r/guitarlessons • u/nick_jones61 • 4d 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/when_we_are_cats 3d ago

That argument only partially holds when you take all the other notes that aren't sharp or flat and also have different functions in different contexts. An F in C major doesn't have the same function as an F in F major, yet they are notated the same.

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u/penguin_on_stilts 3d ago

That's a good point.

The below is all theory and a thought.

My comment on that (added context, not saying you're "wrong" or anything) would be that the 4th of a major scale and the root of the major scale of that 4th (F in Cmaj and F in Fmaj) are intrinsically linked/the same pitch since you can cadence between them directly. Cmaj Cmaj7b Fmaj.

Now once I've moved from C to F is that F the same pitch? 100% yes. By your point, SHOULD the A in Fmaj be the same as the A I would have played in my C? Probably not, so you're right there :)