What the musical notes are
In Western music there are seven natural notes:
After B, the sequence starts again on C, just higher. It's like the days of the week: after Sunday comes Monday again, but in a new week. That “C again, only higher” is called octave, because it's the eighth note counting from the first.
The natural notes are the white keys. Notice that after B comes another C.
Notes as letters: chord symbols
In guitar songbooks, chord websites and popular music sheets, notes appear as letters. This system is the most widely used in the world and starts on A:
| Note | Letter (chord symbol) | How to remember |
|---|---|---|
| C | C | C as in “Commence”, where the keyboard starts |
| D | D | |
| E | E | |
| F | F | F for fa |
| G | G | |
| A | A | A is the first letter, and A is the tuning note |
| B | B |
The trick to remembering it is that A = A (la) and follow the alphabet: A, B, C, D, E, F, G (la, si, do, re, mi, fa, sol).
Where the names do, re, mi come from
The names came from Italy almost a thousand years ago, from the monk Guido d’Arezzo. He used the first syllables of each line of a Latin hymn to teach singers to sing in tune. The first syllable was Ut, which later became C because it's easier to sing. B was added later.
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Open the free app →What about the black keys?
Between some natural notes there's a note “in the middle”. These are the piano's black keys. They don't get a new name: they take their neighbor's name plus a symbol:
- ♯ (sharp): the note gets a little higher. C♯ is the black key right to the right of C.
- ♭ (flat): the note gets a little lower. D♭ is the black key right to the left of D.
Notice that C♯ and D♭ are the same key. This is called enharmonic equivalence: the same sound with two names. Adding the 7 naturals and the 5 black keys, we get 12 different notes before reaching the octave.
7 white + 5 black = 12 notes. After that, everything repeats.
That “little bit” between a key and its neighbor has a name: half step. It's the smallest distance between two notes on the piano and the guitar. The next article, whole step and half step, explains it step by step.
How to find any note on the keyboard
The black keys come in groups of two and of three. They're the map of the keyboard:
- O C is the white key just before the group of two black keys.
- O F is the white key just before the group of three black keys.
- From there, just follow the order: C, D, E, F, G, A, B (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si).
On the guitar the notes repeat too: each fret takes you up a half step, and at the 12th fret (usually marked with two dots) the string plays the same note as the open string, an octave higher.
Notes on the staff
On sheet music, each note has a fixed spot on the five lines of the staff. The higher the dot, the higher the note. This is the C scale in treble clef, starting on Middle C:
To learn to read this at your own pace, see how to read sheet music.
Pitch: what makes a note low or high
Each note is a vibration with a speed, measured in hertz (Hz). The A used to tune instruments vibrates 440 times per second (440 Hz). The A an octave higher vibrates 880 times: going up an octave doubles the frequency. That's why notes an octave apart sound so alike that they get the same name.
Now put the theory into your fingers
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Practice theory in the free appFrequently asked questions
How many musical notes are there?
There are 7 natural notes (C, D, E, F, G, A, B, or do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si) and 12 different notes when we count the sharps and flats. After that they repeat in other octaves.
Why do chord letters start at A and not C?
Because the letter system is old and was organized starting from A. Later the C scale became the reference, but the letters stayed the same: A = la, B = si, C = do.
Are C sharp and D flat the same note?
On piano and guitar, yes: they're the same key and the same fret. You use one name or the other depending on the scale or chord the note appears in.
What is middle C?
It's the C that sits roughly in the middle of the piano. On sheet music it's on a ledger line just below the treble clef. In numbered note names it's called C4.