There are 26 letters in the alphabet but there are only 7 letters in the "music alphabet". They are the same as the first 7 letters of the regular alphabet.
A B C D E F G In the music alphabet, after you get to G you don’t go to H (there is no such thing as an "H" note) but you go back A again. This is called an octave.
The other components to the music alphabet are as follows:
- the symbol "b" is called a flat and it lowers a pitch (note) by what is called a ‘half step’, or one fret on the guitar. – the symbol (#) is called a sharp and it raises a pitch by a half step (1 fret). The next stage in explaining the music alphabet is to place a flat and a sharp between each pair of letters like this:
A (A#,Bb ) B (B#,Cb) C (C#,Db) D (D#,Eb) E (E#,Fb) F (F#,Gb) G (G#, Ab) A
At this point I should let you know that each pair of letters in a bracket-set represents the same pitch. A# is the same note as Bb. G# is the same note as Ab, etc. Notice there are 14 different pitches (notes) above before they start repeating themselves at the octave. BUT WAIT!!!…Why is the title of this post "12 Notes of the Music Alphabet" if there are 14 notes? I’ll tell you why. Have you ever looked on a piano and noticed that sometimes there are 2 white keys in a row with no black key between them? This happens twice on a piano, between B and C, and also between E and F. This is because there are no sharps or flats (called accidentals, but that is not important.) between these pairs of letters in the music alphabet. B goes right to C and E goes right to F. (you might want to remember these by British Columbia and Extra Fudge.) The white keys on a piano are the letters and the black keys are the sharps and flats… SO the REAL "12 Notes of the Music Alphabet" are:
A(A#,Bb ) B C (C#,Db) D (D#Eb) E F (F#,Gb) G (G#, Ab) A
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