The letter designation of notes historically arose earlier than writing them on rulers; and now the musicians record notes with letters, only now with the help of letter notation you can fix not only sounds, but also entire musical systems - chords, tones, and frets.
Initially, the Greek alphabet was used to write notes, and later they began to write notes in Latin letters. Here are the letters that correspond to the main seven sounds: c [tse] - to; d [de] - re; e [e] - mi; f [eff] - fa; g [ge] is salt; a [a] - la; h [ha] - si
To designate sharps and flat letters, such endings were added to the letters: is [is] for sharps and es [es] for flat (for example, up-flat - ces [cess], or F-sharp - fis [fis]). If you still do not know what sharps and flatbones are, then read the article "Signs of Alteration".
Only for one sound - B flat - an exception has been established from this rule, the letter is used to designate it b [b] without any endings, with sound C sharp called by the rule that is his [his]. Another feature concerns the designation of sounds E flat and A flat - they do not mean ees and aes, but just es [es] and as [as], that is, reduce the second vowel letter, while the sounds mi-sharp and a-sharp will be recorded according to the rule, that is, eis [eis] and ais [ais].
This professional notation is known and used every day by any professional musician. The designation of notes by letters in jazz and pop music has its own characteristics.
The letter designation of notes in jazz is slightly simplified compared to the system that we considered. The first difference is that the letter h is not used at all, the sound b is indicated by the letter b (and not just B-flat). The second difference is that no marks are added to designate sharps and flat, but a sharp or flat sign is placed next to the letter.
So now you know how to write notes with letters. In the following articles you will learn about the letter designation of keys and chords. Subscribe to updates not to miss these articles. And now, as always, I suggest you listen to good music. Today it will be the music of the French composer Camille Saint-Saens.
K. Saint-Saens “Animal Carnival” - “Aquarium”
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