High and low notes

Beats are about when things happen. Melodies add a second question: how high or low each note is. That is called pitch. Press Play and listen to the grid climb.

This grid works like the drum grid, turned into notes: time still runs from left to right, but each row is now a note, and the rows get higher as you go up. Each column is an eighth note, half a beat.

Each row has two names. The number (1 to 7) says where the note sits in the scale, the way numbered notation writes it; the letter is the note’s name, with its octave, such as C4. When the numbers reach 7 they start again at 1, one octave higher.

Your turn

Only the first note is set here. Click cells to add notes and listen while it loops: going up sounds like lifting, going down like settling.