2. Notes on a Stave: Pitch

This post is one of a 2-part series of free basic music theory lessons on my blog, musictheoryde-mystified.com. You can see the complete list here. Please feel welcome to make a comment or ask a question.

In 1. Note Names, Semitones and Octaves we saw how the notes are named and how far apart they are in pitch. Now let’s look at how they are represented in music notation.

Notes

A note symbol can have up to 3 parts: notehead, stem and tail.

Parts of a Note

The note’s pitch is indicated by the notehead’s position on a stave.

A notehead can be solid, as above, or hollow but this doesn’t alter its pitch. Hollow noteheads are used to indicate longer notes. Tails are only used for short notes.

You can read more on note length in 5. How Long Is A Note? Note Values 1.

Staves

A stave is a set of 5 lines on which musical notes can be written. The pitch of a note is indicated by the notehead’s vertical position on the stave. The higher the notehead, the higher the pitch.

The note can either sit on a line or between lines (see Notes on a stave, below). Each position represents a letter. Flats and sharps don’t alter this position: A flat, A natural and A sharp all have the same position on a stave. The flat or sharp is indicated by a b or # sign preceding the note.

NOTE: My post is about standard music notation. For certain instruments and genres there are special staves with less or more lines. Different types of noteheads can also be used.

Clefs

A clef tells us which note position represents each letter as well as at which octave. This allows us to adjust the usable part of the stave to fit the range of various instruments.

The most common clefs are the treble clef, also known as the G clef, and the bass clef, also called the F clef.

  • The curl in the treble clef centres on the G above middle C
  • The two dots of the bass clef surround the note F below middle C
Treble and Bass Clef

Various other clefs exist for specific instruments. Even the guitar has a different clef, the tenor clef, which looks like a treble clef but with an “8” attached to the lowest point. The notes look the same as the treble clef but sound an octave lower to suit the guitar’s normal range.

Notes on a stave

Here are the naturals for 2 octaves, starting in the bass clef then continuing in the treble clef.

C major Piano Stave

Note that there is a curly bracket at the left which joins the two staves. This indicates that the staves are used together, as one larger stave, known as the great stave or grand staff. The great stave is useful for keyboard instruments such as the piano, as piano’s range is much too large to be represented on one stave. Also, a pianist’s left hand typically plays bass notes and the right hand plays treble notes.

Stem Direction

The stem goes down from the notehead for higher pitches and up for lower notes.

  • When the notehead sits on or above the middle line of the stave, the stem is on the left side of the notehead and goes downwards.
  • when the notehead sits below the middle line of the stave, the stem is on the right side of the notehead and goes upwards.

Ledger lines

Middle C is actually one line above the stave on the bass clef, It’s also one line below the stave on the treble clef. A short line called a ledger line is drawn to indicate this.

Ledger lines can be used to extend the range you can write on a stave, both above and below the stave. Many instruments have a range larger than what fits within a stave.

Try These…

1 Write down the note names of the following notes:

2 On some manuscript paper, write a treble clef on one stave and a bass clef on the stave below it. Now write the following notes on each stave. Use ledger lines when needed:

  • G on the lower part of the stave
  • C in the stave
  • A at or above the top of the stave
  • D at or below the bottom of the stave
  • C above the stave
  • G below the stave
  • E on the upper part of the stave
  • F at or below the bottom of the stave

Answers at the bottom of this post.

Please feel welcome to like, comment or to share this post. If you have any questions, pleased leave them as a comment and I will respond as soon as I can. If you enjoy my posts and would like to be kept up to date, please subscribe.

Graphics taken from The Tiny Music Theory Book, a short, easy to read guide to the essentials of music theory and notation, available here.

NEXT LESSON: 3. Beats, Tempo and Timing

PART 1 CONTENTS: Basic Music Theory Course Contents

Answers to Try These…

Reality and Taste

To me, there are two aspects to music theory: objective reality and taste.

Objective reality is the physical interaction between notes: universal truths independent of genre and culture. An octave is universal, as is the concept of a mode, of bars and beats and of strong and weak notes. Apart from ambient or abstract music, all styles of music are built on on these concepts.

Taste exists on two levels; community/cultural taste and personal taste.

Cultural taste is the prevailing taste of a particular era, region or school. Cultural taste defines genres and styles of music.

Personal taste allows a player to put their own stamp on a performance, whether interpreting an existing work or creating their own.

I believe that true understanding begins with a strong foundation in objective reality before studying a specific genre. This foundation makes it easier to understand how the characteristics of a particular genre are achieved.

If you understand the concept of modes, you can easily identify and learn a mode used in a particular era or culture. If you understand bars and beats, you can learn the time signature and characteristic rhythms of a particular musical style.

What Is Music Theory, Anyway?

To me, music theory is the study of how music behaves. Every note, rest or chord has an effect: a consequence. What that effect is largely depends on the musical context.

When listening to a piece we can hear how the notes and chords link together within the context of the key, time signature and tempo, predominant rhythms, phrasing etc. This is how we perceive music.

If we can understand how different combinations of notes produce these various effects we develop an insight into the composer’s mind and a deeper appreciation of what the composer intended. For creative players and composers, music theory provides the tools to determine which combinations of notes will provide the effect they want to portray.

F flat Is a Note

This post is one of a growing series of holistic investigations into various aspects of music theory. The full list can be found in the Posts page under the category Music Theory De-Mystified.

All comments are welcome. If you enjoy my post, please give it a like and share it or subscribe to my blog.

Most notes have at least two possible names. For example, F# is the same pitch as Gb. Even naturals have alternative names. E could be called Fb and F could be called E#. And that’s not to mention double sharps and double flats. G could be called Abb and so on.

Why so many choices? First, some background…

Modes

Major and minor keys are based on patterns of 2 and 1 semitone intervals between consecutive notes. We call such a pattern a mode. The series of notes generated by the mode is called a scale. Typical Western scales have 7 notes per octave, the eighth note being the octave of the first (hence the name “octave”).

The starting note of the scale is called the root note or tonic. The root note is easy to recognise when playing a scale because it is first and last. Melodies make the root note apparent by highlighting it in various ways so we can tell which mode we’re in when we listen to the music.

The choice of mode imparts an overall character to the music, called tonality.

Keys

A key is the combination of a mode and a root note. Keys allow us to choose the mode and the root note independently.

Let’s look at the major mode as an example. The original major, made up of only naturals, is C major. The name C major indicates that this key uses the major mode with C as the root note.

C major

Any other major key needs at least one sharp or flat. By starting the mode on a different root note we need some different notes in the key to preserve the pattern of intervals from note to note. The pattern of intervals defines the mode, in this case, major.

We can work out the notes needed for a chosen key by placing the new root note at the start of the pattern and counting the semitones from note to note. Let’s look at D major; the major mode starting on D.

D major

The note naming rule

There is one simple rule that determines the right choice of note name. In a standard Western mode such as major or minor, each scale note must have its own letter.

The letters indicate consecutive scale notes, just like they are written on a stave. A musical stave only has positions for notes as letters: sharps and flats are written as symbols beside the note.

When we work out the note names for a key, we start from the root note and count up. As we go, each following note must use the next letter as its name. In the example above, D major, the 3rd note is called F#. Gb is the wrong name because the third letter up from D is F, not G.

B#, Cb, E# and Fb

Remember BCEF? (see my beginner’s tip). This is the extreme end of BCEF. These notes look like they should never be used because they have equivalent pitches which are just naturals. B# = C, Cb = B, E# = F and Fb = E, so why use them? In truth their use isn’t all that common, but they do get used in certain keys.

For example, B# is used in C# major and Fb is used in Cb major.

