Editing Musical note (section)

{{short description|Representation of isolatable musical sound}}
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In [[music]], '''notes''' are distinct and isolatable [[sound]]s that act as the most basic building blocks for nearly all of [[music]]. This [[musical analysis#Discretization|discretization]] facilitates performance, comprehension, and [[musical analysis|analysis]].{{sfn|Nattiez|1990|p=81, note 9}} Notes may be visually communicated by [[writing]] them in [[musical notation]].

Notes can distinguish the general [[pitch class]] or the specific [[Pitch (music)|pitch]] played by a pitched [[Musical instrument|instrument]]. Although this article focuses on pitch, notes for [[unpitched percussion instrument]]s distinguish between different percussion instruments (and/or different manners to sound them) instead of pitch. [[Note value]] expresses the relative [[Duration (music)|duration]] of the note in [[time]]. [[Dynamics (music)|Dynamics]] for a note indicate how [[Loudness|loud]] to play them. [[Articulation (music)|Articulations]] may further indicate how performers should shape the [[Envelope (music)|attack and decay]] of the note and express fluctuations in a note's [[timbre]] and [[Pitch (music)|pitch]]. Notes may even distinguish the use of different [[extended techniques]] by using special symbols.

The term ''note'' can refer to a specific musical event, for instance when saying the [[song]] "[[Happy Birthday to You]]", begins with two notes of identical pitch. Or more generally, the term can refer to a class of identically sounding events, for instance when saying "the song begins with the same note repeated twice".