What piano key is low E on guitar?

presses (strikes) the piano’s keys in different places on the keyboard to create notes. Both musicians can play a wide variety of notes including all naturals, sharps, and flats. Thinking of the

difference in octaves, a piano has 88 keys (notes) in over eight octaves, where a typical guitar (and its six strings) is capable of four and-a-half octaves.
The strings of the guitar are tuned to E, A, D, G, B, E, low to high, and have corresponding notes on the piano. Middle C (the note C) on the piano is the same as the 5th string, third fret on the

guitar. Thus the guitarist’s lowest note, E, corresponds to the E below middle C on the piano. Some say notes to be played can be easier seen on the piano, while others claim finding the same notes

on guitar as being the easier task.
You may ask the question, can a guitarist play music written for the piano? Or can a pianist play music written for the guitar? The answer is yes with the following caveats. It can be quite a

challenge for a guitarist to play music written for the piano. Whereas a piano player can play 10 notes simultaneously (ten fingers), a guitarist can play only six notes at the same time (strumming

the six strings of the guitar). However, an experienced guitarist can “arrange” piano music into a recognizable form that can be played on guitar. 
To further define the differences between piano and guitar, it might be helpful to think of the bottom three strings of the guitar (the lowest sounding, or bass strings) as corresponding to what

the left hand plays on the piano, and the top three strings of the guitar (the three thinnest strings) as what the right hand plays. This is a very general statement (and is not proven in fact or

practice) but helps separate and define the two instruments. The root of a chord on guitar is usually played on one of the bottom three strings with the remaining strings used to complete the

chord. And as a general rule, the left hand of the piano is used to play the root of a chord with the remaining fingers (in both the left and right hand) used to complete the chord.
A guitar and piano can easily play in unison, showing that all the strings of the guitar have corresponding strings on the piano. Both are capable of complex and full-sounding music on their own

and also can be played to beautifully compliment each other.
A final difference is that single notes on the piano are created by the hammer in the piano action striking two or three strings (depending on where the notes are played on the keyboard), while the

same note on a guitar is generated by one string only. (Please note these are generalities to view the overall picture of the relationship between the two instruments and not hard-and-fast facts.)

Posted in Piano vs. Guitar Tagged guitar strings, piano keys permalink

About Duane

Duane Shinn (that would be me) has good news for you if you want to play the piano. He (me) has little fat hands & stubby little fingers - not at all suited for playing the piano - more suited to making mud pies or some such. I am also fairly uncoordinated with just average musical ability - certainly not a great piano player. But I've learned a ton about music over the years and people tell me I'm pretty decent at explaining how music works & how to progress more rapidly on the piano. Over the years I have developed about 150 techniques for conquering the piano. Most professional pianists can do these techniques, but very few can explain them in a way people can understand. I specialize in making complex techniques simple. I invite you to watch a few of my free videos and see some of these for yourself before making any decision about taking any of my courses.

This article originally appeared on CD Baby's DIY Musician blog, and was written by Alex Andrews of Ten Kettles Inc. Their new music theory app, Waay, is now available. Click here to learn about its video lessons, interactive exercises, progress-tracking tools, and more.

What's the frequency of C, and why should you care?

It's 261.6 Hz. Why would we ever need to know this? Well, there could be a few different reasons, but one has to do with mixing audio. When equalizing (EQing) an audio track, one common challenge is filtering out background noise – especially if the track was recorded with a microphone. Here's what the mic might be picking up:

• The rumble of a streetcar or truck going by in the distance
• An accidental knock of the microphone stand
• A door closing somewhere in your building

Your best route to eliminating background noise is to cut it out at the source, but in many cases (barring time travel) that's just not possible. So we use an equalizer, or EQ, to lend a helping hand.

Take a guitar track, for example. What's the lowest sound you'd expect to come from a guitar? If it's in standard tuning, the lowest string is tuned to E2, which has a frequency of 82.4 Hz (see the table below). This means that any sound below ~80 Hz is not guitar. So, if we filter out everything below that frequency, we cut out the low noise (like the streetcar rumble) but keep all that great guitar sound. Not bad! The name for this kind of filter is a high-pass filter, because it lets all the high frequencies pass, and keeps out the low ones.

Below is a table of all the note frequencies, with the highest and lowest notes of various instruments highlighted. The first column is the octave number. For example, the low E string on a guitar is tuned to E2 – that’s E in the second octave.

Next up:

• How to Successfully Achieve Analog Warmth With Digital Tape Plugins
• Audio 101: The Secrets of How to Effectively Use EQ in the Studio
  
• 3 Veteran Producers' Secrets for Making Your Beats Sound More Professional
• The Ultimate EQ Cheat Sheet for Every Common Instrument

Alex Andrews is an engineer, musician, and runs Ten Kettles Inc in Toronto, Canada. Ten Kettles is an indie app company that builds apps for music education. Their ear training app, hearEQ (4.5/5.0 stars), is now available for iPhone and iPad. You can find out more here.

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