6 ms·

Hey, great job on the website! I have one small criticism (in addition to others already listed here). I put in a song that was in the key of B. The most-used c

by mcnape 12y ago

Hey, great job on the website! I have one small criticism (in addition to others already listed here). I put in a song that was in the key of B. The most-used chords of this key are B, E, F#, and G#m - as I'm sure you're well aware. However, the songs chords were detected as B, E, F# and Abm. While technically correct, as Abm and G#m are the same chord, the convention is to list Abm as G#m in this case. I believe this is to avoid mixing sharps and flats in the written chords forms. Written chords should either all be in flats or sharps, rarely if ever mixed. Certain keys are listed with sharps, and others with flats. Here are the most common ones: C - n/a D - sharps Eb - flats E - sharps F - flats F# - sharps G - sharps Ab - flats A - sharps Bb - flats B - sharps

jberryman 12y ago
You're right. The idea is that each note of the scale should fall on a successive line or space on the staff, and the "convention" of having keys be only sharps or flats falls out from that (hm, why? I've never thought about that). So for diatonic chords we spell them with those same notes of the scale as well, of course. Some scales even have double flats or sharps!
- baddox 12y ago
  > The idea is that each note of the scale should fall on a successive line or space on the staff, and the "convention" of having keys be only sharps or flats falls out from that (hm, why? I've never thought about that). The second part is really the same as the first. You want to be able to spell each diatonic alphabetically in order without skipping any letters of the alphabet. The B major scale is B C# D# E F# G# A# B If you tried spelling that with flats, you'd get B Db Eb E Gb Ab Bb B The skipped C and F, and the double E and B, is just nasty. The same would happen if you tried spelling the scale with a combination of flats and sharps. As for diatonic scales that start on an accidental, as far as I know you can use either the flat or the sharp notation. They are enharmonic equivalents. I know there are often traditional preferences, simply to choose the spelling that leaves fewer accidentals in the key signature. For instance, I think that Db major is more common than the equivalent C# major because the former has 5 flats while the latter has 7 sharps.
  - jberryman 12y ago
    > As for diatonic scales that start on an accidental, as far as I know you can use either the flat or the sharp notation. They are enharmonic equivalents. I know there are often traditional preferences, simply to choose the spelling that leaves fewer accidentals in the key signature. For instance, I think that Db major is more common than the equivalent C# major because the former has 5 flats while the latter has 7 sharps. Yup, that's true, though the choice of enharmonic keys will depend on context: e.g. the V7/V in a sharp key will be spelled in another sharp key even if more awkward, with double-sharps etc. Also, to get pedantic there are no "accidentals in the key signature" by definition.
    - baddox 12y ago
      > Also, to get pedantic there are no "accidentals in the key signature" by definition. Yeah, I tried to figure out a better term for that, but I'm not aware of one. Of course, I meant notes that are accidentals in C major, i.e. the black keys on a piano.

by mcnape 12y ago

jberryman 12y ago

You're right. The idea is that each note of the scale should fall on a successive line or space on the staff, and the "convention" of having keys be only sharps or flats falls out from that (hm, why? I've never thought about that). So for diatonic chords we spell them with those same notes of the scale as well, of course. Some scales even have double flats or sharps!

baddox 12y ago
> The idea is that each note of the scale should fall on a successive line or space on the staff, and the "convention" of having keys be only sharps or flats falls out from that (hm, why? I've never thought about that). The second part is really the same as the first. You want to be able to spell each diatonic alphabetically in order without skipping any letters of the alphabet. The B major scale is B C# D# E F# G# A# B If you tried spelling that with flats, you'd get B Db Eb E Gb Ab Bb B The skipped C and F, and the double E and B, is just nasty. The same would happen if you tried spelling the scale with a combination of flats and sharps. As for diatonic scales that start on an accidental, as far as I know you can use either the flat or the sharp notation. They are enharmonic equivalents. I know there are often traditional preferences, simply to choose the spelling that leaves fewer accidentals in the key signature. For instance, I think that Db major is more common than the equivalent C# major because the former has 5 flats while the latter has 7 sharps.
- jberryman 12y ago
  > As for diatonic scales that start on an accidental, as far as I know you can use either the flat or the sharp notation. They are enharmonic equivalents. I know there are often traditional preferences, simply to choose the spelling that leaves fewer accidentals in the key signature. For instance, I think that Db major is more common than the equivalent C# major because the former has 5 flats while the latter has 7 sharps. Yup, that's true, though the choice of enharmonic keys will depend on context: e.g. the V7/V in a sharp key will be spelled in another sharp key even if more awkward, with double-sharps etc. Also, to get pedantic there are no "accidentals in the key signature" by definition.
  - baddox 12y ago
    > Also, to get pedantic there are no "accidentals in the key signature" by definition. Yeah, I tried to figure out a better term for that, but I'm not aware of one. Of course, I meant notes that are accidentals in C major, i.e. the black keys on a piano.