Notes and Pitch

Seven letters, eighty-eight keys, endless music.

In lesson 1 you learned where notes sit on the staff. Now let’s hear them. Pitch is how high or low a sound is. Every note name stands for a pitch, and a piano keyboard lays them all out in a row, low on the left and high on the right.

1The musical alphabet

Music names its notes with just seven letters: A B C D E F G. After G it starts again at A, a little higher. Each step up the staff (line to space to line) moves one letter up the alphabet.

The distance from one note to the next note with the same letter (say C up to the next C) is called an octave, from the Latin word for “eighth,” because it spans eight letter names: C D E F G A B C. Two notes an octave apart sound so alike that we give them the same name.

Climbing from middle C to the C an octave above, one letter at a time.

2Finding notes on a keyboard

A full piano has 88 keys: 52 white and 36 black. That sounds like a lot, but the pattern repeats every octave. The trick is the black keys: they come in groups of two and three.

C is the white key just left of each group of two black keys.
F is the white key just left of each group of three.
From there, the white keys go up the alphabet: C D E, then F G A B, then C again.

Middle C is the C nearest the middle of the piano, and it’s the same middle C you met between the treble and bass staffs. Scientists and musicians often call it C4, because it’s the fourth C up from the bottom of a full-size piano.

Two octaves starting at middle C (C4). Groups of two and three black keys are your map.

3What makes a pitch high or low?

Sound is vibration. When a string, a drum skin, or the air in a flute vibrates faster, you hear a higher pitch. We measure this in hertz (Hz): vibrations per second.

The A above middle C (A4) is tuned to 440 Hz. That’s an international standard, so orchestras around the world can tune to the same note.
Middle C vibrates about 261.63 times per second.
Go up an octave and the frequency doubles: A5 is 880 Hz. Go down an octave and it halves: A3 is 220 Hz.

4Sharps, flats and naturals

The smallest step on a piano, from one key to the very next key (black or white), is a half step (also called a semitone). Signs called accidentals move a note by a half step:

Sharp ♯ raises a note a half step. F♯ is the black key just right of F.
Flat ♭ lowers a note a half step. B♭ is the black key just left of B.
Natural ♮ cancels a sharp or flat, so the note goes back to its plain white-key self.

In written music, the sign goes before the note, and it lasts until the end of that measure. Every black key has two names: the black key between C and D is both C♯ and D♭.

Sharp, flat and natural signs are written just before the note head.

5Play: the Jugami keyboard

Two octaves from middle C. Tap or click a key, Tab to a key and press Enter, or use your computer keys: A is middle C, the row A S D F G H J K plays white keys, and W E T Y U play black keys.

Show note names

Swipe the keyboard sideways to reach the higher keys.

Game: Find the Key

We name a note; you find it. Any octave counts. Ten rounds. Tip: switch off “Show note names” for a real challenge. Best score is saved on this device.

Play “Ode to Joy”

Listen first, then play it yourself: the next key glows each time. These are the same notes as the music in the unit overview.

Quick quiz

Four questions. Choose an answer for each, then check them all at once.

1. Going up the musical alphabet, which letter comes right after G? H A C None: G is the highest note there is

2. How can you find any C on a piano keyboard? It’s the black key between the two groups of black keys It’s always the key on the far right Count eight keys up from any black key It’s the white key just left of a group of two black keys

3. Middle C vibrates about 262 times per second. About how fast does the C one octave higher vibrate? About 131 times per second About 270 times per second About 523 times per second About 1,000 times per second

4. What does a flat sign (♭) do to a note? Raises it by a half step Lowers it by a half step Cancels the sharps and flats that came before it Makes it quieter

Talk About It

Discuss with a partner, your class, or your family. There are no wrong answers here.

Two notes an octave apart sound “the same, but higher.” How would you describe that to someone who has never heard it?
Why might it help orchestras around the world to agree that A is 440 Hz?
Every black key has two names (like C♯ and D♭). Can you think of other things that have two names depending on how you look at them?

Sources

We checked every fact on this page against these sources.

Piano.org, “How many notes are on a piano?”: 88 keys: 52 white and 36 black.
Wikipedia, “Piano key frequencies”: middle C is about 261.63 Hz and each octave doubles the frequency.
ISO 16:1975, Acoustics: Standard tuning frequency: the A above middle C tuned to 440 Hz.
OpenLearn: An introduction to music theory, 6.1 Accidentals: sharps, flats and naturals.
OpenLearn: An introduction to music theory, 2.4 Middle C and ledger lines: middle C and ledger lines.
Britannica Scholars, “Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125”: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, first performed in Vienna on 7 May 1824, with Schiller’s “Ode to Joy” in the finale.

Credits

Written by Ludwig, Jugami’s music teacher. All notation, clefs, keyboards and diagrams are original SVG drawn in code for Jugami; no images or fonts are loaded from other sites. Sounds are synthesized in your browser with the Web Audio API. Best scores are saved only in your browser’s local storage. The memory sentences (like “Every Good Boy Does Fine”) are traditional classroom aids, not rules of music.