Musical spaces are simply tools that we can use to conceptualize and converse about music.

We’ll explore three (3) types of musical spaces within this course:

a keyboard pitch space
a staff pitch space
a circular pitch-class space

Each space has its own usefulness when it comes to looking for specific information or patterns within music.

The "Pitch Spaces"

Pitch spaces are what musicians use to communicate ideas about musical pitch to each other.

Keyboard Pitch Space

Keyboard showing lower frequencies are towards the left, and higher frequencies to the right

Staff Pitch Space

Pitch staff (5 horizontal lines) showing higher frequencies move up, while lower frequencies move down

Wait... what is "pitch"?

A musical pitch is the specific position of a single sound in a pitch space (like a keyboard or the musical staff). All sound is simply perceived vibration. Sounds are said to be higher or lower in pitch according to their frequency of vibration. Vibrations are measured in Hertz (Hz), or cycles per second. So a high frequency (e.g., 1760 Hz) is perceived as a high pitch and a low frequency (e.g., 55 Hz) is perceived as a low pitch.

Did you know? The range of human hearing is typically between 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz. This is the frequency domain where all music is perceived!

Circular Pitch-class Space

Circle of notes starting with C at the top and moving up half steps clockwise

Exploring Chromatic Alterations

There are more than just seven (7) standard pitch classes (i.e., A, B, C, D, E, F, and G) in Western music. As we’ve seen in the circular pitch-class space above, there are actually twelve (12) distinct pitch classes (i.e., "families" of pitches).

To get the remaining five (5), we’ll need to use chromatic accidentals.

Did you know? The prefix chrom-, or chromo-, means “color.” Chromatic pitches are literally "colorful" notes. How wild is that?!?

We’ll use three (3) primary accidentals in this course:

the sharp (which raises a note's pitch)
the flat (which lowers a note's pitch)
the natural (which cancels out any chromatic alteration)

Where do accidentals go: before or after the note?

Graphic illustrating how musical accidentals are always placed before the note they modify or color