Pitch Notation

A photograph of an book of music on a music stand open to a page with the first violin part for `When I Fall in Love` by Edward Heyman, with the hand of the violinist, the frog of the bow and the scroll of the violin visible on the left side of the frame. A book of sheet music for a string quartet performance in London in 2010.
(Garry Knight | CC BY-2.0)

Early forms of pitch notation existed as symbols added to written lyrics to denote melodic movements. As melodies became more intricate and composers strived for more specificity, separate systems of pitch notation were devised and eventually standardized.

Pitch Names

Most musical cultures use a system of naming pitch classes in their tuning systems, rather than denoting the actual frequency of each pitch.

While the tuning system in most common use among professional musicians today divides the octave into twelve pitch classes, the pitch classes are named according to the standard layout used by keyboard instruments like organ and piano, in which five of the keys are smaller than the other seven. The different groups of pitch classes are often referred to as white notes and black notes based on the colors of the keys on the keyboard.

An extreme close-up photograph of a piano keyboard, showing white keys, which extend the full depth of the keyboard, and black keys, situated in groups of two and three, set higher than the white keys and which protrude a little more than halfway from the back of the keyboard.
Figure 1: A piano keyboard. While some older pianos feature black keys made from ebony and white keys made from or surfaced with ivory, modern keyboards are made with synthetic materials.
(Miguel Castillo Lazo | CC BY-SA-3.0)

Letter Names

In English and other Germanic languages, white notes are usually labeled using the first seven letters of the alphabet — A, B, C, D, E, F and G — which correspond to the keys of the keyboard as shown in Figure 2.

A diagram showing one octave of a keyboard: seven white keys with black keys between all but the third and fourth white keys. The white keys are labeled, from left to right, C, D, E, F, G, A and B.
Figure 2: A single octave of a keyboard, showing the pitch class that corresponds with each white key.

Letter names are used as an absolute pitch measurement, with A usually assigned a frequency of or around 440 Hz. The seven letters are repeated at each octave, so that an octave above or below one A is another A.

In actuality, the system of letter names for pitch classes predates the keyboard layout, and in fact most musicians treat C as the base note of the musical system. The C with a frequency of 256 Hz is commonly known as middle C, due to its placement near the center of the piano keyboard.

Black Notes

In the letter name system, black notes are labeled based on the adjacent white notes. Adding a # — called a sharp — to a letter name indicates the next higher-pitched note, and adding a b — a flat — indicates the next lower-pithed note. Thus, the black note between between the notes C and D can be labelled either C# or Db.

A diagram showing one octave of a keyboard: seven white keys with black keys between all but the third and fourth white keys. The white keys are labeled, from left to right, C, D, E, F, G, A and B. The black keys are labeled, from left to right, C sharp or D flat, D sharp or E flat, F sharp or G flat, G sharp or A flat, and A sharp or B flat.
Figure 3: A single octave of a keyboard, showing the pitch class that corresponds with each white and black key.

Enharmonics

While the terms are often used interchangeably, theorists sometimes differentiate between a pitch, a sound that has a particular frequency, and a note, the written representation of that sound. When two notes have the same pitch, like G# and Ab, they are said to be enharmonic.

Not all sharp and flat notes correspond to black notes; E#, for example, is enharmonic with F.

A diagram showing one octave of a keyboard: seven white keys with black keys between all but the third and fourth white keys. The keys are labeled, from left to right, B sharp, C, or D double flat; then B double sharp, C sharp or D flat; then C double sharp, D or E double flat; then D sharp, E flat, or F double flat; then D double sharp, E, or F flat; then E sharp, F, or G double flat; then E double sharp, F sharp, or G flat; then F double sharp, G, or A double flat; then G sharp or A flat, then G double sharp, A, or B double flat; then A sharp, B flat or C double flat; then A double sharp, B, or C flat.
Figure 4: A single octave of a keyboard, every possible enharmonic spelling.

Accidentals can be doubled, altering the pitch by two steps instead of one. Thus, the note C is enharmonic with not only B# but also with Dbb.

Octave Designation

While letter names are used consistently in English-speaking music cultures, there is not an standard system for designating the octave of a particular note. The system in most common use, which will be used throughout this work, uses numbers to represent octaves, with the pitch at 440 Hz designated as A4.

Figure 5: The notes on a standard 88-key piano keyboard, with each note's octave designation.

This system of octave designation uses C as its base, so the note directly below C4 is B3.

Numbers

Certain musical cultures in China, Japan and Indonesia — encompassing a variety of different tuning systems — use numbers to refer to pitch classes, though specific numbers' correlation to certain frequencies are not standardized.

