"Annie" 8th - 10th April 2024

Behold, an update of my fabulous musical life...

This past week, I was invited back by Kalini Kent of CYGNETS to...CYGNETS!...for their Springtime workshop. This year, it was a small production of 'Annie'.

I have been working towards CYGNETS' production of 'Beauty and the Beast' - to be put on at Kings School in Macclesfield later this year, and on the back of that I was invited back by Kalini to team up with her as director (and, basically, everything else) and the same choreographer - Hannah Davies - to pull together a small showcase as musical director.

CYGNETS is a not for profit group that stands for 'Cheshire Youth Group for New and Emerging Talent on Stage'. I suppose the rest will naturally fall into place: it focuses on performing arts (especially musical ones, in my experience!) for children between the ages of 7 - 18, (theoretically, though most anybody with the will to even just try is welcome!).

Throughout the year, they put on a number of workshops and full day courses, but having never done one prior I can only speak for what I now recognise to be their Springtime workshop. This is a three full day course (9 - 5), the third day of which extends later with two performances that last approximately one hour each - one at 5:00 and one at 7:00. For these performances, parents are invited to watch for a small ticket price (or free for under 5's!) and there is a bar set up with both soft and alcoholic drinks, as well as snacks.

Everything takes place at the group's rehearsal space in Macclesfield which has, over the past year, been painstakingly set up to accommodate such a thing as this; an electric piano and speaker has been invested in, a sound system had been moved in just in time for this show which I believe will now live there (though not necessarily set up) and there is both a floor level and raised performance area as well as permanent raked seating. One of the back rooms has an entrance on either end of the long space which even serves perfectly as a backstage area!

For those unfamiliar with 'Annie', you may be familiar with the titles of some or all of the following songs that were performed in some capacity:

• Maybe

• It's the Hard Knock Life

• Tomorrow

• Little Girls

• You Won't Be an Orphan for Long

• You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile

• I Don't Need Anything But You

..and of course, it was my job to ensure that the children all knew their parts.

One thing that is very good about this - and I believe all of CYGNETS' - workshop(s) is the rotation of roles throughout. Very cleverly done to ensure that;

• nobody has too much to learn, given that it is a three day course, but more importantly;
  

• everybody gets an opportunity at doing something that they want to do.

Therefore, there were several Annies, and given that there were about four reprises of 'Maybe' and a couple of reprises of 'Tomorrow', it gave plenty of girls the opportunity to sing a solo. No other part was left to just one individual either!

Given that this was not only a three day workshop but also a youth production, there were heavy cuts throughout. Repetition was generally ignored in the songs - once through was fine for the likes of 'Tomorrow' and if any solo was taken in, for example, 'You're Never Fully Dressed...", then it was only for the sake of two short verses before the full chorus joined in to support for the rest of the song (which, again, would not be much).

Whilst the script had the intention of a few other scenes and a few songs that were cut, I also still honoured some instrumental transitional / underscoring of the songs 'I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here', 'N.Y.C', 'Easy Streets' and 'Annie'.

After three very long days (especially Wednesday 10th - the third day - the inevitable two runs and two performances day!), it proved a success. The parents were raving about it - many staying for both performances - and the young cast, who were already doing a great job, massively upped their game for both shows!

A huge well done to CYGNETS - in particular to Kalini Kent - for being able to pull a performance like this together in just three days.

If you are in the Macclesfield area and have or know of a child who you think might benefit from the organisation, do contact Kalini or CYGNETS via the website.

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#macclesfield #amateurdramatics #youthproduction #anniemusical #cygnetsmacclesfield #amateurtheatre #amateuryouthproduction

Unlocking the Secrets of Minor Scales: A Step-by-Step Guide for Musicians

When we learn scales, we often start with major scales. Hello C major! Easy - all white notes - and then more often than not we gradually incorporate new scales into the mix by progressing up the Circle of Fifths (G major, D major etc.) and Fourths (F major, Bb major etc.), so as to not introduce too many black notes in one go (unless you happened to be a student of Chopin, in which case welcome to piano - here's a B major scale!)

Most people - even those who consider themselves non-musical or 'tone deaf' - are able to distinguish between the major and minor key (the 'happy' and the 'sad', respectively), and so it stands to reason that there are indeed minor scales that at some point need to be brought into our practice.

But where are they? How do we find them? All these questions that I am here to walk you through the answers for as we explore minor scales.

But first, let's discuss...

The Relative Minor

Regardless of whether I expect my pupils to actually play a minor scale - or any piece in a minor key - I like to mention the idea of relative minors quite early on in the process. In a nutshell, the relative minor is a minor key that shares the same notes as the major key in question (i.e the same notes are sharp or flat).

C major is a fantastic place to start here, for C major is an entirely white note based scale (C-D-E-F-G-A-B), so somewhere within that sequence we are able to start on a different note and play an ascending scale using the same notes (all white notes) but create a scale that will now sound sad (minor - get it?!).

Let's refresh the C major scale:

There are a few ways to remember how to find the relative minor, but they are all academic so the best advice I can give you is to just learn the rule - the relative minor is the sixth degree of the major scale.

So if we find the relative minor of C major, we would be looking at:

C - 1

D - 2

E - 3

F - 4

G - 5

A - 6

And now we have established that the sixth degree is A, throw the word 'minor' on the end and we can complete our epic discovery: the relative minor of C major is A minor!

And now we can get our first taste of a minor scale by using exactly the same rules as C major (i.e. all white notes and the exact same fingering), only we will be starting on A: A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A .

Notated A Natural Minor scale, starting on the A just below Middle C

Let's see it played and hear how it sounds:

Try playing it for yourself and incorporating it into your practice in exactly the same ways as you would your major scale(s) - hands separately / hands together / 2 + octaves etc. and you are on your way to understanding minor tonality and minor keys!

What we have learnt here is called the 'natural minor' scale (a.k.a 'Aeolian Mode'), and these always bear direct note for note relation to their relative major.

A slightly more advanced example could be Bb major: the scale of Bb major is Bb-C-D-Eb-F-G-A, so to find the relative minor we look for the sixth degree:

Bb - 1

C - 2

D - 3

Eb - 4

F - 5

G - 6

and throw the word 'minor' on the end to recognise that: the relative minor of Bb major is G minor!

...and then we play a scale starting on G (warning - you will be using a different fingering as you are starting on a white note and not a black note!), but because Bb major had not one but 2 flats in it, we still honour those to create a G natural minor scale: G-A-Bb-C-D-Eb-F.

The natural minor scale is the basis of much contemporary music - aside from rock and roll and pop music, a lot of modern classical music (such as film scores) uses it. If we chord-ify the A natural minor scale, we would have the following chords:

A minor

B diminished*

C

D minor

E minor

F

G

*Advanced Note: a diminished chord is one where the typical major triad formed from the corresponding major scale has both the third and fifth degree lowered (diminished) by a semitone. For example, a B diminished would take the three degrees of a B major triad (B - 1, D# - 3 and F# - 5) and lower the D# and F# by one semitone to create B - D♮ - F♮ . It is not a particularly commonly used chord, and in order to create a more pleasing and accessible chord-ification, you can instead consider the B as the bottom note of an inversion of chord VII - in this instance. This would create B - D - G, therefore our chord-ification would now read as Am, G/B, C, Dm, Em, F, G.

...which an awful lot of modern music honours in some capacity:

Notated A Natural Minor Scale Chord-ified

Have a listen at how the harmony of a natural minor scale comes together when chord-ified:

However, the minor key doesn't stop there. If you are ready to learn a little more about it, let's learn how the minor key in classical music was a little bit different as we look at...

The Harmonic Minor Scale

The harmonic minor scale is almost identical to the natural minor scale - with a twist. This is down to something called the 'raised seventh'. I can probably assume that you'll have worked out by now what this is, but if not, you'll soon be kicking yourself at how rationally this is named!

In our natural minor scale, we must first identify the seventh note:

A - 1

B - 2

C - 3

D - 4

E - 5

F - 6

G - 7

...and all we do is raise it by one semitone (one semitone being the note right next to the note you're on - whether black or white). In the case of G, this raises it to that black note that sits in the middle of the three black notes, and because we have raised a white note by one semitone, we consider that this is a sharp note (G#).

