Note

What a note is made of

A single note consists of the notehead, round and either open or filled, usually a stem and sometimes flags or beams. The shape and fill of the head determine the duration, the position on the lines the pitch. These are two completely separate pieces of information that every note carries at the same time.

The higher a note sits on the staff, the higher the tone sounds. Counting goes from the bottom up: the lowest line is the first. When the five lines are not enough, short ledger lines extend the staff above or below for individual notes.

The clef decides

Without a clef the lines would have no fixed meaning. The treble clef curls around the second line from the bottom with its centre and fixes it as G4. The bass clef marks the fourth line as F with its two dots. The same note means a quite different tone depending on the clef, so you check it first.

Duration

The seven most important note values run from the whole note, the longest value with four beats, down to the 64th note. A half note lasts half as long as a whole note, a quarter note one beat, and every further step halves the value again. More on this on the page Rhythm.

Accidentals

A sharp raises a note by a semitone, a flat lowers it, and a natural cancels an earlier alteration. In English the sign is simply added to the letter name: C♯, B♭. German adds the syllable -is or -es to the name instead (cis, des), with the exceptions that B♭ is called b, E♭ is es and A♭ is as.

Common mistakes

• Overlooking the clef: If you read the bass clef like a treble clef, you get every tone wrong.
• Only counting instead of recognising: Counting is fine as a start, but it should gradually give way to direct recognition.
• Equating note and tone: The note is the sign, the tone is what you hear.