, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5-B, 6, 6-B, 7, 8, 8-B, 9, 9-B,
The Basic Music Alphabet
By convention, we use seven letters - A,B,C,D,E,F,G - to identify all of the discreet pitches in our
musical alphabet. Note that continuous pitches, such as those created with a music synthesizer, will
not be discussed here; that topic is beyond the scope of these lessons. In order to notate
the entire range of pitches we require, each of the pitches represented by the seven letters are
qualified by their placement on the musical staff, and, possibly, by the use of some number of
"sharp", "flat", or "natural" (see lesson 6) modifiers. There is a fixed relationship between all of
the letter pitches in the musical alphabet. Those relationships are independent of the scale, or even of
the musical "key - or tonal center" that we chose to use. The relationship between letter names are based
on the distance in half steps between each succeeding letter, and are ALWAYS as follows:
The Natural Music Alphabet - A,B,C,D,E,F,G
The distance in half steps between succeeding letter names in the natural music alphabet:
A to B -> two half steps
B to C -> one half step
C to D -> two half steps
D to E -> two half steps
E to F -> one half step
F to G -> two half steps
G to A -> Two half steps
COMMIT THESE RELATIONSHIPS TO MEMORY!!!
Notice that the transition between letter names varies between either one or two half steps. The
distance between B and C, and the distance between E and F, are the ONLY letter names that have one
half step. All other transitions require two half steps. Also note that there are a total of 12 half
steps before we start again at the initial letter name. Let's clarify this by writing the twelve notes
that take us from A to the next A:
A, (A# or Bb), B, C, (C# or Db), D, (D# or Eb), E, F, (F# or Gb), G, (G# or Ab), A
If you examine the twelve notes given above, you will see that five of the notes can have two names,
depending on whether you label the note relative to the preceding, or proceeding letter. For completeness,
you should know that it is possible to label any of the notes, even pure letter notes, with some number
of sharps or flats. For example, the letter note "B", could, under certain circumstances, be labeled
"A##", or A "double sharp." This is usually done when it is necessary to use altered forms of the same
letter note in a single measure of music. We will ignore this notational technique for the time being
because it is encountered infrequently in beginning and intermediate music. By the time you're playing
advanced music, this will all be second nature to you.
Review lesson 6 if you don't remember some of the following terminology.
Written music is placed on either a line or a space on the staff, and the clef defines the actual
letter name of each note's position on that staff. For example, the letter name of the note on the
top line of the staff, using the "G" clef, is "F". A note in that same position on the staff using
the "F" clef is "A". Once a reference letter name is defined by the clef, all subsequent
letters and spaces on that staff are automatically defined relative to the reference letter. A letter name
changes each time you move up or down from a line to a space or from a space to a line. That means that
there are two letter transitions between adjacent lines or between adjacent spaces of the staff. If you
refer to the first example in the paragraph, the letter name of the note one line below the "F" note on
the top line of the staff would be two letters before "F" in the music alphabet: i.e., "D". The space
immediately below the "F" would be one letter name before "F", i.e., "E". The important thing to
remember here is that the staff always has a transition of one letter name as you move from a space,
to a line, to the next space, to the next line, etc. The letter name of the note on the staff has no
bearing on the number of half steps that exist naturally between subsequent letters of the musical alphabet.
Locating notes on the guitar.
Every musical instrument we use to play classical music has a well defined technique, or method, to produce
each note in its own musical range. The guitar is fairly simple. It has "frets" on the neck of the guitar,
and the musical distance between each fret is exactly one half step. Let's examine the guitar to discover
how to locate any note. The thickest string is usually tuned to an "E". Let's assume for this discussion that
we are using standard guitar tuning, and lets identify every note on the low "E" string. Refer to the natural
music alphabet given above to see the number of half steps between letter transitions.