What Is Pitch?

Pitch is the musician's term for the frequency of a note. Pitch refers to how high or low a note sounds. High pitches are on the right side of the piano keyboard and low pitches are on the left side of the piano keyboard. Pitch ranges are often referred to in terms of the human singing voice.

Soprano - a high woman's voice

Alto - a low woman's voiceTenor - a high man's voiceBass - a low man's voice

Musical Alphabet

The musical alphabet consists of the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. These letters represent musical pitches and correspond to the white keys on the piano. As you move forward through the musical alphabet the pitch of each note gets higher. The musical alphabet is repeated a little over seven times on the 88 keys of the piano keyboard.

Keyboard White Keys

The piano keyboard consists of white keys and black keys. The white keys correspond to the musical alphabet A to G. The black keys are commonly called "sharps and flats," and are arranged in groups of twos and threes. Using these black key groups you can identify any note on the keyboard. C is always the white key immediately to the left of a two black key group. Once you know where a C is, the other notes fall into alphabetical order from that reference point.

The music staff consists of five lines and four spaces. Each letter of the musical alphabet A to G corresponds to a specific line or space. The plural of staff is staves. Staves are often connected by a brace or bracket and barlines.

Music Staff

Notes can be drawn on any of the staff's five lines or within any of the four spaces. A note on a line is centered on the line. A note in a space is contained within the space between the lines.

Lines and Spaces

Ledger lines are short horizontal lines placed above or below the musical staff that extend the range of the staff. Ledger lines maintain the spacing of the staff lines and extend slightly beyond each note head.

Ledger Lines

There is an exact correlation in pitch order between playing consecutive white keys on the piano, writing notes on the musical staff, and the letters of the musical alphabet.

PITCH ORDER

The half step is the smallest unit of pitch used in Western music. On the piano, a half step is the musical interval from any one key to its closest neighbor, either black or white. Half steps occur naturally between the two white key pairs E-F and B-C. Two consecutive half steps are called a whole step.

Whole and Half Steps

Accidentals are symbols that alter the pitch of a note.

Accidentals

The black keys on the piano are used to play sharp or flat notes. The key immediately to the right of any white key is called "that white key name" sharp. The key immediately to the left of any white key is called "that white key name" flat. It is possible to have a white key called sharp or flat. For example, the note B could be called C flat and the note C could be called B sharp.

Keyboard Black Keys

Enharmonic notes are two notes that have the same pitch but are written or spelled differently. For example, A sharp and B flat are enharmonic equivalents because they are played using the same black key on the piano. Starting with A, one half step higher is A sharp. Starting with B, one half step lower is B flat.

Enharmonic Notes

A clef symbol is placed at the beginning of each staff to fix the location of a specific pitch.

Clefs

The treble clef is also called the G clef because the clef symbol curls around the line that represents the G above middle C.

The names of the treble clef lines can be remembered by the saying "Every Good Boy Does Fine." The spaces spell "F A C E."

Treble Clef Names

The bass clef is also called the F clef because the clef symbol locates the line that represents the F below middle C.

The names of the bass clef lines can be remembered by the saying "Good Boys Don't Fight At all." The spaces by "All Cows Eat Grass" or "All Cars Eat Gas."

Bass Clef Names

A fifth is the interval between two notes whose letter names are five alphabet letters, or five lines and spaces, apart.

The note G is a fifth above C and the note F is a fifth below C.

What Is A Fifth?

In the circle of fifths diagram, the ascending circle of fifths moves clockwise, while the descending circle of fifths moves counter-clockwise.

If you start at any point on the circle and go through 12 consecutive fifths, you'll end up at the note you started from and will use all 12 chromatic pitches in the process.

The order that sharps and flats occur in the key signature and the names of the major and minor keys, in order of the increasing number of sharps or flats used in the key signature, are based on the circle of fifths.

Circle Diagram

C up to G is an ascending fifth in the circle of fifths. It can be written as an ascending fifth, or its inversion, a descending fourth C down to G. Similarly, C down to F is a descending fifth in the circle of fifths. It can be written as either a descending fifth, or its inversion, an ascending fourth, C up to F.

Ascending/Descending Fifths

Major sharp key names follow the ascending circle of fifths beginning with C and continuing to C sharp. The key of C major has no sharps, the key of G major has one sharp, the key of D major has two sharps, etc.

Major Sharp Key Names

Major flat key names follow the descending circle of fifths beginning with C and continuing to C flat. The key of C major has no flats, the key of F major has one flat, the key of B flat major has two flats, etc.

Major Flat Key Names

Minor sharp key names follow the ascending circle of fifths beginning with A and continuing to A sharp. The key of A minor has no sharps, the key of E minor has one sharp, the key of B minor has two sharps, etc.

Minor Sharp Key Names

Minor flat key names follow the descending circle of fifths beginning with A and continuing to A flat. The key of A minor has no flats, the key of D minor has one flat, the key of G minor has two flats, etc.

Minor Flat Key Names

The order of sharps in the key signature follow the ascending circle of fifths beginning with F sharp and continuing to B sharp.

Order of Sharps

A key signature consists of a series of sharps or flats written immediately to the right of the clef. A key signature can represent either a major key or a minor key. The actual key, major or minor, must be determined by studying the notes and chords used in the music. When a sharp or flat is used in a key signature, all notes of that name appearing in the music are automatically sharped or flatted. For example, in E major every F, C, G, and D is sharped.

What Is A Key Signature?

The rules for determining major flat keys are:

The key of C major has no sharps or flats.

The key of F major has one flat.

For key signatures having two to seven flats, the name of the major key is the name of the next to the last flat (the flat 2nd from the right).

Major Flat Keys

Each key signature can specify either a major key or a minor key. The name of the minor key is found by first finding the name of the major key and then counting backwards three scale notes. Sharps and flats present in the key signature affect the key name.

Minor Keys

Relative keys are major and minor keys that share the same key signature. For example, E minor is the relative minor of G major and A flat major is the relative major of F minor.

Relative Major/Minor

Parallel major and parallel minor are major and minor keys that share the same name, but use different key signatures. For example, B minor is the parallel minor of B major, and B major is the parallel major of B minor.

Parallel Major/Minor

An accidental is a sharp or flat used in the music that is not part of the key signature. When an accidental is used, it affects all notes of that pitch in that measure. The accidental is automatically canceled when you move to the next measure.

Accidentals

A scale consists of a series of pitches arranged in ascending order, spanning an octave.

The most commonly used scales are major and minor. Many other types of scales are used including Modes and Jazz Scales.

What Is A Scale?

The natural minor scale consists of eight consecutive notes of the musical alphabet forming this pattern of whole and half steps:

Natural Minor Scale

The harmonic minor scale is based on the natural minor scale, with the seventh note of the scale raised one half step. The pattern of whole and half steps is:

Raising the seventh note creates an interval of three half steps between the sixth and seventh notes, and a half step between the seventh and eighth notes.

Harmonic Minor Scale

The melodic minor scale is based on the natural minor scale, with the sixth and seventh notes of the scale raised one half step. The pattern of whole and half steps is:

The melodic minor scale is used for ascending melodic motion, but reverts to the natural minor form in descending melodic motion.

Melodic Minor Scale

Relative Major/Minor Scales

Relative major and minor scales share the same key signature, but begin on different notes. G major and E minor are relative major and minor scales.