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Everything about Letter notation
Musical nomenclature with letters to indicate pitch
In music, letter notation is a system of representing a set of pitches, for example, the notes of a scale, by letters. For the complete Western diatonic scale, for example, these would be the letters A-G, possibly with a trailing symbol to indicate a half-step raise or a half-step lowering. This is the most common way of specifying a note in speech or in written text in English or German. In Germany, Scandinavia, and parts of Central and Eastern Europe, H is used instead of B, and B is used instead of B♭. Wikipedia →
🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path
- Read the overview: Letter notationA 5-minute orientation
- Pick up a classic book: Dynamic Chess NotationThe most-reprinted book on the subject
- Read the landmark paper: A One‐Letter Notation for Amino Acid Sequences*Cited 71 times
- Go sideways: Musical noteA closely related topic
- Go sideways: Major scaleA closely related topic
📖 Definitions
No dictionary entry for this exact phrase.
🗂️ The subject at a glance
🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)
A One‐Letter Notation for Amino Acid Sequences*
A one-letter notation for amino acid sequences. Tentative rules
A one-letter notation for amino acid sequences (definitive rules)
Debate Continues on Algebraic Notation [Letter to editor]
Tentative rules a one-letter notation for amino acid sequences
New Notation of Music, in a Letter to Francis Hopkinson, Esq.
A study about the notation of the coffee drink as the phase letter
📚 Books worth reading
- 📕Dynamic Chess NotationF. Startin Pilleau · 1896
- 📕Letter notations in the Middle AgesAlma Colk Santosuosso · 1989
- 📕NotationFrank Davey · 1985
- 📕Electrical & electronics graphic & letter symbols and reference designationsInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · 1992
- 📕Letters on dancingE. A. Théleur · 1832
- 📕IEEE standard letter symbols for quantities used in electrical science and electrical engineeringIEEE Standards Coordinating Committee 14, Graphic Symbols and Designations, IEEE Standards Board · 1984
- 📕Medieval letter notationsAlma Colk Browne · 1980
- 📕Letter notations in the Middle AgesAlma C. Santosuosso · 1989
Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.
🔗 Related topics
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- Chromatic scale In Western music, a chromatic scale (or twelve-tone scale) is a set of twelve pitches within an octave, where the interval between any two adjacent notes…
- Enharmonic equivalence In music, two written notes have enharmonic equivalence if they produce the same pitch but are notated differently. Similarly, written intervals, chords…
- Diatonic and chromatic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are used to characterize scales. The terms are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords…
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- Key (music) In Western tonal music, a key represents the most common pitches and the center of tonal stability in a song or other composition. A key has two components:…