"There is no such thing as a universal note."

[Greenman72]

Saw a very interesting Facebook post today. It was posted in "Beginner Bass Players", and there is tab and notation at the bottom, so it was definitely directed at bass players.
Here's the text:

There is no such thing as a universal note.
There are only instrument-specific meanings of symbols.
I’ve noticed something important in how I read music across instruments.

When I play bass, piano, or classical guitar, the staff notes don’t mean the same thing — even when they’re written in the same clef. A bass clef note on electric bass is not processed the same way as a bass clef note on the left hand of piano or on guitar. I read the staff through the instrument, not abstractly.
That’s why I don’t encourage learning bass and treble clef “in general” without anchoring them to a specific instrument. Notes aren’t just symbols — they’re physical maps. Each instrument gives the staff its real meaning through movement, shape, and sound.

Reading improves fastest when notes connect directly to how your hands move, not when they’re memorized in isolation.

 

[Greenman72]

I picked "kinda disagree".

I'm not a professional (or even good) musician, but I feel like the entire reason for learning how to read music is because it universally applies to all instruments in all styles of music at all times. If you can read the music, you should be able to translate that to muscle memory in virtually any instrument.

 

[BassicJazzy]

Saw a very interesting Facebook post today. It was posted in "Beginner Bass Players", and there is tab and notation at the bottom, so it was definitely directed at bass players.
Here's the text:

There is no such thing as a universal note.
There are only instrument-specific meanings of symbols.
I’ve noticed something important in how I read music across instruments.

When I play bass, piano, or classical guitar, the staff notes don’t mean the same thing — even when they’re written in the same clef. A bass clef note on electric bass is not processed the same way as a bass clef note on the left hand of piano or on guitar. I read the staff through the instrument, not abstractly.
That’s why I don’t encourage learning bass and treble clef “in general” without anchoring them to a specific instrument. Notes aren’t just symbols — they’re physical maps. Each instrument gives the staff its real meaning through movement, shape, and sound.

Reading improves fastest when notes connect directly to how your hands move, not when they’re memorized in isolation.

I need to print this out, hike to the top of a mountain somewhere distant, meditate, and read it forward and backwards for perhaps a year. Then it might start to make some sense to me, or it might still sound like gibberish. Maybe the AI can figure it out, using a quantum computer?

Yoda was much more straight-forward in teaching Luke to use the force.

This is pointed at beginners???? Well, someone is being cruel to beginners. Hey kids, pluck a string, play a note.

 

[JonathanPDX]

I completely disagree. The music exists regardless of instrument. The bass guitar didn't exist before 1951, so what does that say about reading a double bass part written 300 years ago? That note existed before our instrument was even invented, and we can read that note and choose to produce it through a bass guitar, but that note is still there as part of the arrangement regardless of instrument, and can be reproduced a nearly unlimited number of different ways.

A great conductor or composer could look at a score and understand the piece without actually playing any of the instruments it's intended for. They could take that same piece of music and apply the elements to completely other instruments, as we see every single day when high school and college bands play arrangements of contemporary music on instruments which were not a part of the original recording or score.

You can read music without your instrument at all and still hear how it would sound. Applying music to a specific instrument is like saying English only applies to sounds produced by your lips, tongue, and throat.

 

[wompwomp]

I completely disagree. The music exists regardless of instrument. The bass guitar didn't exist before 1951, so what does that say about reading a double bass part written 300 years ago? That note existed before our instrument was even invented, and we can read that note and choose to produce it through a bass guitar, but that note is still there as part of the arrangement regardless of instrument, and can be reproduced a nearly unlimited number of different ways.

A great conductor or composer could look at a score and understand the piece without actually playing any of the instruments it's intended for. They could take that same piece of music and apply the elements to completely other instruments, as we see every single day when high school and college bands play arrangements of contemporary music on instruments which were not a part of the original recording or score.

You can read music without your instrument at all and still hear how it would sound. Applying music to a specific instrument is like saying English only applies to sounds produced by your lips, tongue, and throat.

this is a bit like saying the old testament is simply the same thing as Torah.

imho altering intonation standard completely transliterates music, much the same as reading the bible or Torah in Greek or Latin or English or Hebrew can completely change the meaning of scripture (to say nothing of prior cultural readings!)

to me the disclaimer is basically true, most people wouldn't substitute ingredients in a recipe and expect the same meal.

