I’ve never been a musical person but would like to learn an instrument. I can’t get my head around the letters and things like E flat etc. Is there a way to better understand it please?
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Learning music is always easier when you can reference a piano keyboard. For example, a piano has 88 keys, but they repeat the same notes across several octaves. Octaves are the same note at different pitches (high or low). Like the note “C”, which appears 7 times on a piano keyboard, is always going to be recognized by your brain as the same note, whether it’s played as a super shrill high pitched noise or a low bass noise.
The white keys are:
C D E F G A B C
The black keys are sharps (#) and flats (b) of the white keys.
The white and black keys with sharps, played in order:
C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C
The white and black keys with flats, played in order:
C Db D Eb E F Gb G Ab A Bb B C
Compare the notes column by column. The same key on the piano can be a sharp or flat depending on its notation. Flats lower the pitch (B > Bb), and sharps raise the pitch (C > C#). But it’s important to note that C# and Db for example are the same as far as pitch goes. It’s just how music is notated that separates them.
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