Where is B-sharp on the piano?
B# Piano Chord | B Sharp Major + Inversions Tutorial + ... - YouTube
To quickly answer your first question; Yes, B sharp is the same key as C. (These notes are called enharmonic because they are written differently but sound the same.) To answer your second question we need to look in to some music theory! The “Moonlight Sonata” is originally in C sharp minor.
Why Is There No B# and E# On Instruments? The simplest answer is because these instruments were designed keeping in mind the theories of Western music, where there isn't much room for these notes. There are 12 notes in each octave which occupy different frequencies. These are evenly distributed.
No. | 1 | 8 |
---|---|---|
Note | B# | B# |
So, you may be wondering, if there is no B sharp, then why do you see it in music sometimes? Well, the truth is that there is such a thing as a B# and an E#, it's just that they are the same notes as C and F. That's right, when you see sheet music that says B#, it will sound exactly the same as if you played a C.
"B" Major Piano Scale - Piano Scale Lessons - YouTube
The “sharp” (#) raises the pitch by a half tone. C-sharp, for example, is a half tone higher than C. A flat (b) lowers the pitch by a half tone.
And in the mid 15th century we decided that if you could lower a note with a flat, you could also raise a note with a sharp, so we invented that. The piano wasn't created until another 300 years later, so it's always had the five black key arrangement.
In musical notation, flat means "lower in pitch by one semitone (half step)", notated using the symbol ♭ which is derived from a stylised lowercase 'b'.
Chord identification
The B-sharp major chord ii is the C## minor chord, and contains the notes C##, E#, and G##. This supertonic chord's root / starting note is the 2nd note (or scale degree) of the B# major scale. The roman numeral for number 2 is 'ii' and is used to indicate this is the 2nd triad chord in the scale.
What two notes have no sharps?
There are no sharps or flats between E and F — they are two naturals separated by a half-step. This movement would be from an open string (E) to the first fret, or just one fret up from where an E note is.
So, the reason that there are no B/C and E/F black keys on the piano is because when you map the C major scale onto the 12-tone series above, sometimes you skip a note, and sometimes you don't. Now, the reason for that is that musical keys are based on what culturally and historically sounds good.
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1. B-sharp major scale.
Note no. | Degree name |
---|---|
1 | B# is the tonic of the B-sharp major scale |
2 | C## is the supertonic of the B-sharp major scale |
3 | D## is the mediant of the B-sharp major scale |
4 | E# is the subdominant of the B-sharp major scale |
So why would one write it as an E#?
When properly writing scales, the same letter is never used twice. For example, in the scale of C# Mixolydian, the scale is properly written with an E# and F#. For this reason, the “F” note is known as E#.
In Western music, there are seven such scales, and they are commonly known as the modes of the major scale (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian).
B major (or the key of B) is a major scale based on B. The pitches B, C♯, D♯, E, F♯, G♯, and A♯ are all part of the B major scale.
C-sharp major (or the key of C-sharp) is a major scale based on C♯, consisting of the pitches C♯, D♯, E♯, F♯, G♯, A♯, and B♯.
D major (or the key of D) is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F♯, G, A, B, and C♯. Its key signature has two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor.
No. | 1 | 5 |
---|---|---|
Note | E# | B# |