This potentially begs the question, why use C# major as the name of a key when it could be called Db major? C# major has 7 sharps whereas Db major has only(?) 5 flats…

A valid question. I can’t answer it comprehensively in this post but there are three main reasons:

  • ease of playing/reading on a given instrument
  • movement within the piece from the home key to other keys
  • altered notes in the melody or chords

Easy keys

Players of some instruments such as guitar find sharps keys easier to read and play. Brass players, on the other hand, prefer flats keys. It depends on the base key and playing logic of the instrument.

Singers can be very specific about their choice of key for a particular song based on how the melody suits the different registers of the singer’s voice. This may force the rest of the ensemble to play in a key which is awkward to read, whichever name they choose.

For example, F# major has 6 sharps and Gb major has 6 flats. F# major has the note E# and Gb major has Cb.

Keys within a key

Typically a melody starts in the home key and goes on a journey. This journey takes it through various, usually related, keys, some of which are fleeting moments in the journey while others are visiting points; temporary homes. Campsites, if you like.

Visiting keys are named according to how closely related they are to the home key: in other words, how many notes they have in common. In general, if we start in sharps we continue in sharps, and the same for flats.

For example, in E major, a major key 2 semitones up would be called F# major, not Gb major. This is because F# is a note in the home key (E major) and Gb is not. In fact, none of the note names in Gb major are used in E major.

Which keys are related to which? That’s for another post.

Altered notes: weird note names in normal keys

Sometimes a melody or chord uses a note that doesn’t belong to the key. This could be as a variation or ornament, or the melody just might not be in a conventional mode.

We think of such a note as a replacement of the normal scale note or chord note. The context of the music determines which scale note has been replaced. To preserve the note naming rule, the new note is named with the same letter as the note it replaces.

  • if the altered note is a semitone higher than the scale note it is sharpened
  • if the altered note is a semitone lower than the scale note it is flattened

Sharpening or flattening allows the music notation to reflect which scale note is being altered, just as we would hear when playing and listening. However, depending on the key of the piece, this may require a double sharp or double flat.

NOTE: To avoid too much rambling I have only given a brief outline of the various topics raised in this post. I hope to cover some of these in future posts.

Please feel welcome to share this post, make a comment or ask a question.

Graphics taken from The Tiny Music Theory Book, a short, easy to read guide to the essentials of music theory and notation, available here.

Why Are Octaves Special?

This post is one of a growing series of holistic investigations into various aspects of music theory. The full list can be found in the Posts page under the category Music Theory De-Mystified.

All comments are welcome. If you enjoy my post, please give it a like and share it or subscribe to my blog.

Every musician discovers early on that octaves are special.

Notes which are one or more octaves apart have the same note name – that in itself means a lot. Furthermore, changing octaves feels more like changing voice or register than going to a different note.

Why is this so?

When we play a note, a sound wave is produced. Each pitch produces a wave which vibrates at a certain frequency: the higher the pitch, the higher (greater) the frequency.

Graph of a low pitch and a high pitch showing that higher pitches have a higher frequency and a shorter wavelength

The frequency is measured in cycles (vibrations) per second, called Hertz, Hz for short. You may have heard of A440, the frequency tuners are calibrated to. 440 means 440 Hz. A440 vibrates 440 times per second.

Playing a note an octave higher doubles the frequency: an octave above A 440 Hz is A 880 Hz. As the frequency gets higher, the length of the wave becomes shorter, so double the frequency is half the wave length.

When we play these two notes together, the higher note’s sound wave fits exactly twice inside the lower note’s sound wave. No other combination of two notes has such a direct relationship between their sound waves as an octave. This perfect fit is why the higher note of an octave sounds like it fits inside the lower note: because it literally does.

Graph showing 2 sine waves an octave apart
Graph showing the sound waves of two notes an octave apart such as A440 and A880. Twice the frequency = half the wavelength

Low and high octaves are large and small versions of each other. A musical part can be played at a different octave without introducing any new notes: it will still fit all chords and other parts equally well.

Please feel welcome to post a comment or ask a question.

*Graphics taken from Music Theory De-mystified, my upcoming music theory book, due to be released late 2022.

