The Musical Alphabet

               As mentioned in the description, the posts in this blog are intermediate to advanced level music theory and performance discussions.  However, the ratings of intermediate and advanced are relative to the situation being rated.  I would consider the Beatles to be advanced song writers, but they did not know how to read musical notation.  Therefore, I am going to write a series of posts geared toward musicians who desire to learn the basics of musical notation.  They will be accompanied by You Tube videos that provide further explanation and visual aid.  Readers at advanced music theory levels may even find this material useful in teaching their own students.  I only request that you refrain from creating/distributing illegal copies of the You Tube videos.  If you would like to purchase personal copy, they are available on my website.

                The musical alphabet is composed of the first seven letters of the English alphabet (A-B-C-D-E-F-G).  Once you get to G, the group repeats over again.  Each repeat is a higher register of the same pitches.  This cyclical nature of the musical alphabet is easer seen when the letters are drawn in the manor displayed here.

               Musical notation is written on a collection of horizontal lines (and the spaces between those lines) called a staff.  There are five lines and four spaces on a single staff, although there are actually an infinite number of lines and spaces in music.  The specific five lines and four spaces being listed on a particular staff are identified by a special label which is placed at the front of the staff.  This label is called a clef, and there are several different types of clefs (more on this later).    

                Most music teachers like to use catchy phrases to aid students in remembering the names of musical pitches.  They accomplish this by separating the pitches which fall on the lines of the staff from those that fall on the spaces.  The figure shown here is an example of this teaching method.


                However, separating the lines and spaces makes it difficult to see the alphabet within the pitches.  Listing the pitches on the staff in a consecutive "line - space" fashion reveals the alphabet.  This way of listing the pitches also displays the cyclical repetition of the alphabet across registers. 

                Although there are seven letters within the musical alphabet, there are more than seven pitches.  For every letter there is a natural (regular), sharp (slightly higher) and flat (slightly lower) version.  That makes for a total of 21 pitches in music. 
                                A#          B#           C#           D#          E#           F#           G#

                                A             B             C             D             E              F              G

                                Ab          Bb           Cb           Db          Eb           Fb           Gb

                The distance from one of these 21 pitches to the very next pitch is called a half step.  The distance of two half steps equals one whole step.  The distance from a letter to its corresponding sharp or flat is a half step.  However, the distance between the letters of the musical alphabet is not always a whole step.  There are two groups of letters (B & C / E & F) which are actually a half step apart. 

                The final topic of this discussion is enharmonic equivalence.  This topic was already discussed in a previous post, so I will quote that post here for your convenience. 

                When a sharp is applied to a pitch it raises the pitch by a half step.  When a flat is applied the pitch is lowered by a half step.  This creates an interesting dilemma as is seen by this graphic.

  

In this example, the pitches C# and Db end up residing on the same key of the piano keyboard.  These two names actually lable the same pitch. 



                This concept can be confusing at first.  How can one pitch have two different names?  When I am teaching my public school students I describe it this way.  I also have two names (a first and last name).  At home, my wife calls me Ray, but at work my students call me Mr. Melograne.



I am the same person, but it is more appropriate to use my first name in some settings and my last name in other settings. 

                The same is true of musical pitches.  If you are raising a C it is more appropriate to call that pitch a C#.  If you are lowering a D the resulting pitch is the same.  However, in this case it is more appropriate to call that pitch a Db. 

                This concludes our discussion on the musical alphabet.  Please refer to the attached video for further understanding. 

 

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