So our new A harmonic minor scale is A-B-C-D-E-F-G#-A

Notated A Harmonic Minor Scale starting on the A just below Middle C

Note that when writing in the key of A minor - whether natural or harmonic - you still write according to the key of the relative major. So, despite the A harmonic minor (and many pieces in the key of A minor) featuring G#, these would still be considered as accidentals in the notation. The key signature would follow the rule of the relative major - in this case, C major, therefore, no sharps or flats noted.

Let's have a listen and a watch before you give it a go yourself:

It can sound a little odd at first for those of us used to the natural minor scale, but it is a crucial aspect of western classical music.

The Raised Seventh Explored...

Remember how we chord-ified our natural minor scale?

Well, if we were to redo that exercise only this time replacing all the Gs with our newfound G#, we would see some different results:

A minor (1)

B dimished (2)*

C augmented (3)

D minor (4)

E (5)

F (6)

G# diminished (7)*

*Advanced Note: as previously mentioned, a first inversion G major chord could be substituted for the B diminished. Similarly, our G# diminished could be altered to an inversion of E (G# - B - E), but because E in this instance is the fifth degree, it's worth noting that the fifth degree of any major or minor scale is of the utmost importance. It is called the dominant, and you will often hear in modern and classical music the use of the dominant seventh. This is when the seventh degree from the dominant note is added on top of its usual tried. For E major, this creates E - G# - B - D, and you may note that the top three notes here are effectively the same as the G# diminished we started with! Therefore, this degree can be considered - to an extent - an inversion of the dominant seventh, although you would require the root note to clarify that (keeping it as a triad, you could use G# - D - E).

Notated A Harmonic Minor Scale Chord-ified

Have a listen to the difference in harmony now we have replaced all of our Gs with G#s:

The most crucial difference here is the fifth chord is no longer minor - E minor has become E major. And any order of transition between the tonic (the root chord - in this instance A minor), the subdominant (the fourth chord - in this case D minor) and the dominant (the fifth chord - in this instance E major) was a core principle in minor key compositions throughout the Baroque, Classical and even Romantic era. From Beethoven's 'Für Elise' to Mozart's 'Symphony No. 40', from Bach's 'Toccata and Fugue in D minor' to even traditional pieces such as 'Coventry Carol', the reason classical music often sounds fundamentally different in the minor key to today's music in the minor key is because it bases itself structurally around the harmonic minor scale, both melodically and harmonically.

Of course, life would be too straightforward if that is where we stopped. There is, however, one more degree of the minor scale to look upon. Don't worry - it will be familiar in some regards, but until you feel confident with the natural and harmonic minors, try not to worry too much about...

The Melodic Minor Scale

This scale is almost as straightforward as going up harmonically and coming down naturally.

Almost.

Once again, there is a twist.

Remember how we raised the seventh for the harmonic minor? Well, we're still keeping that, only now we have another raised note to deal with:

The raised sixth.

So, our A harmonic minor scale currently looks like this:

A - 1

B - 2

C - 3

D - 4

E - 5

F - 6

G# - 7

Note that F is the sixth degree, and note how big a jump them is between F and G#. Quite an interval!

So the purpose of the melodic minor is to close that gap a little and to create a scale that - when ascending - will honour the use of what's called a leading note (the seventh degree that is always one semitone below the tonic - the harmonic minor raises the seventh for this very purpose) but to ensure that the entire scale is made up only of semitones and tones like all other major and minor scales. Therefore, we just need to raise the sixth note (F) by one semitone (F#) to create a brand new scale: A-B-C-D-E-F#-G#-A

BUT

Before I declare victory on having taught you the A melodic minor scale, there is one more little twist. BOTH raised notes are only used on the ascent. When it comes time to descend, you do so like the natural minor scale (to refresh - this is the scale that is identical notes to the relative major - in this case C major!).

So one octave of an A melodic minor would read like this:

A - B - C - D - E - F# -G# - A - G(♮) - F(♮) - E - D - C - B - A

Notated A Melodic Minor Scale (Ascending and Descending) starting on the A just below Middle C

Have a watch and a listen, then try it for yourself:

The ascending half of the melodic minor scale is also known as the 'jazz minor scale', and it is widely encouraged as a framework for good, solid jazz performance and improvisation.

