PITCH is the height or depth of sound.
A low pitch is produced from the sixth (thickest) string of the guitar when it is played open. A higher pitch is produced from the open first (thinnest) string.
OPEN STRINGS are those that are allowed to sound when you’re not pressing down on a note.
The thinnest string played open produces a higher pitched note than the thickest string when it is played open.
There is an extremely broad spectrum of pitch.
At each level of pitch there is a note.
Each note takes its name from one of the first seven letters of the alphabet.
A B C D E F G
As you progress through the alphabet you are going up in pitch.
The strings of the guitar are numbered, one to six, from the thinnest to thickest.
The height or depth of a note is its pitch. The notes on each string get higher in pitch the further up the fretboard, towards the body of the guitar, they are played.
The frets are numbered going up towards the body of the guitar.
Between some of these notes there is another note which has two names.
These names are taken from the notes either side of it. For example, the note between ‘A’ and ‘B’ is called either ‘A#’ (A sharp) or ‘Bb’ (B flat)
# = SHARP
b = FLAT
Notes that are neither sharp nor flat are called NATURAL.
This diagram shows sharp notes between the natural notes on each string progressing up to the twelfth fret.
TONES & SEMITONES
The distance between notes is called an INTERVAL.
The smallest division of pitch is called a SEMITONE.
In the diagram above, the notes progressively go up in pitch by one semitone.
The distance up from ‘B’ to ‘C’ is a semitone, or down from ‘E’ to ‘D#’ is a semitone and so on.
The distance of two semitones is called a TONE. For example from ‘C’ to ‘D’ or from ‘E’ to ‘F#’ is a tone.
There are of course more than twelve notes.
Following ‘G# / Ab’ the whole series of notes repeats from ‘A’.
This ‘A’ is an OCTAVE higher than the previous one.
© Carlos Thrale 2014
