I'm developing a program that uses the Midi module.
I've defined some helper functions for managing midi notes and hex numbers.
Try this:

def note2hex(note):
"""'note': is a string: 'f#' or a tuple or list: ('f#', -1),
the number indicates the octave (0 -> middle 'C')
If there is not number ('note' is a string), we assume
middle C"""
_note = ()
if type(note) == types.StringType:
_note = (note, 0)
else:
_note = note
n = _note[0].lower()
if n == 'c':
nh = 0x3C
elif n == 'c#':
nh = 0x3D
elif n == 'db':
nh = 0x3D
elif n == 'd':
nh = 0x3E
elif n == 'd#':
nh = 0x3F
elif n == 'eb':
nh = 0x3F
elif n == 'e':
nh = 0x40
elif n == 'f':
nh = 0x41
elif n == 'f#':
nh = 0x42
elif n == 'gb':
nh = 0x42
elif n == 'g':
nh = 0x43
elif n == 'g#':
nh = 0x44
elif n == 'ab':
nh = 0x44
elif n == 'a':
nh = 0x45
elif n == 'a#':
nh = 0x46
elif n == 'bb':
nh = 0x46
elif n == 'b':
nh = 0x47
return nh + _note[1]*0x0C # 0x0C -> 12 Semitones