Previous: Lesson 3 - Time Value of Notes
Now that we have looked at the basics of rhythm in lessons 1 to 3, we will start to look at pitch. Remember rhythm and harmony create melodies, these are the fundamental building blocks of music.
Music is made with different pitches, each pitch is a different ‘note’. The keyboard represents all these notes. Each key on a keyboard is a different pitch, with the lower pitches on the left getting higher as it goes right.
To get technical for just a second, pitch is the frequency of the sound the note makes. Each pitch has a corresponding letter name between A & G - (A, B, C, D, E, F, G). These are the only 7 names, and they repeat, all the way up or down the keyboard.
Letter Names of Notes
The first A is lower than the second A but they are both an A, this is because of the science of sound-waves, the higher note is exactly double the frequency of the first, so it sounds as the same note, but one octave higher - an octave is defined as the different notes of the same letter name and are 8 notes apart.
Every instrument plays these same pitches, but with different sounds, an A on a piano is the same pitch as an A on the flute, violin or guitar. They all sound different, but they are all an A because they are the same frequency.
For your grades, you just need to know the notes and their corresponding names. We will look at these notes in the next section and see how they are represented on the stave.
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