PRO TIPS

ROLAND VS KORG

Hardware manufacturers have adopted different conventions when naming the octaves of the notes their instruments produce. On any keyboard, pressing middle C outputs MIDI note number 60. Korg, for instance, have opted to call this note C4, while Roland and others call it C3. In both cases, as you go up the keyboard, the octave number increases when you get to each new C.

SCORE BLIMEY

When scoring for orchestral instruments, there are some, like the piccolo trumpet or bass for example, whose natural pitch range falls way outside the scope of the normal five-line stave. For these instruments, one option is to use octave clefs. These look like a normal treble clef but with a small figure 8 attached either to the top or bottom of the clef symbol, depending on whether the notes need to be played up or down an octave.