Hello one and all. Let’s begin our journey down music theory lane by talking about some core concepts (the ones in the title). Let’s begin.
Notes are to music what letters are to the spoken language, in that they are the basic unit used to express yourself through a song. You have two common ways in which you can name your notes:
using letters: C, D, E, F, G, A, B
using latin names: Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si
I usually use letters, much easier. Notes differ from one another through their pitch.
A note’s pitch reflects how high or low a note is perceived by the human ear. While it’s not exactly a scientific measuring unit, a note’s pitch can be quantified by the note’s frequency, which is measured in Hertz (Hz). In order to understand what a frequency is, we need to understand the fact that sound “travels” in waves. In other words, each and every sound you hear can be represented by using a sine wave, kind of like this:
A sound’s frequency is given by how many wave cycles its sine wave goes through in one second. The higher the frequency, the higher your ear will perceive these notes. A normal human ear is usually capable of hearing sounds between 20 Hz and 20 kHz, while some are capable of hearing sounds even beyong this interval.
Frequencies are important because of octaves. In signal processing, an octave is the spot where the signal doubles or halves its frequency.
In music, this translates to the places where we encounter the same note, but its pitch is either higher or lower. The simplest example is when you play your E string open and then on the 12th fret. Same note, but with a higher pitch.
An octave spans a total of 12 different notes, each separated from the next by what is called a semitone. A semitone is the lowest pitch distance two notes can have. On the guitar this translates to a 1 fret distance. A tone consists of 2 semitones, or two frets on your guitar.
And since earlier I gave you an interval of audible frequncies, it’s only fair to tell you that in this interval there are I believe a total of 10 octaves. Ever notice that sometimes notes have a number after them, e.g. C4. E5 etc? That number designates the octave that that note is a part of. Most notably, octave number 4 is considered the middle octave. You can find a table of frequencies for notes here, if you’re into it: link.
The tricky part I never fully understood is with regards to the middle octave on guitar. I’ve noticed that when transcribing music in Guitar Pro, the C on the 3rd fret of the A string is transcribed on the music sheet variant as C4, even though its pitch corresponds to C3 (an octave lower). If someone has any idea on why this is a thing, please enlighten me.
There is a lot of stuff here, so take your time with everything. We’re probably going to slow down the pace in future posts.
If you have any questions, let me know and hopefully I’ll have the answer. Also @aaronaldous and anyone who wants to add anything, feel free to do so, there may have been things that I have missed.
Notes are to music what letters are to the spoken language, in that they are the basic unit used to express yourself through a song. You have two common ways in which you can name your notes:
using letters: C, D, E, F, G, A, B
using latin names: Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si
I usually use letters, much easier. Notes differ from one another through their pitch.
A note’s pitch reflects how high or low a note is perceived by the human ear. While it’s not exactly a scientific measuring unit, a note’s pitch can be quantified by the note’s frequency, which is measured in Hertz (Hz). In order to understand what a frequency is, we need to understand the fact that sound “travels” in waves. In other words, each and every sound you hear can be represented by using a sine wave, kind of like this:
A sound’s frequency is given by how many wave cycles its sine wave goes through in one second. The higher the frequency, the higher your ear will perceive these notes. A normal human ear is usually capable of hearing sounds between 20 Hz and 20 kHz, while some are capable of hearing sounds even beyong this interval.
Frequencies are important because of octaves. In signal processing, an octave is the spot where the signal doubles or halves its frequency.
In music, this translates to the places where we encounter the same note, but its pitch is either higher or lower. The simplest example is when you play your E string open and then on the 12th fret. Same note, but with a higher pitch.
An octave spans a total of 12 different notes, each separated from the next by what is called a semitone. A semitone is the lowest pitch distance two notes can have. On the guitar this translates to a 1 fret distance. A tone consists of 2 semitones, or two frets on your guitar.
And since earlier I gave you an interval of audible frequncies, it’s only fair to tell you that in this interval there are I believe a total of 10 octaves. Ever notice that sometimes notes have a number after them, e.g. C4. E5 etc? That number designates the octave that that note is a part of. Most notably, octave number 4 is considered the middle octave. You can find a table of frequencies for notes here, if you’re into it: link.
The tricky part I never fully understood is with regards to the middle octave on guitar. I’ve noticed that when transcribing music in Guitar Pro, the C on the 3rd fret of the A string is transcribed on the music sheet variant as C4, even though its pitch corresponds to C3 (an octave lower). If someone has any idea on why this is a thing, please enlighten me.
There is a lot of stuff here, so take your time with everything. We’re probably going to slow down the pace in future posts.
If you have any questions, let me know and hopefully I’ll have the answer. Also @aaronaldous and anyone who wants to add anything, feel free to do so, there may have been things that I have missed.
