Octave Registers Getting Your Musical Bearings

Musical Pitch Western Music designates 12 distinct pitches within an octave (when we arrive at the original pitch at a higher level Pitches are assigned letter names We use clefs to designate placement on the staff for each pitch

The Layout of the Keyboard The keyboard lays out the pitches using black and white keys White keys are given a single letter name (A-G) Black keys are designated as either sharp (1/2 step above) or flat (1/2 step below)

Octave Register Numbers To distinguish between pitches of the same name that occur in different octaves, we assign each octave a number, always beginning with the note “C” C1-B1C2-B2 C3-B3C4-B4 C5-B5 C6-B6 C7-B7 A0-B0 C8

Important Points Octave 1 begins with the first “C” on the piano The notes below the first C are designated as “A0”, “A#0”, “B0” There are 7 full octaves on an 88-key piano The highest note on the piano is a C, designated as “C8” Middle C is “C4” (Think of dynamite)

Name these notes