Written Music Tutorial #1 ( Pitch )
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Notes on Piano

On Piano the above notes would be located thusly:



You will notice that all these notes fall on the white keys.
These are the Natural notes.
The black keys are referred to as either Sharps or Flats.
The black keys take their name from either the white key directly below
(if the note is sharp) or the white key directly above (if the note is flat).
Hence, the black key between C and D would be either C Sharp (C#), or D Flat (Db).
In written music this is indicated by a Sharp sign (#),
or a Flat sign (b) preceding the note.
Sharps and flats are also referred to as Accidentals.


         C   C#   D     D     Db   C

Accidentals

Type		Function
Sharp		Raises a note 1/2 step
Flat		Lowers a note 1/2 step
Natural		Cancels out a sharp or flat. Sets note to its Natural pitch.
Double Sharp	x	Raises note 1 whole step.
Double Flat	bb	Lowers note 1 whole step.

The Chromatic Scale

The Chromatic Scale consists of all 12 tones we use in western music theory. On the Piano keyboard, the Sharps and Flats are the black keys
and the Natural notes are the white keys. This makes a total of 12 distinct notes
(C, C# or Db, D, D# or Eb, E, F, F# or Gb, G, G# or Ab, A, A# or Bb, B).



As you can see in the example above, there are no black keys between the
notes B and C or between the notes E and F. But there are black keys between
all other adjacent notes. This is something that will become clear when we get into
the construction of the Major Scale.

Written Music Tutorial #1 ( Pitch )
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