A method for graphically displaying on a display device, a musical note in a range of notes within an octave, in a range of octaves. The method including, determining the display attributes of a reference octave selected from the range of octaves, receiving a musical note, generating a representation of the received musical note using a note position of the received note in an octave and a relative octave position to the reference octave, and sending the representation for graphical display. A system is also disclosed.