Lesson 2: Notes

Do you know the alphabet? Then you know one important thing about musical note-names: they follow the letters of the alphabet when ascending:

As notes go "higher", the letter names follow the pattern of the alphabet. Once reaching the letter 'G', the pattern returns to letter 'A' and continues on.

As you might imagine, when a scale descends (goes downward), the letters go in reverse:

So as notes go "lower", the letter names follow the pattern of the alphabet backwards. Once reaching the letter 'A', the pattern returns to letter 'G' and continues on.

Here is a diagram of the Grand Staff, with all of the notes labeled:

The scale above starts on a low 'E' and proceeds upward for a little more than 3 octaves. An octave is comprised of eight notes, where the bottom and top notes of the octave have the same letter name. The succession of notes shown above starts on a low 'E' and passes through three more 'E's. Therefore we say that the range of this scale is more than three octaves.

You will notice that the "C" in the middle is a note drawn on a leger line. A leger line is a way of extending the range of the staff. Take a look at this example:

If you use the diagram of the Grand Staff from above and continue upward from the last given note (G), you will see that this note is actually a 'C'. Theoretically you can have an unlimited number of leger lines, though obviously once you exceed four or five it begins to get difficult to count all those lines! Leger lines can extend up above or below the staff, no matter what clef is used: