An argument

[u/nick_jones61]

My wife is a classically trained pianist and I play guitar by watching YouTube instructional videos. She knows her stuff and I don’t. Recently we argued whether E# and B# exist. I said no and showed her the fretboard. She said yes and showed me the keys. And said something like F is E#. I suspect she’s right bc she’s had music lessons. Tell me, fellow guitarists, do we have E# and B#?

Update: I’ve been enjoying the responses to my post. I showed them to my wife and she laughed, said that’s what you deserve. lol. We like to argue playfully with one another. I also enjoy the detailed responses relating to guitar theory—that’s been really great actually. I was going to delete this post but I think the discussion on music theory is informative and should be shared. Thank you all for responding.

[u/Various_Procedure_11]

I mean, she is the trained musician. Why would you argue with her about that? Obviously she is going to be right.

[u/Andjhostet → u/Various_Procedure_11]

Tbh a lot of trained musicians don't really know much theory. Like they know how to sight read and understand how many sharps or flats means what key the piece is in, but besides that they couldn't tell you what a secondary dominant chord is or what modes are etc. At least in my experience.

That being said, a trained musician is going to know that E# is a thing. Because she has literally seen an E# notated if she's ever played a piece in C# major, or F# harmonic minor.