Music Notation Basics Part I - Notes and the Musical Staff
(26 Jun 04)
The Distance Between Notes
In music theory the word step has a specific, well-defined meaning. I just used it to mean moving from one piano key to the next higher one. But in music theory, that distance (or interval) is actually called a half-step. Again, please refer to Guni's article, Intervals, the key to Harmonic Understanding for more about musical intervals.
For now, just know that the musical distance we move, either up or down, by moving from one piano key to the next, is called a half-step.
On the guitar, moving from one fret to the next (on any single string) is also a half-step. A half-step is also called a semitone. The two are the same.
Referring again to the keyboard diagram, this means there is a half-step between any natural note and its sharp, between the notes B and C, and between E and F.
In fact, you can think of B# as being another name for C, and E# as another name for F. But, it’s rare to see B or E written with a sharp, and rare to see C or F written with a flat. But, you can think of the two accidentals I've introduced as 'operators' or 'functions'—their function is to raise (or lower) the note by a semitone.
So, B# simply means 'raise B natural by a semitone'. That's completely valid—it just happens that if you raise B a semitone you get C, that's all.
On the keyboard above, I only wrote one name for each note, leaving out the enharmonic names for the black keys. I could have just as well named the very same keys this way:
A – Bb – B - C – Db – D – Eb – E – F – Gb – G – Ab
Written with either sharps or flats, this set of 12 notes forms the basis for Western music, is the complete set of notes we have to work with, and is called the chromatic scale.
SUMMARY
A tone is a sound that has a fixed pitch. Certain tones, having specific, defined pitches, have been selected to serve as musical tones, or notes. All notes are named using the letters A through G of the alphabet. The natural notes are named just using those seven letters by themselves. Those same letters, used with accidentals (symbols that mean either sharp or flat) provide five more notes called altered notes, and give us a total of twelve. Those twelve notes together form the chromatic scale.
The white keys on a keyboard instrument allow us to play the natural notes, the black keys let us play the altered notes. On a standard piano, the chromatic scale is repeated seven times—seven and 1/4 times, actually—and the note C played with the C key near the center of the keyboard is called Middle C.
When we move up or down along the chromatic scale by one note, we say we've moved a half-step or a semitone, and so the tone difference between any two neighboring keyboard keys is also a semitone. On a single guitar string, the tone difference between any two neighboring frets is also a semitone.
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