1. Note Names, Semitones and Octaves

This post is one of a 2-part series of free basic music theory lessons on my blog, musictheoryde-mystified.com. You can see the complete list here. Please feel welcome to make a comment or ask a question.

If note names mean nothing to you, start here…

In my posts:

  • A PIECE is any musical work.
  • A PART is one instrument’s component of a piece.
  • An ENSEMBLE is any combination of instruments collaborating to perform a piece, be it one person singing and playing, a band, choir or orchestra.

Note names

Most musicians are familiar with the note names A to G. After G comes A again and the pattern continues repeating from the lowest pitches to the highest.

A B C D E F G A B C etc.

Over the audible pitch range there are many A’s, many B’s and so on.

From one A to the next is an octave, as is from any letter to the next instance of the same letter.

Octaves

Notes which are an octave (or several octaves) apart enjoy a special relationship. When played together, the higher note blends in to the lower note. If they’re perfectly in tune (that’s for a later post), the higher note blends in so well that it almost merges inside the lower note. Even when played one after the other, what we hear sounds more like a change in register (or voice) than a different note.

Try this on your instrument. If you can play two notes at once or play one and sing the other, the effect will be the clearest, but you can still tell by playing one after the other.

Now try combinations of two different notes, such as A and G or A and C. None feel as closely connected as when they’re an octave apart (or a unison; two notes of exactly the same pitch).

In musical terms, in an ensemble, any part can be played an octave higher or lower without clashing with the other parts. All chords or harmonies will still fit. It is because of this relationship that notes which are octaves apart can, and do, share the same note name.

Intervals

The difference in pitch between one note and another is called an interval. A to the next A, an octave, is an interval, A to G is an interval, F to C is an interval.

Intervals can be measured in octaves and semitones. Each octave is divided into 12 musically equal intervals called semitones. This gives us 12 different notes, the 13th being an octave. The semitone is the centimetre (or inch) of pitch.

  • On a piano, 1 semitone is the interval between consecutive keys, regardless of the key’s colour.
  • On a guitar, 1 semitone is the interval from one fret to the next (or from an open string to the first fret).

We started with the letters A to G, followed by A etc. that’s 7 letters, the 8th being the octave of the first (as it happens, octave means 8th). So how do 7 letters add up to 12 semitones?

Not all letters are 1 semitone apart: in fact, most are 2 semitones apart. This is how the letters are spaced:

A . B C . D . E F . G . A
2 1 2 2 1 2 2 = 12

This means that 5 of the 12 different notes (per octave), the ones represented here by dots, have no name.

On a piano keyboard, all the named notes are white keys. You can see when two white keys are 2 semitones apart because there is a black key to represent the so far un-named note between them.

Piano keyboard layout showing naturals for 1 octave

On a guitar, you can find the named notes by starting on an open string, then following the above pattern by skipping a fret for every 2-semitone interval. The dots above represent the frets you skip.

Guitar fingerboard layout, A string, showing naturals for 1 octave

The named notes are called naturals. The un-named notes can be described as being 1 semitone higher or 1 semitone lower than the nearest natural.

Sharps and flats

Any natural can be raised by 1 semitone by adding the sharp symbol, #.
Any natural can be lowered by 1 semitone by adding the flat symbol, b.

For instance, the note between A and B could be called A# (A plus 1 semitone) or Bb (B minus 1 semitone).

This may seem confusing: we’ve gone from having no names for some notes to having two names. Fear not. For now, either name will do. The most common note names in general terms are:

A Bb B C C# D Eb E F F# G G# or Ab

Once we look at the notes in the context of a piece of music, the choice of note names will matter but by then it will be quite obvious which names to use. The correct note names for a piece are based on its key, a subject for a future post.

The graphic below shows how any natural can be raised by 1 semitone by adding a sharp or lowered by 1 semitone by adding a flat, resulting in two possible note names for most notes. Notice that even some of the naturals have an alternate name, although their use is relatively uncommon in most keys.

In my next basic post we will look at how note pitches are written on a stave.

