What is the difference between musical note, tone, and pitch?
a musical note is the name of a specific pitch of sound produced. For instance the note A4 is at 440 hz. The standard musical notes are named A through G and then repeat. Each set is called an octave as there are 8 notes per set. Pitch is the frequency of sound wave at which a note is played. The higher the frequency the higher pitched the note. The tone is the quality of sound produced. Quality does not mean good or bad in this case, it refers to the different ways the same note at the same pitch is heard. An A4 on the piano sounds different than an A4 sung which in turn sounds different than an A4 on a guitar. Tone is often given descriptive words such as dark or bright, lyrical, sonorous, bracing, light or heavy. Also the basic vocal classifications for singers (bass, baritone, tenor, alto, soprano) not only refer to the average set of notes (and their corresponding pitches) that person is able to sing but also the tone of their voice. For example I can sing bass baritone and tenor