 

[pfschim]

I voted don't know/don't care

I play bass and keys as well as sing (reading parts when needed). C4 is C4. Now how I physically achieve it on any of the instruments I play (or my voice) is different of course, but it's still C4, and everyone I play with (who reads music) understands what C4 is.

not sure what the original author of that idea really intended, possibly something deep and meaningful but .....

 

[JonathanPDX]

this is a bit like saying the old testament is simply the same thing as Torah.

imho altering intonation standard completely transliterates music, much the same as reading the bible or Torah in Greek or Latin or English or Hebrew can completely change the meaning of scripture (to say nothing of prior cultural readings!)

to me the disclaimer is basically true, most people wouldn't substitute ingredients in a recipe and expect the same meal.

That's the beauty of music: The note is the note regardless of spoken language. It can't be mistranslated. It can be played with different inflection or tonality or on a different instrument, sure, but the arrangement can be interpreted, understood, and experienced by anyone in the world regardless of instrument or language.

 

[wompwomp]

That's the beauty of music: The note is the note regardless of spoken language. It can't be mistranslated. It can be played with different inflection or tonality or on a different instrument, sure, but the arrangement can be interpreted, understood, and experienced by anyone in the world regardless of instrument or language.

we might hear differently? it seems possible that it is so. interesting ideas, peace!

OPs note really throws down lol! it's so polemical haha it's like you see an asterisk on a burger menu* and look down and it says: *there is no god!

 

[Bass4ThePublic]

...


what?

 

[Iristone]

Different music and instrument seems to have different standardisations. For example, a B note is called a H (pronounced "ha") note in Germany, and a Ti is called a Si in most languages. Pizzicato means "fingerstyle" for violin but "palm mute" for classical guitar.

 

[SharpCat]

There's probably no universal note, but there is a secret chord. At least if you believe Leonard Cohen.

 

[Prodigus Filius]

Toilets flushing in Eb might be the closest thing he he

2 rocks + 2 rocks is 4 rocks no matter on what part of the planet you are on. Music is an expression of underlying mathematical stuff.

 

[monsterthompson]

 

[Iristone]

There's probably no universal note, but there is a secret chord. At least if you believe Leonard Cohen.

There once was a note, pure and easy...

 

[monsterthompson]

There's probably no universal note, but there is a secret chord. At least if you believe Leonard Cohen.

 

[Dust2Dust]

I can't even tell what the guy was trying to say

 

[wompwomp]

Toilets flushing in Eb might be the closest thing he he

2 rocks + 2 rocks is 4 rocks no matter on what part of the planet you are on. Music is an expression of underlying mathematical stuff.

well the Pythagorean math breaks down at the octave, in that sense the math doesn't work but I could argue that that's the whole point.

 

[Krakmann]

Salud!

I kinda agree, in the sense that I was so used to the treble clef I had issues switching to the bass clef (I started bass at 37). A minibreakthrough for me was tying written notes to specific frets. C in the 2nd space is not a generic C, but C in the A string, 3rd fret. Later, my brain will transport that C wherever is needed in the fretboard, as needed for the song/context/whatever. That helped me to get around.

But that's is a workaround, not an UNIVERSAL TRUTH, that worked for me.

 

[BismarckHerring]

I guess what he’s saying is, we read music differently depending on what instrument we’re playing. And I agree with that part. The translation from symbols on a page to body movements is different depending on what instrument you’re playing. And parts are usually written for a specific instrument and can feel unnatural on a different instrument. I would go even further and say that it depends on the person.

I don’t see how that leads to the idea that ‘there’s no such thing as a universal note’. I think that misses the point of what notation is. It is a musical idea that is there to be interpreted by the performer. In a sense, when different musicians play the same melody on different instruments, the notation represents the only part of the music that is universal.

 

[Prodigus Filius]

well the Pythagorean math breaks down at the octave, in that sense the math doesn't work but I could argue that that's the whole point.

I guess a modern take on the Pythagorean ‘music of the spheres’ Sonifications - NASA Science