Musical Alphabets

Musical Alphabets

In music we make use of the first seven(7) letters of the alphabets, namely A, B, C, D, E, F, & G. These seven letters are called musical alphabets & are used to write music. 

After letter G we go back to A, folowed by B, C, D and the pattern/progression continues all over again.

ABCDEFGA'B'C'D'E'F'G'A''B''C''D''E''F''G''A'''.

The white keys of the keyboard are named after the first 7 letters of the alphabet.

Keyboard Diagram 
  

One octave Keyboard

Two octave keyboard 

Each alphabets corresponds to a specific sound. The sound produced when E is played on a piano is different from when D is played. Also the sound produced when E is played on a well tuned guitar is similar to E played on the piano. Thus if I play C on the lower part of the keyboard & the upper part they are expected to sound basically alike. The only difference will be in the pitch of the two C(s). The pitch of the upper C will be higher than that of the lower C.

Also C played on the piano is the same as C played on the guitar although the quality(timbre) of the notes will be different.   

Watch out for our next post.
Your contributions, questions & comments are welcome. 

Please subscribe to receive our posts directly to your inbox.