I think you will benefit greatly from understanding these small nuances between the need of knowing how many singing notes there are and how music theory and other things play their role in singing.
There are 12 singing notes. But in order to understand how to use them effectively for your own practice, one must be aware of the technique they are employing and come to a realization that notes are not the end of singing nor a focus on practice, but rather notes are made valuable through technique and understanding.
Phew, it was much harder to write that than I thought. But it is true. I will be now taking it step-by-step and breaking it down so we can get through this easily.
There Are 12 Singing Notes
In music theory, there are technically speaking, only 12 notes.
Obviously, that is not how it actually works. There are 12 notes per se but then patterns, scales, and octaves.
An octave is the distance between two notes which is a Perfect 8th apart.
This means that the two notes will represent the same note by letter but not by sound. They will sound similar but the distance between the two notes is still there.
Imagine something like this.
A Weird but Effective Example
You are going around the world from one point to another.
Your starting destination and the end destination are the same. Your home.
You don’t tell people that you are going from home to home. That’s weird but you traversed an ‘x’ amount of miles/kilometers through the wilderness and mountains and what you saw.
But you ended your destination still at home.
That is what the distance between the notes is like. You still count the miles traveled. The notes that are a Perfect 8th apart are still ‘apart’.
How Notes are Practiced While Singing
When you practice, you can’t just practice notes just by yourself.
Of course, when you are trying to increase your vocal range it makes sense. But even in that scenario notes are never isolated.
At any given point in time, notes are filled and backed up with technique. So you never practice them in isolation.
Technique is how you make a sound in music.
For all of the time that you will be practicing singing, it will be with technique. Never without it. It doesn’t matter if it’s a badly executed technique, it is ever-present.
Why?
Why? Because without technique you cannot become a master at singing. Actually, let me say this, without technique you don’t master anything in music.
Think about it, the more you practice how to make a sound, the more you become good at it.
Who are musicians, if they don’t make sounds? (That sounds wrong).
Why Notes are Put in Order
So you might be wondering why notes are put in order.
They are put in order to make sense of them. This is actually a music theory chapter by itself but the basic reason is simple. Without order, there is just chaos.
The same is true for music. You might’ve at some point put your fingers across the piano and randomly played something. There is a reason it doesn’t sound good.
But if you run your fingers through all the white keys, there is something. It’s not tangible to the point where you can sense, there is something going on.
In music theory, every scale is derived from a bigger scale. The scale that contains all the notes is the chromatic scale. From this, we derive the major scale and from altering the major scale we get the minor scale.
By itself, the chromatic scale doesn’t do much (depends on how it’s used), the moment you hear the major scale you hear a pattern and something you can listen to and the same is for the minor scale with the change in its mood when compared to a major scale.
These are just the basics. We’d need a separate article for this.
But once you understand how major scales are derived from chromatic scales then you will understand why notes are put in order.
They are also put in order because it gives us the harmonic backbones on which we can compose and do other things.
As you progress through music you will realize there are exceptions to the rule and how you can break them to your advantage.
But all of this is to say that the reason that you ask the question leads us back to the same place that we even started from and we need to answer a very important thing in order for you to have the right mindset towards not just music but how we understand music as a whole.
Why Music Theory Is Important
The reason that you need to understand music theory is not just to understand how to make sense of the 12 singing notes but to understand it on a level that you are able to use this knowledge to understand music as a whole.
Also, keep in mind that you need to be able to convert music theory into something you can hear. I am not talking about sight-singing thought, it will help.
But to be able to translate what intervals sound like in your head.
I am talking about ear training. Music theory is the brain and the ear is the practice. One is incomplete without the other.
Learning to Sing
Now that you have understood a little bit of how music theory and ear training go hand-in-hand I think it is time to tell you about where and how you can learn to sing.
I am a big believer in online courses and you can read another article here about it.
To tell you my recommendation it is going to be ‘The Four Pillars of Singing’. I believe you wouldn’t need anything else after this course.
Both of these courses are taught by Robert Lunte and there are many more, you can check all of them out here.
Beyond this, it is your practice that will take you anywhere you wish to go. Keep on practicing and keep on enjoying singing!