A note is a single musical sound of a particular pitch, while a chord is three or more notes played together in harmony. Press one piano key and you play a note; press three at once, like C, E and G, and you play a chord.
The core difference
A note is one musical sound, while a chord is a group of three or more notes sounded together.
- note — a single musical sound of a particular pitch, or its written symbol: The pianist hit a wrong note during the recital.
- chord — three or more musical notes played together in harmony: She learned to play the C major chord on piano.
How to tell them apart
A simple way to remember it: a note is the building block, a chord is what you build with several of them at once. If only one pitch sounds at a time, that is a note; stack notes together and you get a chord, such as a guitarist strumming a three-chord progression.
The mix-up mostly comes from casual speech, where people say "hit the right notes" to mean playing well overall, even when chords are involved. It is also worth knowing that note has other everyday meanings, like a written reminder or a banknote, which have nothing to do with music.
