How to think about notes of a scale

There are many ways to think about what to call notes in a scale. This article shows you a few different ways to do so.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. 
   Notes of the C scale, using the musical alphabet

   NOTE NAMES
   The names of the notes of the C scale are:
   C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C.
   Thinking about these notes using their musical alphabet name is one way to remember the notes

2. 
   Notes of the C scale, using numbers

   NOTE NUMBERS
   These same 7 notes can be thought about using a number for each note:
   Notes number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (and 8, which is really a repeat of note 1)

3. 
   Notes of the C scale, using Solfege

   SOLFEGE
   These same 7 notes can be described using Solfege:
   Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do.
   Just like using note numbers, Solfege identifies notes relative to one another. For example:
   Do = First note of the scale
   Re = Second note of the scale
   Mi = Third note of the scale
   -- and so on. Our example uses a C scale, so 'Do' happens to be C, the first note of this particular scale. If we used an F scale (notes F-G-A-Bb-C-D-E-F), Do would then be F, the first note of the F scale.

4. 
   C is always to the left of 2 black notes

   NOTE NAMES vs. NUMBERS & SOLFEGE
   Note names are absolute. For example, a 'C' note is always the white key on the piano directly to the left of the group of two black notes. However, a full size piano keyboard has a total of eight C notes. So 'C' could refer to any of the C notes on the keyboard.

5. NUMBERS AND SOLFEGE
   Identifying notes by number or solfege (rather than alphabet name) is relative. They refer to the order or notes (1st, 2nd, 3rd etc.; or Do, Re, Mi, etc.) relative to each other. Although we used a C scale example above, numbers or Solfege can identify notes of any of the 12 scales.

Tips & Warnings

• Solfege is defined as singing using solfa syllables to denote the notes of the scale.
• The Sound of Music made solfege popular in its song "Do Re Mi"

Resources

• Suz Doyle Music web site
• Other articles by SuzDoyleMusic

[SuzDoyleMusic]

on 8/8/2008 I think there are many different ways to think about music (and everything in life!). Thinking of music numerically (and not the fancy Roman numerals, just the plain old Arabic numerals) seems to be easiest for most people. :-)

[earthdirt]

on 8/1/2008 This is great. I have such a hard time keeping the basics straight in music, and those letters just make no sense to me.