Topic: flat and sharp
why B flat equals A sharp?
- Zurf
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Re: flat and sharp
Forget the names for a moment. Just think of the full scale as twelve tones. Each tone represents the same interval.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13 starts the scale over
Put your guitar in hand and pick any string. Pluck that string with no fingering on it. Now put a finger down on the first fret and pluck it. Second fret and pluck it, and so on up to the 11th fret. That was a full twelve tone scale.
Now, the C major scale, the scale upon which all the names are based, includes only 8 tones. Obviously, some of the tones out of the twelve tones of the full twelve tone scale are skipped. If you play a "C" note where the 1 is above to start your scale, it would look like this:
1 C
2
3 D
4
5 E
6 F
7
8 G
9
10 A
11
12 B
13 C (starting over one octave higher)
Notice that 2, 4, 7, 9, 11 have no notes beside them. Those are the tones of the twelve tone total scale that are not used in the major scale. Those are also your sharps and flats. Asharp/Bflat is the tone between A and B. Each step, from one number to the next, is a semitone (UK terminology) or a half-step (U.S. terminology). One semitone above A is an A sharp. One semitone below B is a Bflat. As you can see from the chart, those are the same note. This also explains why you don't have a Bsharp or an Fflat. Those would just be C and E, respectively.
Hope that helps. Also, if Russell or Jerome comes in and corrects something I've said, believe them over me. I do.
- Zurf
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- Russell_Harding
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Re: flat and sharp
the major scale is a chromatic scale it is based on whole and half steps,your guitar has frets each fret is a note the note Bb and A# are inharmonic equalivalents (the same tone) this also occurs with F# and Gb or G# and Ab C# and Db and D# and Eb 
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- Stonebridge
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Re: flat and sharp
sweety19541 wrote:
why B flat equals A sharp?
Depends what you mean by "equals".
On a keyboard or fretted instrument, for example, they are the same pitch.
In the harmonic system we use in the West, with sharps and flats and equal intervals of 12 semitones in an octave, they are the same pitch.
However, in terms of music theory, if I'm playing in the key of B or Bmin, the leading note (going up to the B in the scale, is called A# and not Bb. In the key of C, if I flatten the leading note (the B) then I must call it Bb.
A couple of hundred years ago, before the scale we now use was esyablished, they were not the same note, and a violinist or vocalist (where pitch is self determined), even today will often sing them at a different pitch.
It's actually quite a complicated idea!
Re: flat and sharp
The "Key" you are in refers to what note the Scale of that Key begins at (doh, ray, mi, etc). C is the easiest because you start at C and play every note natural, i.e. no sharps or flats, until you get to the next C and stop there or come back down the scale until you stop at C again (low doh to high doh and back. On the keyboard all the white notes, the black notes being sharps - # , or flats - b).
If you were to play in the key of G you will see that there is one sharp in there - F. So find G then move up (or down depending on where you start from) playing all the notes naturally (all the white notes on a keyboard) until you get to F which you do not play, instead you move one fret up (to the black note immediately to the right of the F on the keyboard) play this note instead and continue until you get to G.
As you are playing in the key of G all G notes get written as "G"s and (with sheet music) you have to remember that all notes written as F are played as F#; with the chords that accompany the key of G it's less confusing to have all Gs written and played naturally and F# to appear as F# instead of Gb.
This can be as complex or as simple as you want it to get, but to know more you will need to find out about KEYs their relative SCALEs and the Chords that fit with them.
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Re: flat and sharp
all the answers here look rights whichs does shows that in music theory there are lots of different ways of looking at the same subject.
I will add one other observation. each of the common scales has 8 notes so G has G A B C D E F# G. In some cases it might be appropriate to call the last three notes E Gb G. However that would be quite confusing because there are then two Gs and no Fs in the scale. Infact this doesn't happen in the any of the commonly used scales.
Whether it happens in any of the variations or modes I don't know for sure but I doubt it.
- Roger Guppy
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Re: flat and sharp
Another slightly different, and very simplistic, way of looking at the original question is that there is just one note between A and B. This note is higher that A, so relative to A it is A#, however relative to B it is lower so it is then Bb.
The key you are playing in determines which name the note it given.
Roger
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- jerome.oneil
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Re: flat and sharp
johncross21 wrote:
all the answers here look rights whichs does shows that in music theory there are lots of different ways of looking at the same subject.
I will add one other observation. each of the common scales has 8 notes so G has G A B C D E F# G. In some cases it might be appropriate to call the last three notes E Gb G. However that would be quite confusing because there are then two Gs and no Fs in the scale. Infact this doesn't happen in the any of the commonly used scales.
Whether it happens in any of the variations or modes I don't know for sure but I doubt it.
That is why you have two sets of keys, flats and sharps. In no scale do you find a lack of notes. Every scale has an A, B, C, D, E, F and G in it. They may be sharp or flat, but they always contain just one of each.
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