Editing Short octave (section)

===First type===
One variant of the short octave system was employed in the instrument shown above. Here, the lowest note on the [[keyboard (music)|keyboard]] was nominally E, but the pitch to which it was tuned was actually C. Nominal F{{Music|#}} was tuned to D, and nominal G{{Music|#}} was tuned to E. Thus, starting at the lowest note on the keyboard and playing these keys:

:E F{{Music|#}} G{{Music|#}} F G A B C

the player would hear the [[musical scale]] of [[C major]] in the bass:

:C D E F G A B C

The actual note assignments can be seen in the following diagram, which shows the lowest eight keys of an early keyboard:

:[[File:ShortOctaveOnC.svg|none|200px]]

The rationale behind this system was that the low notes F{{Music|#}} and G{{Music|#}} are seldom needed in [[early music]]. Deep bass notes typically form the [[inversion (music)|root]] of the chord, and F{{Music|#}} and G{{Music|#}} chords were seldom used at this time. In contrast, low C and D, both roots of very common chords, are sorely missed if a harpsichord with lowest key E is tuned to match the keyboard layout. When scholars specify the pitch range of instruments with this kind of short octave, they write "C/E", meaning that the lowest note is a C, played on a key that normally would sound E.