Pitch

Pitch: the property of a musical tone that is determined by the frequency of the sound waves that produce it. We classify the sounds we hear as either having a high or low pitch.

The musical system of the Western world is comprised of 12 semi-tones. Our method of labeling the tones uses seven letters of the alphabet, C, D, E, F, G, A and B. Somewhere in the history of music, you might find the reason the notes start at C and not A. The other five semi-tones are called accidentals and are signified with the use of the symbols # (sharp) and b (flat). A# and Bb are the same semi-tone in between A and B. Notes of this nature, that can be referred to by two different names are called enharmonic. Playing each semi-tone in an octave consecutively is an example of the chromatic scale.

The seven notes and five extra semi-tones repeat themselves on the fret board of the guitar. The distance or interval from one occurrence of C to the next occurrence of C is called an octave. The top row of the example on the right is one octave of the diatonic C major scale. The bottom row includes the five enharmonic semi-tones. A semi-tone or half step is one fret on the guitar fret board. A tone or whole step is two frets on the guitar fretboard.

Musical Notation

A note and its pitch are displayed in musical notation by placing the note on or between the parallel horizontal lines of the musical staff. The clef symbol at the beginning of each line of music determines what pitch value each line and space has on the musical staff. The two figures on the right display a treble clef (left) and a bass clef (right). The figure below shows the name of each line and space on the bass and treble clef staff.