PDA

View Full Version : Note names in legends



fsenseman
02-04-2012, 10:10 PM
While working with a horizontal fretboard (see previous post regarding legends) I noticed that if I use note names in the legend to the right of the fretboard the notes are all noted as the note name or sharpened note name. Except A# shows as Bb. My preferences are set to U.S. and western style.

Is this just music theory convention that I'm not aware of? (Quite possible I suppose as I am very much a student.)

Kind Regards,
Fleet

Justin
02-06-2012, 12:54 PM
Hey Fleet,

Well I think Bb will be more common than A#, but this is really all to do with key signatures...

Neck Diagrams doesn't associate a key to a fretboard (at least, not yet ;) ) so you get a static approach of showing sharps except for Bb. It's up to the use who knows what they're trying to depict and what key it's in to set enharmonics appropriately if necessary, via the Inspector when selecting a particular note - you'll see you can control both the interval and note enharmonic.

Back to the A#/Bb thing; the first key in which A# shows up is B major which has 5 sharps! Bb shows up from F major (the 2nd flat key) so all other flat keys thereafter have a Bb, which probably means statistically Bb is more commonly seen than A#!

There's a Wikipedia page about key signatures (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_signature) (<--link) but it's a bit of a head job. There's a really good theory book from Musician's Institute Press, by Keith Wyatt and Carl Schroeder: Harmony and Theory (http://www.amazon.com/Harmony-Theory-Comprehensive-Musicians-Essential/dp/0793579910/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328534860&sr=8-1-spell) (<--link) which is kind of a workbook and pretty easy to follow.

fsenseman
02-06-2012, 04:36 PM
Thanks again, I'll check out the book. I wasn't aware of the ability to set the enharmonic. I understand the circle of fifths fairly well and I'm studying the theory side of things quite a bit. I was just curious as to the reasoning behind the single flat when all others are sharp. Wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

I'll definitely take a look at how to control the interval and note enharmonic. I'm certainly giving the software a workout and it's extremely helpful for what I am doing!

Kind Regards,
Fleet

pickboy666
08-12-2013, 03:45 PM
Well there is actually an issue in the software :
IF you choose F# major scale from the scale generator you should theorically only get sharps but you still get some flats
This is a mistake
You can't either build Eb major you have to build D# major from the generator and then manually convert sharps into flats
The upgrade required is 1/ to fix choice of # or b when you build a scale = I choose Eb so I won t have any # in it
2/ for more complex scales let the use pre-choose notes for example C blues let me choose or modify in the generator which notes I want CEbFGbGBb let s say I want to have a F# so just let me choose the enharmonic before applying the whole scale to the neck diagram