Pitch

This is a preview of the educational program A Jazz Improvisation Almanac which is under development for the Outside Shore Music Online School. Feel free to browse this preview and learn what you can from it. For a more completed product, though, check out the original freely browsable jazz textbook, A Jazz Improvisation Primer.

Simply put, pitch is the difference between a low note:

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and a high note:

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The degree to which one note is higher or lower than another is referred to as the interval between those pitches.

While there are an infinite number of possible pitches, the Western system of notation recognizes twelve distinct note names. These form what is called the chromatic scale:

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The interval between two adjacent notes in this scale is called a half step. The range of notes covered by this scale is called an octave. Each note in the chromatic scale is reproduced in higher and lower octaves, and thus the chromatic scale can be played in any octave:

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The ear, while it can tell the difference between a note in one octave and the same note in another octave, hears the notes as equivalent in some sense:

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Each of the twelve notes of the chromatic scale has one or more names. In order to explain these names, it will be helpful to refer to the piano keyboard:

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Notice the pattern of white keys and black keys. The black keys occur in groups of two and three, and this pattern repeats across the keyboard. The note called C is the white key immediately to the left of any group of two black keys:

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The C closest to the center of the keyboard is called middle C:

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The interval between any two adjacent C's on the keyboard is an octave, and the notes between the C's form a chromatic scale:

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The white keys are named C, D, E, F, G, A, and B:

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The black keys between two adjacent white keys are named by referring to their neighbors. The black key between C and D can be called either C# (pronounced "C sharp"), indicating it is one half step higher than C:

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Or it can be called Db (pronounced "D flat"), indicating that it is one half step lower than D:

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When the same note is called by more than one name, these names are referred to as enharmonic.

Any of the white keys can have sharps or flats applied to them in this manner. For example, F# is the note one half step higher than F:

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Enharmonically, Gb is the same note considered as one half step lower than G:

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In most case, flats and sharps yield black keys, but note that E# is a white key, which is enharmonic with F:

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And conversely, Fb is enharmonic with E:

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The same relationship holds for B and C:

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At various times, double sharps and double flats are used as well. These indicate notes two half steps away. For example, Cx ("C double sharp") is the same as D:

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And Gbb ("G double flat") is the same as F:

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The chromatic scale forms the basis for all Western music, and as far as most music students are taught, there are no more notes to learn. There are certainly other pitches that can be played, however. In particular, the blue notes of jazz are not well represented by either the chromatic or major scale. Blue notes are usually notated as simple flats. For example, in the key of C, blue notes might be notated as Eb, Gb, and Bb. A phrase played using these notes literally might sound like this:

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While they are indeed supposed to be lower than E, G, and B, they should not be quite as low as Eb, Gb, and Bb. Played by a jazz musician, then, the above phrase might sound like this:

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The difference is subtle, and cannot really be honored at all on a piano, although some pianists will try to simulate this effect by striking E and Eb simultaneously:

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Other scales exist that include pitches that are not represented by the twelve tones of the chromatic scale. One African scale divides the octave into eight rather than twelve equal parts. Others subdivide each step of the chromatic scale into two smaller steps. Indian scales can contain dozens of subtle pitch variations. There is no standard system of notation for these any of these scales.

Copyright 2000 Outside Shore Music
Authored by Marc Sabatella

Pitch