Pitch Notation

This lesson is part of the Fundamentals of Twelve-Tone Equal Temperament category.

Objectives

• Students will be able to notate, name, and play (on a keyboard) a pitch in treble, alto, tenor, or bass clef.
• Student will be able to name notes using American note notation and/or octave notation
• Student will be able to identify notes on a piano keyboard
• Student will be able to identify pitches given the European solfege name or integer notation
• Student will understand difference between pitches, octaves, chroma, and pitch classes

Resources

Readings

• Music Theory for Musicians and Normal People - Notation: Pitch.
• Schaffer, Open Music Theory: Pitch (Class)
• Hutchinson, Music Theory for the 21st Century Classroom: Basic Concepts
• Dolmetsch: Notes and Keys in Various Languages
• Wolfe, Music Acoustics: Note names, MIDI numbers, and frequencies
• Cook, Music Theory - Chapter 2:
  • 2.4 Register Designation & Octaves
  • 2.6 Moveable C-Clef & Other Clefs

Tools

• Sengspiel Audio: Keyboard and Frequency Calculator
• Wolfe, Music Acoustics: Frequency to Musical Note Converter

Class Activities

• Discussion of the symbology of pitch in staff notation
• Discussion of notation using integer notation
• Discussion of Fixed Do Solfège
• Construction and performance of written melodies
• Melodic transcription of short excerpts of music from different genres and time periods

Assignments

• Transcription of a given written melody to different modalities (other clef, integer, solfege notations)
• Notating enharmonics

Drills

• Musictheory.net:
  • Note Identification
  • Note Construction
  • Keyboard Note Identification
  • Keyboard Note Reverse Identification
  • Fretboard Note Identification