Try These…

How many semitones between the following pairs of notes? (count up from the first note until you reach the second note of the pair):

  • A to C
  • A to C#
  • A to E
  • A to G
  • Bb to F
  • B to F
  • C to A
  • C# to A
  • D to Bb

Answers at the end of this post.

This post is one of a growing series of free basic music theory lessons on my blog, musictheoryde-mystified.com. You can see the complete list here.

Please feel welcome to like, comment or to share this post. If you have any questions, pleased leave them as a comment and I will respond as soon as I can. If you enjoy my posts and would like to be kept up to date, please subscribe.

NEXT LESSON: 2. Notes on a Stave: Pitch

PART 1 CONTENTS: Basic Music Theory Course Contents

Answers to Try These…

  • A to C = 3 semitones
  • A to C# = 4 semitones
  • A to E = 7 semitones
  • A to G = 10 semitones
  • Bb to F = 7 semitones
  • B to F = 6 semitones
  • C to A = 9 semitones
  • C# to A = 8 semitones
  • D to Bb = 8 semitones

Remember BCEF

Remember BCEF

There are 12 semitones in an octave.

All the naturals (letters) are 2 semitones apart except B to C and E to F, which are 1 semitone apart.

Not only that, but B-F is 6 semitones, whereas every other interval of 5 naturals is 7 semitones apart, such as A-E or C-G. This is important in understanding keys and key signatures.

BCEF is easy to remember because it’s so odd, like a hip-hop band name gone wrong: the BCEF.

So remember BCEF

If you found this post helpful, please feel welcome to like, share or leave a comment. If you have any questions, leave them as a comment and I’ll respond as soon as I can. To stay up to date with new posts, please subscribe.

Introduction: Music Theory is my Friend

Welcome to my blog!

I’m Erik Kowarski and I’ve been a musician and music teacher in Perth, Western Australia for well over 40 years. Throughout my career I have benefited from my music theory knowledge and I believe there is a useful place in every musician’s toolkit for a basic understanding of music theory and notation.

My main instrument is violin. I was brought up with Classical training including music theory, which I studied to AMEB (Australian Music Examinations Board) Grade 6.

When my musical interests widened to include many popular music genres I was lucky enough to be invited to “play along” in a variety of local bands of different genres, largely because to many the violin was considered a novel instrument outside Classical music (and traditional folk music).

I found it relatively easy to adapt to these various styles because of my understanding of music theory. I could recognise chord structures, identify and play characteristic rhythms and recognise other qualities that define the genre or style, enabling me to sound plausible in the band even though the instrument wasn’t native to that genre. (In other words, I was good at faking it).

I’m not trying to claim that I’m a great player: far from it, but my knowledge of music theory gave me an edge in learning and adapting to what was for me, new territory, which in turn gave me more insight into the inner workings of music.

Why music theory?

I have met many musicians who believe that music theory is only valid for Classical music and is irrelevant to popular music genres. Even Classical students often struggle to see a point to music theory beyond learning to read music. Creative players, especially, are afraid that learning music theory will stifle their creativity.

I can see why they feel concerned: music theory is often portrayed as highly theoretical and in most cases it is taught as a complex series of rules and conditions.

Sure, there are some aspects of music theory that must be learned by heart to be effective. Basics such as the names of musical note pitches and the symbols indicating note length require this approach because note names, note values and staves are the written language of music. Just as we learn basic spelling and grammar in order to speak and write English, note names and note values, keys and time signatures provide the basic communication of musical language.

Classical players are taught basic theory and music notation as part of learning to play an instrument, much of it by rote.

To me, though, music theory is more than that. Music theory allows us to understand the fundamental principles of music. These principles are natural phenomena: forces which are always present. Understanding these forces helps us in listening to, playing and creating music.

Mode and Time signature

When we play or listen to music we can feel that the piece has a certain overall character. In part this is due to the mode the piece is based on, such as major or minor, and the piece’s time signature and tempo. The mode and time signature/tempo provide a basic setting within which the piece is written.

