Seven note names and the octave
All of music is built from seven names, repeating forever. Today you get all of them, and you find out why they repeat.
Seven names, then round again
There are only seven letters used to name notes: A B C D E F G. After G you go back to A. There is no H, no I. All the music in the world runs on those seven.
Notice we start counting at C, not at A, even though A comes first alphabetically. The reason goes a long way back into musical history, but the practical upshot is that C is the most convenient place to start — the most basic scale of all begins exactly there.
Play left to right and say the names out loud as you go: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C.
The octave, and why those notes sound the same
Play a C, then play the next C up. The two are clearly different in pitch, yet they somehow feel like the same note. That is the octave at work.
The reason is physics. The upper note vibrates exactly twice as fast as the lower one, and our ears read that two-to-one ratio as sameness. Every musical culture on the planet discovered this independently.
To be precise about which C you mean, add a number. Middle C is C4; the one an octave above is C5; the one below is C3. The number changes at C, not at A.
Finding any note at all
You already have everything you need. Find a black-key group, take C or F from it, and count right through the alphabet. You do not memorise where every note lives — you memorise two landmarks and walk from there.
| To find | do this |
|---|---|
| C | left of a group of two black keys |
| D | between the two black keys of the group of two |
| E | right of the group of two |
| F | left of a group of three black keys |
| G | between the first and second black keys of the group of three |
| A | between the second and third black keys of the group of three |
| B | right of the group of three |
All seven names
Press the key matching each name. No labels this time.
G4
Question 1 of 7
No labels now — use the black-key groups to find it
Put in the reps
These eight notes are the seven names you just learned, running up to the next C. The hard part is not the names, it is the fourth note, where the thumb has to pass under the hand to reach F.
Eight note names up to the next C
When the thumb passes under to F, do not let the wrist lift out of its way. If the line stumbles there every single round, slow down until the thumb is already waiting underneath before its turn arrives.
Loop it in time with the clicks. 4 clean reps in a row moves you up a rung; one slip starts the count again · from 52 up to 76 BPM · after the first key it moves through 2 more
Three notes for the whole piece: C, D and E. Get the right hand fluent before you add anything underneath.
Today's minigame
A note name appears and you press the right key before the timer runs out. It speeds up as you go.
Trains: finding keys without counting up from C every time
This game needs keys. The on-screen keyboard, your computer keys, or MIDI all work.
Homework
Go to homeworkAll homework lives on the homework page. Repeat it as often as you like — anything you're still shaky on gets pushed back to the top by itself.
No rush. If you're not confident yet, run the minigame above once more before marking it done.
- Read every part · 0 of 4
- Take the drill up to target tempo · 0 of 1
- Clear 60% of today's minigame · 0 of 1
- Come back and practise again later · 0 of 2 sittings