Hi, what's the devil note?

All i know it's that it was taboo in the middle ages and Black Sabbath used it a lot.

Anyone know something about it?

The devil's note is a tritone:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritone

I remember a few teachers telling me that people were actually punished for using it, which I find pretty funny.

Also, yes, the tritone is used in Sabbath's "Black Sabbath" (it's the main riff).

It's not a note, it's an interval.

Tritone. It's an interval with each note exactly 3 steps away from each other. Those involved with music wrote pieces for mass during the middle ages and renaissance. Among various guidelines, this specific interval was banned from use.

Otherwise known as "Diabolus in Musica," or the augmented fourth.

Or diminished 5th.

Worth noting that because of the tuning system used back then (just intonation, instead of equal temperament, IIRC), the tritone was a good deal more dissonant and unpleasant then it is today.

In fact, I wouldn't even really call it dissonant. Maybe a little, but it's actually pretty consonant, IMO.

How is it not dissonant :s

It is; I'm just saying it's more pleasant to the ear than, say, two notes a half step apart, as an example.

Yeah the minor second is more dissonant to my ears. It's inversion isn't very nice either.

Oh, so that's what it's called...

Yeah.

Unison
Minor Second
Major Second
Minor Third
Major Third
Perfect Fourth
Tritone (or Augmented Fourth/Diminished Fifth)
Perfect Fifth
Minor Sixth
Major Sixth
Minor Seventh
Major Seventh
Octave

Those are the intervals in the western chromatic scale.

actually the Minor Second and Major Second, are the same. between that and the unison is the Diminished 3rd, its wierd and doesnt make much sense, but that Music theory for ya!

Minor Second and Major Second are not the same, sorry. The diminished third is just a flattened minor third, which is a major second. no use in being redundant when naming intervals.

Also, according to everything I've heard the tritone is, scientifically, the most dissonant interval. The ratio of something to something else that makes notes sound dissonant/consonant is highest in the tritone.