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music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush

Notation: Pitch #¶#g#F#d#DµD#SµS#d#Mf#SµSµg#F œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Œ music notation is the art of recording music in written form.

liz phair “what makes you happy” [melody from chorus] whitechocolatespaceegg (1998)

modern music notation is a product of centuries of transformation... and it is neither efficient nor intuitive!

the system of musical notation we use is essentially a stylized graph of pitch versus time.


pitch is the highness or lowness of a sound.

the five lines on which notes appear is called a staff.



for example, a flute has a high pitch, while a tuba has a low pitch.

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ

time a note is a written representation of a particular pitch. notation is based on the piano keyboard; lines and spaces on the staff represent the white notes on the keyboard.

to display notes outside the staff, we use shortened staff lines called ledger lines.

& w

treble clef



alto clef

F g a b c d e F g a b c d e the white notes on the keyboard are labeled with letters from A to G.

B w tenor clef



bass clef

the clef determines what notes each staff line corresponds to. the four modern clefs are shown here; the note displayed on each staff corresponds to middle c.

To notate the black notes on the piano keyboard, we use accidentals, which alter the note by one or two half steps. a half step is the distance between two adjacent keys on the piano keyboard, regardless of what color the keys are.

‹ # n b ∫

middle c is the c that is closest to the middle of the piano keyboard.

The double sharp raises the note by two half steps.

The sharp raises the note by one half step.

these symbols are placed to the left of the note that they affect, and they apply to all the notes on that line or space for the rest of the measure.

& bœ œ nœ # œ ∫œ œ nœ ‹œ

The natural cancels out any previous accidental.

The flat lowers the note by one half step. F g a b c d e F g a b c d e The double flat lowers the note by two half steps.

two notes which have the same pitch (for example, f sharp and g flat) are called enharmonics.

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Pitch Notation