Music notes

 🎵 Let’s break down music notes in a simple way.

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1. What Music Notes Are

Music notes are symbols that tell you which pitch to play and how long to hold it.

There are two main things to know: pitch and duration.

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2. Pitch

• Pitch = how high or low a sound is.

• In Western music, the main notes are:

C – D – E – F – G – A – B → then it repeats at the next higher C.

On a keyboard or piano:

• White keys = C D E F G A B

• Black keys = sharps (#) or flats (b), like C# or Bb

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3. Note Duration

Notes also tell how long to hold a sound:

Note	Symbol	Duration
Whole note	🎵 (empty circle)	4 beats
Half note	🎵 (empty circle with stem)	2 beats
Quarter note	🎵 (filled circle with stem)	1 beat
Eighth note	🎵 (filled circle with stem + 1 flag)	½ beat
Sixteenth note	🎵 (filled circle with stem + 2 flags)	¼ beat

(In modern sheet music, they look slightly different, but this is the idea.)

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4. Staff & Clefs

• Notes are written on a staff: 5 horizontal lines

• Treble clef – high-pitched instruments (flute, violin, guitar)

• Bass clef – low-pitched instruments (cello, bass guitar, piano left hand)

The position of a note on the staff shows which pitch to play, and the shape shows how long to hold it.