Many people are surprised to learn that songs are composed by using a certain formula, and as anyone can learn this formula, anyone can compose music! Of course this subject is extremely deep, and I only know about the very tip of the iceberg, but this much has helped me intensely.

We'll start with the notes. There are 11 of them, and they are:

A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, and G#.

#, is pronounced "sharp" and it means that the note is raised 1 semitone. A semitone is a difference of 1 fret on a guitar, or one key on a piano. Notice there is no B# or E#, that’s just the way it is.

That same series of notes could be written using flats:

A, Bb, B, C, Db, D, Eb, E, F, Gb, G, and Ab. b, pronounced “flat” means that the note is lowered one semitone. A Bb, and an A# are the same note, and we will get into why people call them different things later.

If you go up 12 semitones from a note, you arrive 1 octave above it. An octave is the same note, just higher. For instance, the middle key on a piano is C4, an octave above that is C5, an octave below is C3.

On a piano the black notes are the sharps (or flats) and the white notes are A through G.

Well, that rounds up part 1, see you next time, when I introduce the major scale! Wooohoooo!