Identifying notes and octoves on you layout chart. How do you do it?

[Clive Thorne]

I suspect that there is no right or wrong here, but how do you/most people do it.

There seem to be 4 basic ways that I have come accross:

 

1:  Lowest octave identified by capital letter (C), Higher octaves indicated by a number of "Primes" (C', C'', C''' etc)

2: All octaves identified by capital letter (C) and a number, Lowest octave being number 1,  i.e. C1 C2 C3 etc.2:

3: All octaves identified by capital letter (C) and a number, with ocatve number taken from piano scale,  i.e. lowest note (G/C anglo) being C3.

4: Lowest octave being in upper case, next octave in lower case, above that "Primes" as option 1 above.

 

And I am sure that there are other variants out there.

 

Which do you use, which do you find easiest to use?

 

 

I currently use option 1 (eg as below). But to be honest I very rarely need to look at the chart these days, perhaps if I'm looking for some obscure chord, but if you're discussing layouts with others, or letting your teacher know what you've got, then it can be useful.

 

[AndyNT]

I've always used 3 - capital plus number e.g. C4, when defining notes on an instrument I'm ordering.

I find it easy to read and less prone to misunderstanding.

[Steve Schulteis]

I prefer scientific pitch notation, which is your option 3, because it unambiguously identifies absolute pitch.

 

ABC notation is ok too, but people aren't super consistent about representing absolute octaves (compare your option 4 with this), so I think of it as a relative system, similar to your remaining options.

 

At the end of the day, I can work with any of them. At least they indicate relative octaves - I've seen button charts that failed to do even that much.

[Don Taylor]

15 minutes ago, Steve Schulteis said:

I prefer scientific pitch notation, which is your option 3, because it unambiguously identifies absolute pitch.

I agree with you about the choice, but even scientific pitch notation is occasionally relative.  Middle C is is usually C4, but occasionally it shows up as C3.  Midi software sometimes uses C3, but then Midi has always had a problem with deciding wether to count starting from 0 or from 1...

[Kathryn Wheeler]

Scientific pitch notation, but also clarifying what middle C is to make it extra clear 

[Luke Hillman]

Scientific notation. C4 is middle C, and the center of the LHS C row in a standard 30-button C/G Anglo. I cannot for the life of me wrap my head around Helmholtz notation.

 

Sometimes I've found it useful to further illustrate octaves with colors when discussing expanded layouts (G/D Wheatstone 40b to illustrate):

 

Edited November 27, 2023 by Luke Hillman

[Wally Carroll]

I use your second option. Not sure where I got that from but I think my clients can quickly figure it out. I chose to have the octaves change at the C notes.  So I call middle C, a C2, and the B right below middle C is B1.

[alex_holden]

I use Scientific Pitch Notation AKA International Pitch Notation.

 

13 hours ago, Don Taylor said:

I agree with you about the choice, but even scientific pitch notation is occasionally relative.  Middle C is is usually C4, but occasionally it shows up as C3.  Midi software sometimes uses C3, but then Midi has always had a problem with deciding wether to count starting from 0 or from 1...

 

I would argue that if middle C isn't C4 it's not actually SPN.

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

 I always denoted middle C as C4 (scientific pitch notation) and uploaded a variety of diagrams to my website. 

 

I think its easy enough to work out what is what when looking at these diagrams but the fact that people would use different numbers might confuse people - C.Wheatstone and co supply a nice diagram which has the notes on the stave for each button which clears up any doubt, probably that is helpful to include on the diagram as well as the octave numbers (from whichever octave numbering system one chooses). I would like to do that at some point.

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

I just get to know the notes on a stave basis, with their position on a written stave itself. 

[Doug Barr]

I use the same as ABC notation.

[Clive Thorne]

Well, you learn something new every day - I'd never heard of Scientific Pitch Notation.

[Richard Mellish]

On 11/27/2023 at 1:18 PM, Clive Thorne said:

Well, you learn something new every day - I'd never heard of Scientific Pitch Notation.

I encountered it for the first time only a year or three ago, and I don't think I'd seen that name for it until now. I wasn't aware of it when I specified some changes from standard Wheatstone on two concertinas that were built to my specifications.

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

Here's my basic numbering system I very occasionally now refer to on chart basis design.  I have not put the notes names in - but it shows a numbering tablature on the rows of 30 button Anglo system. Middle C is button 3 on the middle row. [ left side].

 

[AndrewCollins]

Another vote for SPN.  If you want to avoid ambiguity when, for example, ordering an instrument.