Hi Ralf, On Tue, Jul 17, 2012 at 9:56 AM, Ralf Mardorf <ralf.mardorf@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > So a b# would be a h#? Yes, the circle of 12 fifths starting from C would then be: C-G G-D D-A A-E E-H H-F# F#-C# C#-G# G#-D# D#-A# A#-E# E#-H# > Somebody mentioned that understanding this theory > does include to know the history. As far as I understood: In ancient notation a B (or better: the note between "la" and "ut" or "do") can be flattened without accidental to avoid the tritone (F-B (german: F-H)). To readers/singers it was clear when the B should be sung flattened or not. So there happened to be a soft (mollum) and a hard (durum) B. In Germany (and probably other German speaking countries) both still exist, in the rest of the world the B is "hard" unless it is flattened. > For people who just want to note guitar chords, ignoring any theory > regarding to keys, in Germany it's safe to name h = h, but to name the > German b anyway bb or a#. I understand what you mean, but when people would start using Bb and H both together in one notation it might even get more confusing. Using A# instead is even worse when you meant to write a B-flat. The chord "C7" consists of C-E-(G)-Bb. So in German notation this would be written as C-E-(G)-B, which could be interpreted as a C^7 (Cmaj7) by a foreigner and that's confusing. C-A# however isn't a 7th but an augmented 6th. The harmonic function is totally different, just like B# (German: H#) and C (Belgian: TI# and DO) as we discussed before. The names of the notes are squishy, nobody can > see if written chord names are written "in German" or not, as long as > there's only a "B" but no "H". Btw. "a" means "Am"?! There are different > writings, large and small letters, signs for same chords. > > I suspect notation needs a disclaimer. We have similar issues for guitar > tabs, you'll find tons of dropped-D tuning tabs where the name of the > strings aren't added and there's no hint that it's a dropped-D tuning. > Yes, that sounds like good practice, although usually it gets clear pretty quick when you're looking at German notation, because of more differences than just H and B, like "a" instead of "Am" as you mentioned, and of course the language of any (non-Italian) words written next to it. _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-user mailing list Linux-audio-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user
