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Whyyyy must music be so confusing

I really need some mnemonics because, even if I know the base note, every time I want to know what notes are available in the major or minor scale I need to look it up and it all seems so random and makes no sense

Addendum: what I learned of music in school back in Spain gave the notes entirely different names ("do" through "si") so I essentially have to re-learn what little I knew

It was awful. In Spanish, "sharp" is "sostenido" (4 syllables) and "flat" is "bemol" (2 syllables) so talking about notes is extremely awkward

Bonus content: "sostenido" translated literally means "held", so you can imagine a kid's confusion when it has absolutely nothing to do with holding a note, it's about pitch instead

@socks@social.emisocks.com flashbacks to this grade when I tried to ask the teacher why long and short vowels were called long and short and just kept getting the sounds as an answer. (For any who don't know, way in the past English did do a length distinction but those length changes turned into sound changes over time)

@socks oh wow that word is easy to mix up with sostenuto which means a totally different thing

@socks Okay so it's... If I remember right... For the major scales.

You start with your thumb at C, no sharps or flats.

Your pinky is on G. So the next scale is G, and you add one sharp at the letter below, F sharp.

Your pinky is on D. So the next scale is D, and you add one sharp at the letter below, C sharp.

And so on until everything is sharp. Then you declare everything flat and work your way subtracting flats until you're back at C, with the final scale being F major that has a B flat. I'm trying to remember how you suss out what flats to delete...

@socks When I'm next at a piano I'll see if I can remember how you do the flats.

@skysailor I ammmmm not sure how this helps me at all without a piano in front of me

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