if the intervals are equal, wouldn’t it be more convenient to have 12 notes in order from A to L instead of CDEFGAB with sharps and flats?

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if the intervals are equal, wouldn’t it be more convenient to have 12 notes in order from A to L instead of CDEFGAB with sharps and flats?

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3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

If you mean simply giving each tone its own letter, i wonder this as well. Couldn’t you just rename scales?With numbers you can see it easier. If C is 1, then a C major scale is 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 1. But now, looking at this and at a piano keyboard, i realize that the way a piano is setup with black and white keys makes the 8 names plus go up or down markers might be easier.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Because the diatonic scales aren’t equal in their jumps. In the major scale it jumps tone–tone–semitone–tone–tone–tone–semitone. So for a C major scale you get C-D tone, D-E, tone, E-F semitone, F-G tone, G-A tone, A-B tone, B-C semitone. Want to play a C major scale? White keys one after the other.

Then for other keys, instead of having to remember the gaps between each note in the case of having 12 white keys, all you need to know is in each scale what notes are sharp and flat plus you always have a reference to where C is. Want to play in G major? First note of the scale is G and every F is sharp unless indicated otherwise.

Anonymous 0 Comments

No, because it’s more convenient to annotate notes that sound good together. Half steps together don’t sound good, not to say it can’t work, but music is a pallete of sounds. Full steps work better together generally than half steps. So music is organized that way.