Weekly Composing Challenge #1

[TRUC]

btw this is something I always wondered

does C# = Db
B# = Cb
etc

if so isn't having both kind of redundant

The answer can vary a lot if you're under our western 12 tone equal temperament system, there are lots of other possibilities, and even microtonal stuff, but I'll stick with the easy, general point of view for the sake of simplicty.

First, B# is C, not Cb, and Cb is B, but that's just a detail.

Basically, notes are just frequencies, but within an octave, you have 8 notes that are named, counting that one note as the first. Starting from C, you have C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C, or Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Si-Do, whichever you prefer. The difference between each note more or less follows a ratio, I don't want to get too technical with that, but in our western culture, we end up with 12 different ones, plus the root note/octave note. The best way to grasp it is to look at a piano. Take any white key you want on a piano, and find the next ''same'' one to the right: you'll count 7 white keys to it, and 5 black keys in between, for a total of 12.

Let's use only sharps for now. Starting on C, that leaves us with:
C
C#
D
D#
E
F
F#
G
G#
A
A#
B
That is 12 notes, and then back to our C root. This is often referred to as a chromatic scale, were each note is a half-step (or semitone) higher than the previous one. The whole octave is 6 tones, or 12 semitones. That's the very core of the system.

Now, why do we also use flats ? There are plenty of reasons, some more important than others, but TECHNICALLY, if you want to be practical about it, F# and Gb are the same note. If you add some context, they can be different things.

The most obvious explanation would be to talk about chords. The classic, very simplest chord is called a major triad, and is made, as its name suggests, of 3 notes. You have the root note, a major third, and a perfect fifth. Notices the names I used for those chords (root, third, fifth); they refer to the degrees of the scale, or key, if you want, we are in.

So let's say we are in D Major. Notes of the scale are D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#-D, with 2 sharps on F and C and you can tell. If I were to make a D Major chord, I would take the root (D), the third note/degree (F#), and the fifth (A). The reason I choose to name it F# and not Gb is because Gb would be a FOURTH degree, and that is not what we want. It adds extra notation, can cause confusion if you're using more complex chords, and it doesn't help in any way.

Although, if you were to play F# and Gb on any regular instrument, you'd get the same sound going. Also, maybe you are playing in Eb minor (ignoring the different minor scales here). With 6 flats, all but F, the minor triad for this scale is Eb-Gb-Bb. Using F# instead is once again odd, and furthermore, if you're reading sheet music, using F# instead of Gb leaves you with 2 notes with different accidentals on the same level, it's VERY rough to both write and read with.

So yes, easy answer is they are the same thing, but ultimately it is not redundant at all to have both. Esspecially if you start taking into account quarter tones (half sharps and half flats), or even some rare cases where you'd need double sharps and double flats (F## is equivalent to a G, yes, or Abb ).

Hope that helped a little !

@TRUC do I have until midnight today plz I'm on something but not finished yet and I'm going to see friends this afternoon. (hopefully I can finish this evening)

You're 6 hours ahead of me in timezones, and I don't think I'll post this before tomorrow anyway, so take your time, there's no rush ^^
At the very least you'll have the option to post it on your own with the other(s), I'll probably make it a blog post anyway