Notes, octaves and the keyboard

Western music uses twelve notes. After the twelfth, the cycle repeats an octave higher at double the frequency. Every piano roll in every DAW is laid out like a keyboard, so learn the keyboard even if you never play one.

Twelve notes

The white keys are the natural notes: C D E F G A B. The black keys are the notes in between, named as a sharp (♯, raised) of the note below or a flat (♭, lowered) of the note above. So the black key between C and D is both C♯ and D♭. Two names for one key are called enharmonic equivalents; which name you use depends on the key you're in (lesson 6).

The full cycle: C, C♯/D♭, D, D♯/E♭, E, F, F♯/G♭, G, G♯/A♭, A, A♯/B♭, B, and back to C.

Semitones and tones

The distance from any key to the very next key, black or white, is a semitone (a half step), the smallest step in Western music. Two semitones make a tone (a whole step). There's no black key between E and F or between B and C, so those pairs are only a semitone apart. Find your way by the black keys: they come in groups of two and three, and C is always the white key just left of a group of two.

Octave numbers, MIDI and frequency

• Notes carry an octave number. Middle C is C4 (about 261.6 Hz) in the scientific standard, and A4 is 440 Hz, the tuning reference.
• Every MIDI note has a number: middle C is 60, A4 is 69. Add 1 per semitone and 12 per octave. Your DAW speaks MIDI numbers under the hood.
• Careful: software disagrees on labels. Ableton Live and Logic call MIDI note 60 “C3”, FL Studio calls it “C5”. The note is identical; only the label changes.
• Basslines in dub and cumbia live roughly between E1 (41 Hz) and E3 (165 Hz). Sub bass fundamentals sit between 30 and 60 Hz.