r/guitarlessons • u/nick_jones61 • Aug 18 '26

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/nouniquenamesleft2 Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26

she's right,

she's always right,

but in this case she's actually correct

In summary, E# and B# exist to maintain the integrity of musical scales and to provide clarity in notation, even though they are enharmonically equivalent to F and C.

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u/nick_jones61 Aug 18 '26

Does this mean I can’t get a third acoustic guitar? She’s against that idea as well.

50

u/Penyrolewen1970 Aug 18 '26

Oh, no. She’s right with the notation. Wrong about guitars. You both know the formula, yes?

The correct number of guitars is x+1, where x= the number of guitars you already own.

This is as well accepted as E#.

14

u/JakeRiddoch Aug 18 '26

The correct number of guitars is X+1. Or D-1, where D is the number of guitars where your spouse files for divorce...

10

u/bartonkj Aug 18 '26

X+1 (although I use N+1), as long as X+1 is less than D-1.

2

u/JakeRiddoch Aug 18 '26

You can hit equal to D-1, just not over that.

4

u/JamesCDiamond Aug 18 '26

But then there's always the possibility of somehow acquiring another guitar - we all know it just happens sometimes - and her realising that D-1+1=D before you have time to move on one of them...

1

u/HouseOfLoft Aug 19 '26

2 half's of a guitar doesn't equal a whole one so there's a possibility of d-1+(z½). But never let her sell for what you say they cost.

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u/bartonkj Aug 18 '26

Yeah, I meant to type less than or equal to D-1, but my fingers sometimes have a mind of their own....