NOTE NAMES IN TREBLE CLEF
There are various ways to look at the note names. This first picture is a guide to the names of notes that lie on the lines of the Stave. They are E G B D F - Often remembered by the mnemonic Every Good Boy Deserves Football
but there are several variations and to be honest it really doesn't matter. Make up your own if you wish, anything that will help you remember is fine. But don't forget, this is only a guide to treble clef notes, in bass or alto clef the note names will be different places on the music.
but there are several variations and to be honest it really doesn't matter. Make up your own if you wish, anything that will help you remember is fine. But don't forget, this is only a guide to treble clef notes, in bass or alto clef the note names will be different places on the music.
This picture shows the names of the notes in the spaces. They simply spell the word FACE.
Thisthird picture is a guide to all the natural notes of the scale one after the other, starting from G below the stave to G above which is 3 octaves. So this incorporates the notes on the lines EGBDF and those in the spaces FACE but also extends this above and below the stave. When you do this the notes sit on little extra lines known as ledger lines. Music can contiue further below and above these notes but you won't need that on many instruments.
Next we have what is called a chromatic scale. This is a scale with all the possible notes in. So it includes accidentals such as sharps or flats. This first chromatic scale is written with the notes as sharps and the second written as flats but they are identical when played.
CHROMATIC SCALE WRITTEN WITH THE ACCIDENTALS AS SHARPS
CHROMATIC SCALE WRITTEN WITH THE ACCIDENALS AS FLATS
WHY ARE THERE MISSING SHARPS AND FLATS?
If you are have looked carefully at the chromatic scales you may have noticed that there are certain notes that do not have a sharp or flat between them. An example would be between E and F. This is because they are already only half a tone apart. So if you start on E and make it sharp and you therefore go up half a tone you end up on F. So actually E sharp = F and F flat = E. If that sounds confusing just look at a piano keyboard sometime. Where you get two white notes right next to each other with no black note inbetween they are only half a tone apart and E and F are examples of this.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE REST OF THE ALPHABET?
I don't really know why there are only 7 letters of the alphabet used for music. I believe it something to do with the frequency of sound waves and the way we hear them that creates and octave but I am not certain. And do you know what if you want to read music, it really doesn't matter. There are lots of things about music I don't know but it doesn't stop me playing an instrument or two and enjoying doing so. So don't worry if you don't know everything about why things in music are like they are because most other musicians wont either. And if they do they will almost certainly be happy to tell you, and that could start an interesting conversation. Just remember that the notes are named A to G with 5 different accidentals in between so, A, A sharp (also called B flat), B, C, C sharp (also called D flat), D,
D sharp (also called E flat), E, F, F sharp (also called G flat), G and G sharp (also called A flat) and then you are back to A again.
D sharp (also called E flat), E, F, F sharp (also called G flat), G and G sharp (also called A flat) and then you are back to A again.
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