??????????

Have you heard those notes? They sound really bad! That is why asian music sucks so much - they have them. Also a H sharp which if listened to can cause deafness:mad:

Good question.

The long answer is here (http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/33299).

Thanks ppn_2204 that explains it.

B sharp is actually C and E sharp is actually F.

The reason we split up a scale into 12 intervals is quite complicated, but it is a compromise, which has become standard in all western music.

Mini is talking about microtonal scales which are used in some eastern music, where some notes have a sharp and then a sharp and a half. On a piano you would have to have 2 thinner black notes together to do this. But in practice an instrument with a slide like a trombone, or un fretted strings (violin, fretless or doublebass) or a guitar with a wang bar can achive these extra notes if required.

On a piano you would have to have 2 thinner black notes together to do this. But in practice an instrument with a slide like a trombone, or un fretted strings (violin, fretless or doublebass) or a guitar with a wang bar can achive these extra notes if required.
my guitar is usually that far out of tune i can sometimes get these notes :)

Have you heard those notes? They sound really bad! That is why asian music sucks so much - they have them. Also a H sharp which if listened to can cause deafness:mad:

:hihi: :hihi: :hihi: :hihi:

You got it one man.........the mind boggles at the other contributors to this thread.

STOP IT YOU LOT...... IT ONLY ENCOURAGES HIM!!!!!

Mind you, he does give us cause for thought...........:thumbsup::clap: :clap:

Actually in German music they use H instead of B. I can't remember if it is because B represents J.S.Bach and they think it's disrepectful to lower him, or if it's because a small letter b can be used to represent the flat sign and that might be confusing if you need to mix large and small letters. They call the key of B major H dur and B minor H moll..

Another thing to confuse is the use of the double sharp [x] and double flat [bb] These come into use when you are reading music in an orchestra which is written for an instrument in a different pitch. Like for instance a french horn which is pitched in F often has to read music which is written in Eb. I used to play an Eb instrument in a wind band where my written music was in concert pitch [C] Every note I played I had to instantly transpose in my head so it was a tone and a half lower. When you got an accidental [ an out of key note ] you often strayed into double # or double b territory.
These doubles aren't however microtonal they are simply a full tone lowered or raised. So C ## [ C x ] is simply D and Gbb is simply F.