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B Flat Major


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Posted

Hey I know the notes in B flat Major are Bb C D Eb F G A Bb but what if im writing this out on a stave?

When I come back round to to the tonic what should I write on the stave a sharp or b flat, hope that makes sense lol.:blah:

Posted

Bb. First of all, it's the key of Bb major, so it wouldn't make sense to call it anything other than Bb.

 

Second of all, if you wrote A#, you'd have two different kinds of A's in the scale, as well as the fact you would be skipping the letter 'B' in the second octave. All major scales (and most other scales, for that matter), will have one of each letter with no doubled letters or skipped ones.

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Posted

When in a flat key you always use flats, unless you are notating an accidental and the accidental calls for sharp. For example a F7#9 chord. This chord would call for you to raise the 9th (the second, in a higher octave) a half step. In analysis you see that the #9, G# is also the minor 3rd (Ab). However because it is written as F7#9 you would notate it as G#.

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Posted

Yes I know this but you dont get my question, imagine the notation, when I get to A i put in my note then what?

Do I put in my B with no flat beside it because its is already shown to be flat?

I forgot to mention the fact im writing this in C major, just for practise like, obviously that makes a huge difference, I apologize its late here in Northern Ireland.

Posted

 

Yes I know this but you dont get my question, imagine the notation, when I get to A i put in my note then what?

Do I put in my B with no flat beside it because its is already shown to be flat?

I forgot to mention the fact im writing this in C major, just for practise like, obviously that makes a huge difference, I apologize its late here in Northern Ireland.

 

 

Notes in separate octaves need their own accidentals. If you write a Bb on the third line of the treble clef, and later in the measure you have a Bb above the first ledger line above the treble clef, then it also needs a flat sign written in.

 

However, even though that implies that if there were a B natural written in the higher octave instead that it wouldn't need a natural sign, a natural sign is still often written just to avoid any confusion of what the note should be.

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Posted

Yes I know this but you dont get my question, imagine the notation, when I get to A i put in my note then what?

Do I put in my B with no flat beside it because its is already shown to be flat?

I forgot to mention the fact im writing this in C major, just for practise like, obviously that makes a huge difference, I apologize its late here in Northern Ireland.

 

 

Common practice is to write the Bb in both octaves. As I understand it (please correct if I'm wrong...), to stay true to "pure" rules, you only need to write the Bb once as you indicated. But it's good manners to put it in both octaves simply as a reminder. They're known as "courtesy accidentals."

 

In some cases, the courtesy accidental is written in parenthesis. But I wouldn't do that in this case.

 

That help?

Posted

Common practice is to write the Bb in both octaves. As I understand it (please correct if I'm wrong...), to stay true to "pure" rules, you only need to write the Bb once as you indicated. But it's good manners to put it in both octaves simply as a reminder. They're known as "courtesy accidentals."

 

 

 

This is true for a note in the same octave as the original one with an accidental, but when in a different octave, it requires a new accidental.

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Posted

I've heard the octave deal both ways, just as we are hearing it here. That's why it's alway nice when the maker of the chart includes "helpers" for specific octaves, accidentals and naturals. But, it's not a must of course, just nice.

 

But, I think the original poster is confused over the enharmonicness of Bb and A# and the fact that the Key of Bb Major has some type of A note in it.

 

The notes you posted are correct for Bb Major: Bb C D Eb F G A Bb

 

That A will always be A unless you leave the Key, or have an accidental. And after the A will be a Bb note so things just statically continue like so:

 

Bb C D Eb F G A Bb C D Eb F G A Bb C D Eb F G A Bb

 

As long as we keep everything in Key, it will never change.

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Posted

Hmmm I get what you mean, just looks weird when its wrote out, really hard to understand, I get it now, thanks for all the help:)

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Posted

Hmmm I get what you mean, just looks weird when its wrote out, really hard to understand, I get it now, thanks for all the help:)

 

 

Not sure who you directed this to, but here's something else when notating it on a staff...

 

if you use a Key Signature at the beginning of the piece THEN all the notes Key would be written with no flats (or sharps) at all. When an accidental occurred on one of the notes in the Key it would show either a Natural, Sharps, or Flat sign to indicate it. Other the Key Signature would tell you to flat the B and E note.

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