Phrases

Within this setting, individual pieces can vary hugely in the emotions they invoke and how direct or complex they are. Just like a spoken language, music is based on phrases. Musical phrases, like sentences, have a beginning, middle and end. One phrase leads to another, forming a melody, the musical equivalent of a sentence.

Just like sentences, there are open phrases, equivalent to questions, and closed phrases, which are like answers. Often a melody is made up of one or more open phrases followed by a closed phase. We can feel the music lead from one phrase to the next, often arriving at a conclusion; a place where the melody feels that it has arrived.

A sense of home

One of the key concepts of music theory is the idea of home. Home is a note: the root note or tonic. Every piece that sounds like music in the conventional sense has a root note. Without an obvious root note, we can’t make sense of what we hear.

When we combine a root note and a mode we have a key, such as C major or A minor. Knowing the key of a piece tells us what the overall character is and which note it’s based on.

Often a piece starts and finishes at home and visits various neighbouring keys along the way. The most prominent chords that accompany the melody indicate these keys by pointing to their respective root notes.

Knowledge is power

It is my belief that music theory would be easier to accept as valid and useful if based on an understanding of the principles: how music actually works. Too often students are expected to take on faith a large number of rules and conditions without knowing why they exist. By understanding the musical principles at work we can see that these are not actually rules: merely ways in which to achieve a certain musical character or effect.

I have touched on just a few of the most significant musical principles to illustrate that an understanding of these principles greatly enhances our understanding of the music we listen to, play and create. I believe that knowledge, if presented clearly, is power that can only add to our musical skill set, not take away from it.

Music theory is especially useful for creative music, be it composition/ songwriting or improvisation. Every note we play has an effect – a consequence. An understanding of music theory allows the composer or player to choose which note produces the effect that they are after. This greatly speeds up processes like finding a nice solo to play or writing a melody that captures a certain emotion or character.

Music theory for working musicians

That said, I realise that such an in-depth approach doesn’t appeal to everyone.

There are many competent working musicians who have achieved their skills without the benefit of music theory. Over time they have developed a sense of the musical principles through listening and playing by ear. For many such players, the idea of delving into the theory behind the music may seem redundant.

Even so, I would like to recommend at least a basic grasp of music notation, if only for the communication benefits. I believe that it’s much quicker to learn a piece of music by reading it than by having to play an audio file 1 or 2 bars at a time, several times over.

Most musicians are familiar with the natural note names, A to G, and possibly sharp and flat. As letters on a page we can’t tell whether a note is in a high or low octave without some made-up symbols to help. I believe that it’s actually easier to learn to read these notes on a stave: the music is much more graphic in terms of high and low notes. Key signatures may look strange at first but they make sense once you can associate a key signature with a root note and a scale.

Musicians who play by ear are also familiar with beats and bars and the use of strong and weak notes. Note values and time signatures provide the rhythmic information of a piece in a way that makes it easy to teach yourself the rhythm. If the rhythm isn’t one that’s familiar to the player, I believe it’s both quicker and clearer to read as notation than to learn by ear.

Music notation has evolved by and for musicians. Notation exists because it makes musical sense.

One other useful aspect of musical language is being able to name intervals. An understanding of interval names is the gateway to understanding chords and chord symbols. It’s quite easy to learn the basics of interval names as they are based on counting notes in the major scale, something quite familiar to most musicians.

Please feel welcome to make comments or ask questions.

In the coming months I intend to put up posts in two categories:

  • Music notation and basic theory tips.
  • A holistic approach to understanding the principles of music theory.

If you can’t wait and would like to get started straight away with a quick course in basic notation and music theory, you can purchase my e-book, The Tiny Music Theory Book: How to Read and Talk Music in 16 Tiny Chapters, either as an EPUB or PDF, from my Shop page.

NOTE: my blog is entirely based on Western music theory. Many other cultures use different modes or even different tuning systems and are beyond the scope of this blog.

Erik Kowarski