What is an "H string" on a musical stringed instrument, i.e. guitar or piano?
April 15th, 2009 | 
Author: Hi,
I am an amateur piano and autoharp player and have been reading music for about 36 years. Today I discovered a term, possibly specific to stringed instruments and tuning, that I have never heard before, namely, an "h string". This came up in a discussion with a German musician and I have never encountered it before. Can someone please tell me what the h-string is on a double bass, guitar, zither or piano?
Thanks in advance,
Musical but still confused…
H is the seventh degree in the diatonic scale. It was formerly used by the Germans for B natural.
A seventh is an interval embracing seven diatonic degrees of the scale. The term is also given to a chord which includes the interval of a seventh whether major, minor, or diminished.
Posted in musical instruments guitar
H is the seventh degree in the diatonic scale. It was formerly used by the Germans for B natural.
A seventh is an interval embracing seven diatonic degrees of the scale. The term is also given to a chord which includes the interval of a seventh whether major, minor, or diminished.
References :
The Probert Encyclopaedia of Music
Actually, h is the flatted seventh of the scale, Bb in the key of C major for example. Some musicians have used it as a musical ’signature’, for example one of J.S. Bach’s pieces has a melodic figure b-a-c-h, and Dmitri Schostokovich used s-c-h (Ab, C, Bb) as an abbreviated signature in one of his symphonies.
Your piano would have an h string but not your guitar (unless you use a nonstandard tuning).
It’s also possible that he was referring to the thickness of a brand of guitar strings, h standing for heavy (as compared to m-medium or l-light).
So which it means depends on which instrument he’s talking about; I’d guess piano.
References :
H is German and Hungarian for B Natural, NOT B flat. B flat is simply called "B".
Meaning in German music theory, the notes go …Ab A B H C Db D Eb E F Gb G…
References :
Check out the aforementioned BACH motif here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BACH_motif