Crud... I thought this was a Make Fun Of B# thread. Sharpie... you dogged my bullet... If you happen to see this... I hope all is well.

BTW Levon just won another prestigious award.

The 9th Annual Americana Music Festival & Conference Awards Ceremony
Presented
Levon Helm
The Artist of The Year Award for 2008

We saw him just before his star rose again. We were two lucky guys Sharpie.

Pete

I you just do not think about a piano keyboard, that (B#) makes perfect sense, it is just the tone one half step above the B, It happens to be a sharp note ending up at a white key at the piano, but it is nothing special about it. And in C# there is a sharp at the septime.

Don't know if this clears things up or confuses even more... ;-)

M.

All major scales may begin on any note as long as you maintain the Tone, Tone Semitone, Tone, Tone, Tone, Semitone [ t.t.s.t.t.t.s.] pattern. Those spacings between the notes DEFINE a scale as being MAJOR.

In order to do this, it is necessary to use sharps and flats. Whether you use a sharp of flat depends on the fact that you MUST use consecutive letters of the alphabet in creating the scale

So knowing our CHROMATIC scale [from which all the rest are developed] as being
A . A#. B. C. C#. D. D#. E. F. F#. G. G#. A

And

That our MAJOR scale goes T. T. S. T. T. T. S.

We can make ANY major scale. For example
If we want to make an F major scale [just as a random example]

We write F.G.A.B.C.D.E.F in consecutive letters of the alphabet [and we have one and only one of each] so far so good, but we dont have the correct sequence of tones and semitones. For that we would have to go

F. tone G. tone A. semitone A# tone C tone D tone E semitone F
which would still be incorrect. Why?
Because now there is more than one A and no B. BUT if we rename the A# to Bb, then we finally get the correct F major scale

F. G. A. Bb. C. D. E. F.
With each letter used just once consecutively. Now we add a Bb to the key signature and we have it. The key of F major always has one b

Lets try the A major scale:
Again because its a MAJOR scale we must use the TTSTTTS sequence and each letter once only in order alphabetically.

A.B.C.D.E.F.G.A is one each consecutive but not TTSTTTS, so

A tone B tone C# semitone D tone E tone F# tone G# semitone A
And hooray, we have none twice, so
A major has 3 sharps in its key signature C#, F#, and G#

Had we tried to write A major scale using flats we would have arrived at this
A tone B tone Db semitone D tone E tone Gb tone Ab semitone A

Obviously wrong because wed have no C or F and two As
So this is why for example A major has sharps rather than flats in itand WE NEVER HAVE BOTH # AND b IN A KEY SIGNATURE.

I do hope this helps someone.
dags

Dags,

The discussion of music theory is very helpful. I appreciate you taking the time to explain it thoroughly.

~ Ron

It isn't difficult to understand Ron, is it? It just takes a bit af time and a considerable ammount of concentration and attention to detail for it to finally sink in. Best parts of it are...

Once you have it - you have it for ever & you only have to work it out once.

It's free

It's useful

Sometimes, I am not too good at explaining things, and I feel I've failed if I haven't made it clear, so being a persistant cuss I tend to make a long-winded event of it.

Thanks for the complimentary feedback.

dags

Wow, the great teacher from the southern hemisphere is back in the saddle!


Dags, nothing new for me here .... except the way you are explaining it, you are great at opening my eyes in seeing elementary things in new facinating ways! Thanks a lot!

M.

You can't be old without something having pentrated the brain along the road mate. It is a pain learning theory - that's one thing I can still remember, so if I can help someone to understand - at least this old fart feels like he's a wee bit useful still.

New and fascinating ways? thanks Morten. Sometimes a new way of explaining, or a different angle on the subject "clicks" better. Sometimes not. After 3 or 4 ways it should work. The "how" is not so impoirtant as the fact that eventually it DOES click, imho.

"...I do hope this helps someone "

Nah,didn`t help me,I allready knew that you old goat !!!

Hahahahaha !!

If I may serious for a minute though,I`m sure that it does help people because the way that you describe theory is very excellent me olde mate.
Keep it up coz we canna do without you,(Well I can but that`s another matter);-)

Vern & Millie

thank you Vern, anything that even remotely sounds as if with a bit of literary licence could be confused for a complement is deeply appreciated. In fact I can keep it up. I hope [being a younger fella] that you still can.

gee i actually get it!!!

gee i'm actually pleased!!! lol

Great

dags

Cheers Dags. Your the man.

D Silbag!

ta Pete

Very clear and helpful description. Thanks Dags.

...it's the Captain Morgan Rum Paul, it's the rum!!

WHERE????

Sorry Todd, you were too late.

lol

bloody ell!!!

LOL! Ahhhh, a fine beverage for lubricating the mind.