Lesson-4 : Mapping of Tones and Notes : Part -1

Hi All,

I want to make clear one thing :

1) Becoming proficient in playing a musical instrument (like a pianist, guitarist….etc)

2) becoming expert in musical theory (like a composer, conductor, arranger……)

3) understanding the basics of the theory portion of music ( appreciators like we fans of IR want to become…..)

are three different subjects together.

Currently, we are pursuing the last & third option which is simple to follow (and incidentally may lead to the other two also, if somebody having the guts and determinations to pursue).

So ours is very soft option, and easily attainable goal.

So cheer up !

Now, I take the liberty to refer to the following figure of Keyboard or Piano or Harmonium which I beleive many of you may be already familiar.

• At the leftmost corner, it started with a white key.

• Then a sequence of black and white keys follow that forming a pattern.

• If you count 7 adjacent white keys in sequence, you visualize this pattern ends.

• So 7 white keys and 5 black keys in between forming a total 12 keys complete one pattern. Let us name this one pattern as one Octave.

• After this octave, one another octave follows and so on and you reach the end of the right hand portion of the keyboard/piano

Now let us get into the naming Conventions using the 7 letters A to G (for the time being conveniently forget about those intervening black keys):

• The leftmost white key in this piano is Called “C”
• The next white key is called “D” and so on
• After reaching “G”, the next white key is “A” , then “B”
• Then again Back to “C”
• So omitting the black keys in between, the white keys of the first Octave is C-D-E-F-G-A-B
• So next Octave is again C to B and so on……till we complete octaves of keys

Now, the natural question is, if there are so many C and D and so on, how to differentiate this ?

• For this purpose, the whole range of keys are divided into two major groups, viz. Treble and Bass.

In your music player also you are already using the Bass and Treble adjustments ! So you feel the difference, and know this already…!

Sound at lower pitch are refined and made clear while adjusting bass and sound of higher pitch are made clear and appreciated if Treble is adjusted.

So concept of Bass & Treble is clear. Same is applied to keyboard, lower octaves and upper octaves….!

• Usually, the reference key "C" with a particular frequency (indicating the starting range) is marked as MIDDLE – C .

• All the keys starting from middle-C and above..proceeding towards right hand side are called Treble portion

• All the keys below the middle C upto the left corner of the keyboard are called the Bass portion.

(to be continued in Part-2)