Editing Scientific pitch notation (section)

{{Short description|Musical notation system to describe pitch and relative frequency}}
[[File:Scientific pitch notation octaves of C.png|thumb|300px|Ten Cs in scientific pitch notation]]
'''Scientific pitch notation''' ('''SPN'''), also known as '''American standard pitch notation''' ('''ASPN''') and '''international pitch notation''' ('''IPN'''), is a method of specifying musical [[Pitch (music)|pitch]] by combining a musical [[Note (music)|note]] name (with [[accidental (music)|accidental]] if needed) and a number identifying the pitch's [[octave]].<ref>[http://www.flutopedia.com/octave_notation.htm International Pitch Notation]</ref><ref>Robert W. Young. "[https://pubs.aip.org/asa/jasa/article-abstract/11/1/134/551706/Terminology-for-Logarithmic-Frequency-Units Terminology for Logarithmic Frequency Units]". ''[[Journal of the Acoustical Society of America]]''. 1 July 1939; 11 (1): 134–139.</ref>

Although scientific pitch notation was originally designed as a companion to [[scientific pitch]] (see below), the two are not synonymous. Scientific pitch is a [[pitch standard]]—a system that defines the specific [[frequencies]] of particular pitches (see below). Scientific pitch notation concerns only how pitch names are notated, that is, how they are designated in printed and written text, and does not inherently specify actual frequencies. Thus, the use of scientific pitch notation to distinguish octaves does not depend on the pitch standard used.