Modern music theorists use the numbers 0 through 11 to notate the twelve pitch classes from C to B in analysis systems like musical set theory, but these numbering systems are not generally used by performers.

MIDI, a language used by electronic musical instruments and musical software, also uses numbers to reference individual pitches. In this system, note 60 is middle C, note 0 corresponds to C-1, and note 127 corresponds to G9.

Solmization

Many languages and cultures around the world use short syllables instead of letter names to refer to pitch classes, a system called solmization.

Romance languages such as Spanish, French, Portuguese and Italian use solfège, a set of syllables generally attributed to Italian theorist Guido d'Arezzo and drawn from the first syllables of a Latin hymn: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la and ti or si. When used as note names, the note do corresponds to the letter name C. Each syllables vowel is changed to reflect sharps or flats, as shown in Figure 6.

A diagram showing one octave of a keyboard: seven white keys with black keys between all but the third and fourth white keys. The white keys are labeled, from left to right, do, re, mi, fa, sol, la and ti. The black keys are labeled, from left to right, di or ra, ri or me, fi or se, si or le, and li or te.
Figure 6: A single octave of a keyboard, showing commonly used syllables for fixed-do solfège.

Different sets of syllables are used as note names in other musical cultures, drawn variously from letters, numbers, or other familiar poetry.

A photograph of Ashwini Bhide-Deshpande sitting on a stage, playing a sitar and singing into a microphone.
Figure 7: Hindustani composer and vocalist Ashwini Bhide-Deshpande performing in 2014. Hindustani musicians use a system of solmization that uses the syllables sā, re, ga, ma, pa, dha and ni.
(Krupasindhu Muduli | CC BY-SA-4.0)

Staff Notation

One of the most common forms of musical notation used today is staff notation, a prescriptive notational system which evolved from the neumes used to portray early chant melodies.

The Staff

Modern staff notation is built around the staff, a set of five parallel horizontal lines. Pitches are shown as ovals, called noteheads, that are either centered on a staff line or situated in the space between adjacent staff lines.

An empty staff, consisting of five closely-spaced parallel horizontal lines.
Figure 8: An empty five-line staff.

Effectively, the staff is a stylized graph showing pitch on the vertical axis and time on the horizontal axis. Notes placed higher on the staff represent higher pitches, and vice versa.

Ledger Lines

Notes can be placed above or below the staff. When necessary, additional staff lines, called ledger lines are added as shown in Figure 9.

A staff with seventeen noteheads spread evenly from left to right. The first is on the second ledger line below the staff and each subsequent notehead is one step higher, so the last one is on the second ledger line above the staff. Noteheads alternate being between two staff or ledger lines or being bisected by a staff or ledger line.
Figure 9: A staff showing noteheads on lines and spaces both on the staff and with ledger lines outside the staff.

Clefs

While the lines and spaces of the staff represent the white keys of the piano keyboard, which notes are represented depends on a symbol placed at the left end of each staff. These symbols, called clefs, indicate both the pitch class and the octave of each line and space of the staff.

Three clef symbols in common use are the G clef, which identifies G4; the F clef, which identifies F3; and the C clef, which identifies C4.

The three commonly used clef symbols: the G clef, F clef, and C clef.
Figure 10: The three commonly used clef symbols, from left to right: the G clef, the F clef, and the C clef.

The two most common staff arrangements are the treble clef, in which the G clef is situated on the second staff line from the bottom, and the bass clef, in which the F clef is situated on the second staff line from the top.

The grand staff is a system of two staves — a treble clef staff and a bass clef staff — used to notate music across a large range of pitches.

Figure 11: Notating the pitches of the piano keyboard on the grand staff. In this diagram, pitches from F3 to G4 are notated on both treble and bass clef staves.

The other two staff arrangements used in modern staff notation use the C clef: alto clef, in which the C clef is situated on the middle staff line, and the tenor clef, in which the C clef is situated on the second staff line from the top. The alto clef is used almost exclusively to notate viola music, while the tenor clef is used to notate the higher ranges of bassoons, trombones and cellos.

Figure 12: Notating the pitches of the piano keyboard on alto and tenor clef.

Octavation

Notes above C6 and below C2 cannot be normally notated without using multiple ledger lines. To make music in these ranges easier to read, composers will sometimes use the symbol 8va, an abbreviation of the italian term all'ottava, to indicate a pitch one octave higher or lower than written.

