The conversion chart
| Letter names | C | D | E | F | G | A | B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Do re mi (fixed do) | Do | Re | Mi | Fa | Sol | La | Si |
| German | C | D | E | F | G | A | H |
The simplest way to remember it: Do is always C. From there, the syllables follow the scale in step with the letters: Do C, Re D, Mi E, Fa F, Sol G, La A, Si B. French writes Ré with an accent; Spanish, Italian and Portuguese write Re. Same note.
Guitarists have a ready-made reference: the six open strings, low to high, E A D G B E, become Mi La Re Sol Si Mi.
Sharps and flats
They work the same way in both systems: the sharp (♯, often typed #) raises a note a half step, the flat (♭, often typed b) lowers it a half step. Only the spoken words change: dièse and bémol in French, sostenido and bemol in Spanish, diesis and bemolle in Italian.
- F♯ is written Fa♯ or Fa#.
- B♭ is written Si♭ or Sib.
- C♯ and D♭ are the same piano key and the same guitar fret: they're enharmonic notes. Do♯ and Re♭ too.
Between E and F, and between B and C, there's only a half step: no note in between. So here are the twelve notes of the octave:
| Letter names | Do re mi |
|---|---|
| C | Do |
| C♯ / D♭ | Do♯ / Re♭ |
| D | Re |
| D♯ / E♭ | Re♯ / Mi♭ |
| E | Mi |
| F | Fa |
| F♯ / G♭ | Fa♯ / Sol♭ |
| G | Sol |
| G♯ / A♭ | Sol♯ / La♭ |
| A | La |
| A♯ / B♭ | La♯ / Si♭ |
| B | Si |
A small reading trap: on a do re mi chord sheet, "Lam" isn't a word, it's La + m, so Am. Likewise "Rem" is Dm and "Mim" is Em. And "Sib" is Si + b, so B♭.
Reading chord names
A chord name is the root note followed by a suffix that tells you its color. The suffix doesn't change from one system to the other: you only swap the note name.
| Letter names | Do re mi | Said as |
|---|---|---|
| C | Do | C major |
| Am | Lam | A minor |
| G7 | Sol7 | G seven |
| Cmaj7 | Do maj7 or Do7M | C major seven |
| Dm7 | Rem7 | D minor seven |
| F♯m | Fa♯m | F sharp minor |
| B♭ | Si♭ | B flat major |
| Bm7♭5 | Sim7♭5 | B minor seven flat five, or half-diminished |
| Esus4 | Mi sus4 | E suspended fourth |
| C/E | Do/Mi | C over E (C with E in the bass) |
A note name on its own always means a major chord: "Sol" is G major. A lowercase "m" means minor. One spelling you won't see on English-language charts: "7M," which French musicians use for major seventh. Do7M is Cmaj7, and it's a very different chord from Do7 (C7) or Dom7 (Cm7).
The German H
In Germany, Austria and much of Central and Northern Europe, the note B is called H. And the letter B there means… B♭. It's the most common source of confusion when reading German sheet music: a German "B" is played a half step lower than an English "B."
Germans also mark sharps and flats with suffixes: -is for sharp, -es for flat. Fis is F♯, Es is E♭, As is A♭. That system is what let Bach sign his name in music with the four notes B-A-C-H, which is B♭, A, C, B.
On song chord charts, even German ones, English letters with B for B dominate. But if you ever see an H, now you know what it is.
Why two systems?
Letters are the older of the two: notes were already named this way in antiquity and the Middle Ages. The syllables come from an Italian monk, Guido of Arezzo, in the 11th century. To help his singers remember pitches, he used a Latin hymn in which each line started one note higher, and kept the first syllable of each line: ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la. Si came later, formed from the initials of Saint John, Sancte Iohannes. In the 17th century, ut became do, which is easier to sing. The French still say "ut" in a few contexts.
The two traditions then split the world between them. France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Latin America learn their notes as do re mi, along with countries like Belgium, Romania and Greece. The English- and German-speaking world uses letters. And since most tabs and chord charts online come from English-language sites, letter names have become the norm for chords, even for many musicians who learned do re mi in school.
Fixed do and movable do
Here's the twist for English speakers. If you learned do re mi in school, it was probably "movable do": do is the tonic of whatever key you're in. Sing do re mi in G major and you're singing G, A, B. In France, Italy, Spain and Latin America, it's "fixed do": do always means C, re always means D, and sol is always G, whatever the key. So when a French guitarist says "Sol," they mean G, not the fifth note of the scale.
Which notation to use
Neither is better: the best one is the one you read without thinking. If you mostly learn from chord charts online, stick with letters. If you play with musicians from fixed-do countries, or read their songbooks, learning do re mi will save you a lot of head-scratching.
In Fredon, you choose the notation in the settings, C D E or do re mi, and the app names notes and chords in that system. It's also a handy way to practice switching: change the notation and find your familiar chords under their other names.
Next up, the guide on how to read chord diagrams teaches you to decode fingerings, and the one on how to find the key of a song shows you which chords go together.