While writing my ‘book’ on music theory it suddenly occurred to me:
Like a die where any pair of opposite sides add up to 7, sharps and flats follow a similar rule.
If you know how many sharps a key has, you can immediately tell the flats of the neighbouring flat key, and vice versa.
D has 2 sharps so Db has 5 flats
Eb has 3 flats so E has 4 sharps
C has zero sharps or flats, so C# has 7 sharps and Cb has 7 flats.
Neat, huh?
Roland said: Scales are primarily a tool for categorising knowledge, not a rule for what can or cannot be played.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Comments
This is cool, but knowing the number of sharps and flats would not be really useful unless you memorised which notes are sharped/flatted.
Edit: I guess this is where your little "Father Charles goes down and ends battle" phrase comes in. This will be an excellent book. Will pre-order it!
Band Stuff: https://navigationofficial.bandcamp.com/album/silhouette-ep
F (1 flat) - F# (6 sharps)
so it’s
G (1 sharp) - Gb (6 flats)
D (2 sharps) - Db (5 flats)
A (3 sharps) - Ab (4 flats)
E (4 sharps) - Eb (3 flats)
B (5 sharps) - Bb (2 flats)
F# (6 sharps) - F (1 flat)
and
C (0) - C# (7 sharps), Cb (7 flats)
Most people find it easier to remember the order of the sharp keys. Especially bassists. They have it easy: their 1st string is G with 1 sharp. Their 2nd string is D with 2 sharps, etc. My little revelation helps them immediately know the corresponding flat key’s flats.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
HTH
What I initially found confusing was knowing which pairs of adjacent keys obeyed this rule, e.g. D and D# don’t. But the simple answer is that a key with sharps in the key signature works with the key immediately beneath it with flats.
Cb/C/C# is the one place you get three consecutive keys that do this, because of the unique role of C in having no flats or sharps.
'D' has 2 sharps the letter 'D' can be written with 2 lines
'A' has 3 sharps and the letter A can be written with 3 lines
'E' has 4 sharps and the letter 'E' can be written with 4 lines
'B' has 5 sharps and the letter 'B' can be written with 5 lines
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
...3....G ..1 sharp
...3...D...2
...2...A ...3
...2...E...4
...2..B....5
...2...F#..6
The for the b of these make them add up to 7 like @viz says
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
but I still don’t see how it works with F to F flat
D (2 sharps) - Db (5 flats)
A (3 sharps) - Ab (4 flats)
E (4 sharps) - Eb (3 flats)
B (5 sharps) - Bb (2 flats)
F# (6 sharps) - F (1 flat)
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
I think B# major must be the silliest key
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
So the Key of F is actually F#flat, because it contains flats (I.e the Bflat)
does anyone one know how to type a correct ”flat” symbology a keyborad?