LESSON TWO: Note Names
Okay, yous guys. This lesson is about notes. The "and such" is just something that makes it sound cooler, I think.
A note (<=hopefully that's bold/italicized) in music is the name of a specific music sound. Like in the song "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," the sound that plays for each syllable is one NOTE. Notes are given specific names and have certain appearances.
If you have access to a piano/keyboard, take a finger and run it straight down/up it (this is called a glissando, btw). All the white notes are what we call Generic Notes. Actually, they're not really called that (to my knowledge), but it sounds nifty. These notes are given generic names--alphabetic names. A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. However, they do not come in this order. Here's where octaves come into play. If you look at a piano, you'll notice that notes seem to be in groups. Each group has five black keys and seven white keys. That's a total of twelve notes in all. These twelve notes make up an octave. Just...turn your head haha.
The very first note is called C. The C that is closest to the middle of an 88-key piano is called Middle C...for obvious reasons. The next white key over is called D. This is a cool one because you can always say "I'm playing D" (lolwtf). The next white key over from D is called E (and yes, I am going on, even though this is common sense). The next white key is F. The next one is called G. The next white key is called A, and then the next is B. The following is the next octave's C. I usually call that one "the C above middle C." It would be a lot more convenient if every note had special names, but NO!
All right. In addition to have a name, each note has a special place on the Musical Staff. (Eh? Remember the musical staff?) If we're using the alto clef, then Middle C would be on the middle line. On the treble clef, the middle line is the B above Middle C. If you count down from this B, you'll find you run out of room on the staff to go to Middle C. Oh, no! What happens now?
Well, we can actually (sneakily) extend the musical staff using something called Ledger Lines (sounds like a Housing Complex or something). Link. That is an example of Ledger Lines above the Musical Staff. So, as you can see, You can add one ledger line below the staff and add a note on it to make it Middle C (omfg what an accomplishment).
If you're using the bass clef, then you can put a Middle C (even though it's not really supposed to happen). You add one ledger line above the staff with the bass clef and add a note, and it's middle C. You can even "count" up from the F on the staff (F, G, A, B, C!). In fact, this leads me to talk about (inevitably) The Grand Staff. And, yes, it is very grand.
You see, normally, the staff with the treble clef is used only for treble notes (really? wow...). This means Middle C and higher. And bass clef uses bass notes (lower than Middle C). This means that, if someone was using a piano, it's essentially "split apart." This is not meant to be! The Grand Staff is a combination of both the Treble Staff and the Bass Staff to show a instrument with both treble and bass notes.
But what does this look like? Well, the Treble Clef goes on top, and the Bass Clef on the bottom. Then, a bold line connects them both on the left side, making them of one spirit (lawl). But wait! Then a brace sort of just goes on the side (for no apparent reason). Then we have the Grand Staff. Picture. There you can see all the stuff I just said blah blah blah.
Now...back on topic. Middle C essentially joins the two staves. Because it's the middle of them visually. Middle C is one ledger line down from the Treble Staff; it's one ledger line up from the Bass Staff.
Actually, now that I get into it, we shouldn't really call them the Treble and Bass Staves. The top staff can essentially play bass notes, and vice versa. So, if I wanted the bottom staff to play treble and the top staff to play an octave higher, you could easily just add a crapload of ledger lines. It's better to call them the Right Hand and the Left Hand.
ANYWAY. *Looks back to see where he got on a tangent* OH. So there you have it. Those are the generic names...which means the names of the white keys on the piano. The black keys don't get their own special, original names. They're not special. They are named according to the white keys next to it. For example, the black key to the right of C. This is essentially "above" C, so we call it a sharped note. Since it's next to C, we call this note "C sharped," because C is "sharped." To shorten this, it is written as "C#" (the # represents the sharped..duh). The black key to the right of D is D#. The one next to E is...oh wait! There's no black key to the right of E. Crap, I just brought myself to another topic.
Steps. Steps are distances on a keyboard. There are basically two kinds of steps: a Whole Step is the going from one note (i.e., C), skipping one, (C#), and going to the next (D). So, C to D is one whole step. C# to D# is a whole step. As you might've guessed, a Half Step is going from one note/key to the very next one. C to C# is a half step. C# to D is a half step, etc. Steps are cool. NOT!
Okay, back to names of black keys. There is no black key next to E. The next key after E is F. E to F, therefore, is one half step. That's right. There can be half steps without sharped notes. Now, there's another way to name black keys. You can refer to the note directly to the left of a white key. The black note directly to the left of D can be called C#; however, since we're referring to D, not C, and since we're going down, not up the piano, this would be called D flatted. D flat. Whatever. D is essentially being "flatted" (oh noes!). To shorten this, we write "Db." It looks pretty much like a lowercase "b" but not really. The black note to the left of E is Eb. The one to the left of A is Ab, etc. Db to Eb is a whole step. Db to D is a half step.
Woof. Way off topic. Okay, I'm running out of characters. So this is the end of the lesson, unfortunately. Stay tuned. Questions are welcome.
