Is it referring to the bar number or the octave in which the note is present?
Asked
Active
Viewed 1.4k times
2
-
2Letter names are really exactly what is said, letters for names. I have not seen any theory where you are expected to add the octave in your answer. – Neil Meyer Nov 25 '16 at 09:39
-
But does it represent the octave – user34782 Nov 25 '16 at 09:54
-
Octave designation is actually VERY common in music theory. – Richard Nov 25 '16 at 21:08
-
Yeah, poorly-written question on the assignment IMO. Anyone asks me "what letter name was that", my response is 'B' - the letter's name! Octaves are important, but if they wanted the scientific pitch designation they should have said so. – user45266 Oct 20 '20 at 20:05
2 Answers
1
It is called scientific pitch notation. From wikipedia we have:
Scientific pitch notation (or SPN, also known as American Standard Pitch Notation (ASPN) and International Pitch Notation (IPN))1 is a method of specifying musical pitch by combining a musical note name (with accidental if needed) and a number identifying the pitch's octave.
So the number is the octave. Middle C is in octave 4.
J. P. Petersen
- 495
- 3
- 13
0
4 and 5 represent the octave! Letter B means it's a B note.

The same way you say play the sequence C2-G2-C3-C2-G2-Bb2-Eb2-F2-G2 in a 4/4.
SovereignSun
- 3,832
- 6
- 26
- 58

