What are the notes of the music alphabet?

The music alphabet has seven natural notes: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. After G, it starts over at A again.

In between most of those letters sit additional notes, called sharps and flats. Using a sharp or a flat depends on the key signature you're playing in.

These fill in the gaps between most natural notes and bring the total to 12 unique notes before the sequence repeats.

The two exceptions where there are no notes between the natural notes are E and F, and B and C. There is no note between E and F, and no note between B and C. Every other pair of natural notes has a sharp or flat in between.

That's the whole system. Every chord name, every key, and every note on the fretboard comes from these 12 notes cycling up and down.

  • Root note - the letter name a chord is built from
  • What is a key? - how a group of notes from the alphabet work together to form a pleasant group of chords
What is the difference between a minor and diminished chord?What does NNS stand for?