Western music typically uses 12 notes – C, D, E, F, G, A and B, plus five flats and equivalent sharps in between, which are: C sharp/D flat (they're the same note, just named differently depending on what key signature is being used), D sharp/E flat, F sharp/G flat, G sharp/A flat and A sharp/B flat.
The chromatic scale
The chromatic scale (or twelve-tone scale) is a set of twelve pitches (more completely, pitch classes) used in tonal music, with notes separated by the interval of a semitone.
The musical scale is based on our perception of frequency, and harmonic relationships between frequencies. The choice of 12 evenly spaced notes is based on the so-called circle of fifths. Frequencies that are harmonically related tend to sound good together.
In music, a note is the representation of a musical sound. Notes can represent the pitch and duration of a sound in musical notation. A note can also represent a pitch class.
So they're a sharp or b flat c sharp or d flat d sharp or e flat f sharp or g-flat. And then g-sharp or a-flat.
The basic premises of twelve-tone music are as follows: All twelve notes of the chromatic scale must occur. No note can be repeated in the series until the other 11 notes of the chromatic scale have occurred (exceptions include direct repetition of a note, trills, and tremolos)
From a mathematical point of view, we can easily explain why 12 works nicely. The Greeks realized that sounds which have frequencies in rational proportion are perceived as harmonius. For example, a doubling of frequency gives an octave. A tripling of frequency gives a perfect fifth one octave higher.
I know there are scales in different regions that have different combinations of those notes (many scales have 5 or 7 notes, some have 8, others like the chromatic have all 12, etc.). But there are many more possible sounds than just those 12 notes (and the octaves created from those 12 notes).
Our musical scale is a compromise. There are not only 12 notes. Western music has settled on a twelve note system and this is what we are culturally attuned to. These twelve notes have not even been the same twelve notes, as there are various systems of tuning these notes, called temperament.
Likewise, he found that people could remember a sequence of up to seven tones, but not much more. This limit on short-term memory capacity was termed “the magical number seven, plus or minus two”. This may be one reason why we use seven notes in our scales, rather than 12, in order to help us remember more easily.
Rhythm, on the other hand, refers to the variety of note and rest durations that appear in the context of the meter. Notes can last for any length of time: a note can last for an entire beat or even multiple beats. Notes can be shorter than a beat as well.
The musical scale is based on our perception of frequency, and harmonic relationships between frequencies. The choice of 12 evenly spaced notes is based on the so-called circle of fifths. Frequencies that are harmonically related tend to sound good together.
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