Note

In music, the term note has two primary meanings:

  1. A sign used in musical notation to represent the relative duration and pitch of a sound;
  2. A pitched sound itself.

Notes are the "atoms" of much Western music: discretizations of musical phenomena that facilitate performance, comprehension, and analysis.

The term "note" can be used in both generic and specific senses: one might say either "the piece 'Happy Birthday to You' begins with two notes having the same pitch," or "the piece begins with two repetitions of the same note." In the former case, one uses "note" to refer to a specific musical event; in the latter, one uses the term to refer to a class of events sharing the same pitch.

Read more about Note:  Note Name, Written Notes, Note Frequency (hertz), History of Note Names

Famous quotes containing the word note:

    “There was a saviour
    Rarer than radium,
    Commoner than water, crueller than truth;
    Children kept from the sun
    Assembled at his tongue
    To hear the golden note turn in a groove....”
    —Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)

    “For do but note a wild and wanton herd
    Or race of youthful and unhandled colts
    Fetching mad bounds, bellowing and neighing loud,
    Which is the hot condition of their blood;
    If they but hear perchance a trumpet sound,
    Or any air of music touch their ears,
    You shall perceive them make a mutual stand,
    Their savage eyes turned to a modest gaze
    By the sweet power of music.”
    —William Shake{peare (1564–1616)

    “No, in your rural letter box
    I leave this note without a stamp
    To tell you it was just a tramp
    Who used your pasture for a camp.”
    —Robert Frost (1874–1963)