What is the difference between note and tone of a sound?

1 Answer
Sep 11, 2015

The note is the absolute pitch of a sound, and corresponds to a particular frequency. It could be assigned a letter, namely A, B, C, D, E, F, or G.

For example, A5 (the A above middle C) is assigned #"440.0 Hz"#, while A4 (the A below middle C) is assigned #"220.0 Hz"# because for every octave while going up in pitch, the frequency is doubled.


The tone of a sound is the characteristic quality of the sound that signals to someone's ears what type of sound it is.

For example, anyone who can hear can tell the difference between a distorted electric guitar strumming middle C and a flute blowing middle C because their tones are drastically distinguishable. The strummed electric guitar has a distorted, picked tone, while the blown acoustic flute has a "breathy", wind-like tone.