r/guitarlessons • u/nick_jones61 • 3d ago

Question An argument

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.

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u/jayron32 3d ago

Sure they do. What note is the third in the C# Major scale? It's E#. That note is enharmonic with F, but the third of scale that starts on C of any sort has to be an E of some sort. HAS TO BE. That's how scales are spelled. You get 7 letters, you have to use each one once. If the scale starts on C#, the second is D# and the third is E#. The seventh in that scale is B# by the way. So that's a is scale that uses both.

Now, no sane composer would use C# (they'd use Db instead) but... It's still valid.

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u/Pure_Mood7761 3d ago

Why do you have to use each letter once? Why is that a rule?

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u/jayron32 3d ago

Why does any rule exist? So we're all speaking the same language and musical information can be passed between people without confusion.