B♯ and C♭ do exist, which means that sharps and flats are not exclusive to black keys. As a matter of fact, we can have 21 names for 12 distinct notes that use 7 alphabets, just by using sharps and flats. We can have a lot more using double sharps and double flats.

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