Every pitch has a name. Western music uses seven letters - A, B, C, D, E, F, G - then repeats. These are your core ingredients. Before you can cook anything, you need to know what's in the pantry.
After G, the alphabet starts over at A. This cycle keeps going up and down the full range of any instrument.
The seven natural notes
These are the white keys on a piano. Tap each one to hear the pitch rise as you move through the alphabet.
C D E F G A B - the natural notes
The musical alphabet
Music theory traditionally starts on C, not A. That's because the C major scale uses only natural notes - no sharps or flats. It's the simplest starting point.
Sharps and flats
Between most natural notes there's a black key. These are named using sharps (#) and flats (b).
That means C# and Db are the same key on the piano. Same pitch, two names. This is called an enharmonic equivalent - like how "aubergine" and "eggplant" are the same vegetable.
All 12 notes
Between C and the next C, there are 12 distinct pitches - 7 natural notes plus 5 sharps/flats. These 12 notes are all the ingredients Western music has. Every song ever written uses some combination of them.
All 12 chromatic notes from C to B
The chromatic scale (using sharps)
Same notes using flats
The two exceptions
Notice there's no black key between E and F, and no black key between B and C. These pairs are already one step apart (a semitone). Every other pair of natural notes has two steps (a tone) between them with a sharp/flat in between.
This uneven spacing is what gives the major scale its distinctive sound. The next lesson explores steps and semitones properly.
One of each letter per scale
Here's an important rule that trips up beginners: every major or minor scale uses exactly one version of each letter from A to G. No letter is skipped, and no letter appears twice. Sharps and flats exist so that this rule always works - sharps and flats adjust each letter to fit the scale's pattern.
In C major, every note is natural - C, D, E, F, G, A, B. Simple. But in other keys, some letters need a sharp or flat to keep the correct spacing. And in extreme keys, you'll even see double sharps (##) or double flats (bb) to maintain the one-per-letter rule.
Example: G# major
B# sounds the same as C, and E# sounds the same as F, and F## sounds the same as G. Music still writes them this way so each letter (G, A, B, C, D, E, F) appears exactly once.
Compare: each scale uses one of each letter
Every row has exactly one A, one B, one C, one D, one E, one F, one G - with sharps or flats as needed.
You don't need to memorise this now - it'll make more sense once you learn scales. The key idea: sharps and flats aren't random. They exist so that each letter gets one seat at the table, keeping music readable and consistent.
Why note names matter
Note names are the shared language of music. When someone says "play an F#", every musician in the world knows exactly which pitch that is. Every scale, chord, and key is described using these names.
Key takeaway
7 natural notes (A-G), 5 sharps/flats = 12 total pitches. Sharp (#) = one step up. Flat (b) = one step down. C# and Db are the same pitch (enharmonic equivalents). No black key between E-F or B-C.
Next: what happens when the same note name appears at different heights - octaves.
Choose notes in any key
Starts lets you pick a root note and key, then generates melodies and chords from it.