ASPN labels are very useful, since they can identify every possible musical note within human hearing range, from the lowest pitches to the highest. ASPN designates specific musical pitches by combining a note name (such as C) with a subscript octave designation (such as 4), creating a bipartite label (for example, C 4). In order to discuss specific notes, or pitches, we will use American Standard Pitch Notation, abbreviated ASPN. It is helpful to memorize the ASPN label of this note as a starting point.Īmerican Standard Pitch Notation and Pitch versus Pitch Class A piano keyboard primarily uses the ASPN octave designations 1 through 7, although small portions of octaves 0 and 8 are included.The octaves are labeled from lowest to highest, beginning with 0 and continuing in ascending numerical order (1, 2, etc.). ASPN differentiates between octaves, from C to B.C 4), while a pitch class is less specific (e.g., C in general). A pitch is a discrete tone with an individual frequency (e.g.American Standard Pitch Notation (ASPN) provides labels for specific musical frequencies by combining a note name (such as C) with a subscript octave designation (such as 4).
