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Why no black note between B and C
Why is there no black note between B and C, and between E and F?
There has been much online discussion about this over several years.
Howard Goodall in his book Big Bangs answers many questions and I have learned a lot from him. Here is my contribution to this topic:
If you stretch a string and pluck it, it will create a sound. But it is not a pure sound. There are overtones and harmonics. The strongest or ‘dominant ’ harmonic is what we now know to be a fifth from the base sound. So, let us call the base sound F and the dominant harmonic C and write them like this: F C.
Now repeat the process but make C the base sound and the new dominant produced will be a G. Lower that G an octave, it will still be a G. We now have 3 notes FG C. Repeat the process and we get a D: FG CD. Repeat again and we get an A: FGA CD. We have the first 5 notes and they are of course, the pentatonic scale.
But we can keep going. Using A as the base we will get an E: FGA CDE. Repeat and we get a B: FGABCDE. We now have 7 notes. They are the notes that form the C scale. They just need to start on a C.
But we can still keep going. Using B as the base we get – F#. Until now we have always got a new note to add to the sequence but now we have a note that needs to be inserted into the pattern we have created. A note that has to go between F and G. This situation was handled by using a different kind of note and calling it F# or Gb. On a keyboard it is a black note.
We now have FGbGABCDE. Repeating the process we get Db, then Ab, then Eb and then Bb: FGbGAbABbBCDbDEbE. We have gone as far as we can go because if we repeat the process using Bb as the base note we get an F and we are back where we started. We now have 12 notes arranged as they are on a keyboard. There is not a note between B and C nor between E and F. (The pattern can be repeated and that will put E next to F.)
As stated above, when using Bb as the base note we get another F. But this F is slightly different to the F we started with. This presented a major problem that the music world struggled with for years. Eventually an answer was found with the introduction of Equal Temperament.
There has been much online discussion about this over several years.
Howard Goodall in his book Big Bangs answers many questions and I have learned a lot from him. Here is my contribution to this topic:
If you stretch a string and pluck it, it will create a sound. But it is not a pure sound. There are overtones and harmonics. The strongest or ‘dominant ’ harmonic is what we now know to be a fifth from the base sound. So, let us call the base sound F and the dominant harmonic C and write them like this: F C.
Now repeat the process but make C the base sound and the new dominant produced will be a G. Lower that G an octave, it will still be a G. We now have 3 notes FG C. Repeat the process and we get a D: FG CD. Repeat again and we get an A: FGA CD. We have the first 5 notes and they are of course, the pentatonic scale.
But we can keep going. Using A as the base we will get an E: FGA CDE. Repeat and we get a B: FGABCDE. We now have 7 notes. They are the notes that form the C scale. They just need to start on a C.
But we can still keep going. Using B as the base we get – F#. Until now we have always got a new note to add to the sequence but now we have a note that needs to be inserted into the pattern we have created. A note that has to go between F and G. This situation was handled by using a different kind of note and calling it F# or Gb. On a keyboard it is a black note.
We now have FGbGABCDE. Repeating the process we get Db, then Ab, then Eb and then Bb: FGbGAbABbBCDbDEbE. We have gone as far as we can go because if we repeat the process using Bb as the base note we get an F and we are back where we started. We now have 12 notes arranged as they are on a keyboard. There is not a note between B and C nor between E and F. (The pattern can be repeated and that will put E next to F.)
As stated above, when using Bb as the base note we get another F. But this F is slightly different to the F we started with. This presented a major problem that the music world struggled with for years. Eventually an answer was found with the introduction of Equal Temperament.