Figure 13: Notating the pitches of the piano keyboard on a grand staff. Notes lower than A1 and above E6 are notated using 8va or 15ma as appropriate.

The rarely used abbreviation 15ma for quindicesima indicates a transposition of two octaves.

In some cases, an 8 will be placed above or below the clef symbol to create an octavated clef, indicating a transposition at the octave for all notes on the staff.

Accidentals

In staff notation, sharps and flats are indicated by placing the appropriate symbol to the left of the notehead. When used in staff notation, these symbols are called accidentals.

A diagram showing G double flat, G flat, G natural, G sharp and G double sharp on the staff, each with a line pointing to the corresponding keys on a piano keyboard: G double flat is pointing to the F key, G flat to the black key between F and G, G sharp pointing to the black key between G and A, and G double sharp to the A key.
Figure 14: The five accidentals on the note G4, and their corresponding positions on the piano keyboard.

A key signature consists of one or more accidentals placed immediately to the right of the clef. Accidentals in a key signature apply to all notes of that pitch class on the staff.

Accidentals in key signatures can be temporarily cancelled using a special accidental called a natural.

Tablature

Tablature is a descriptive notational system for string instruments which use frets — raised bars in the fingerboard which stop the strings at specific pitches — such as acoustic or electric guitar, electric bass, or lute. Rather than indicating the pitches to be played, tablature indicates the fingering for a specific instrument necessary for playing the pitches.

Figure 15: Notating the pitches of the guitar fretboard in tablature. Click on the fingerboard to show the corresponding tablature. To fret a string, the finger is pressed on or behind the fret. In tablature, a 0 represents plucking an open or unfretted string.

Like staff notation, tablature is written on a staff, but the staff lines represent the strings of the instrument and are labeled with each string's open note — the note played when no finger is touching the string — to the left of the staff. Notes and chords are indicated by numbers written on the string, representing the fret to use for each string.

A close-up photograph of a guitarist's left hand with the index finger on the second fret of the G string, the middle finger on the second fret of the high E string, and the fourth finger on the third fret of the B string.
(Larry Jacobsen | CC BY-SA-4.0)
A tablature diagram showing a 2 on the first and third lines from the top, a 3 on the second line from the top, and a 0 on the fourth line from the top.
Figure 16: A guitarist fingering a D major chord, and the same fingering shown in tablature. For this chord, the two lowest strings on the guitar are not used.

Braille Notation

Braille music notation is a system of musical notation which uses braille characters — symbols comprised of raised bumps embossed in paper or other media — which is often used by musicians who have visual impairments.

Braille music notation uses four of the six dots in the standard braille character to indicate pitch class, as shown in Figure 17. Accidentals are shown with separate symbols placed to the left of the pitch symbol.

Figure 17: Notating the pitches of the piano keyboard in braille music notation.

Rather than using clefs, braille music notation uses separate cells to indicate the octave. Octave designations are not required before every note, but are required for large leaps and at the beginning of each line.

Pitch Notation: Summary

  • Most notation systems include a method for naming pitch classes.
    • In English and other Germanic languages, pitch classes are identified by letter names.
    • Pitches that correspond to the black keys on a piano keyboard are named in relation to adjacent pitches using the sharp — # — and flat — b — symbols.
    • Two note names which refer to the same pitch are referred to as enharmonics.
    • Octaves are often designated by numbers, with the most common system expressing the pitch at 440 Hx as A4.
    • Romance languages generally use solfège syllables to refer to note names, and many musical cultures use other forms of solmization.
  • Staff notation is a very common prescriptive notational system which notates pitch by placing noteheads on a staff, a system of five horizontal parallel lines.
    • Notes can be placed between two staff lines or vertically centered on a staff line. Each position on the staff represents a white key on the piano keyboard.
    • Pitches above or below the staff are shown with ledger lines, short lines which extend the staff higher or lower.
    • The specific pitches referred to by staff lines are determined by the clef, a symbol placed at the left end of each staff.
    • Sharps and flats can be placed to the left of a notehead to alter that note, or placed as part of a key signature to apply to all notes of that pitch class in the piece.
  • Tablature is a descriptive notational system which indicates the string and fret for each note played.
    • Tablature staff lines represent the strings of an instrument and numbers placed on the lines represent the fret to use to play that note.
  • Braille music notation is a prescriptive notational system in which music is notated using standard braille symbols.
    • In braille music notation, pitch is indicated with the top four dots of the braille character. Accidentals are indicated by a separate character, and octaves are designated by number rather than using clefs.

Exercises

Exercise 1: Description of Exercise

Exercise 2: Description of Exercise