The utilisation of a harmonic minor scale (with raised sixth) alongside a natural minor scale has led to some ingenious progression - particularly in contemporary music. If we were to try and chord-ify the A melodic minor scale, we could incorporate both E major and E minor into our music thanks to the harmonic use of the G# on ascent and the natural use of G on descent.. Latin American music is a great example of where both can be found - think of how a Spanish guitar can strum the chords A minor - G major (natural) - F major (natural) and then E major (harmonic - because of the G#).

Let's not forget that thanks to the raised sixth of an ascending melodic minor, we can also chord-ify our fourth chord (the subdominant) any one of two ways (in this example; D major or D minor). This can create, sudden contrasts - and not necessarily ones that are displeasing to the ear. However, it's important to remember that regular sharps or flats will point you closer to a harmonic / natural key signature (for example, modulation only between the chords of A minor and D major would probably not be written in the key of A minor using the melodic minor as its justification. Because D major has an F# and otherwise we are focused more on white notes, it would be much much more inkeeping to notate this in the key of G major / E minor).

Melodic minor scales may be a touch confusing, but once you master playing them then you've covered as much ground as you need to with them! The above paragraphs are purely academic and do nothing more than justify its place - particularly in contemporary music. If you are studying theory or taking piano exams, you will be required to have a good understanding / performance of them (they usually kick in at Grade 3), so it is worth getting to grips with them.

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#musictheory #piano #pianolesson #musiclesson #musicteacher #musictutor #pianoteacher #pianotutor #pianopupil #macclesfield #cheshireeast #cheshire #congleton

Mastering Piano Notes: A Guide to Navigating the Keyboard

Finally - a blog post that speaks to us all. Those just starting and those of us craving to know more!

Whatever you think you know about the notes of a keyboard - think again! For whilst I am going to take you back to the basics for the sake of finding notes at the start of this post, I will be blowing your mind by the end of it!

Just remember to breathe, don't be afraid and don't rush through until you understand (bear in mind a lot towards the end of this post is advanced music theory - so don't worry if it doesn't all come naturally and just focus on the parts of this blog you need!)

The Basics - Finding Natural Notes

On our standard piano keyboard, we have black keys and we have white keys.

A good 90+ percent of beginners will start their learning around the white keys (this is neither right 'nor wrong, but just how many pupils and / or teachers like to begin) and - academically speaking - it is a very good place to start.

The reason for this is because all of the white notes are termed as being natural notes. You don't generally refer to them as being natural as you refer to them - it is assumed that no mention of it means natural. Therefore, our white keys are A-B-C-D-E-F-G, which then repeat a fair few times. An 88 key keyboard / piano even starts on A to make this first part fairly logical.

However, of those pupils who learn white keys first, virtually 100% of them learn as their first note the note we call Middle C.

To find any C, locate any group of two black notes and you will find C as the white note immediately to the left.

Middle C is, as you might expect, is the C nearest the middle of the keyboard. On an 88 key keyboard or piano, this is the fourth C. On a 61 key keyboard it will be the third C.

Middle C is highlighted in blue on this 88 key piano keyboard.

The rest of the note names follow on very logically up the white keys, as they remain alphabetical. So from C, we move on to D, E, F etc. - noting that after B you will have found another C. Similarly, we can go backwards and just recite the alphabet backwards, restarting from G when we reach A.

HOWEVER one thing that I love to encourage is to not rely on your C as your one point of reference. Yes, you can learn that C is immediately left of the group of two black notes, but what a lot of beginners will then do is use that as their sole reference for finding other notes. For example, if they wish to find F, they will locate C and then count up. They will be correct, but they won't develop the instinct as quickly as they could by learning their navigation of the keyboard sooner.

By all means use the method of finding notes from C to begin with, but every time you do find a note, make a mental (or physical) note of where it is until it becomes second nature.

You could be academic in your approach:

D lies between the two black notes,

E lies just right of the two black notes

etc.

...but let's not forget that one of the strongest aids when it comes to remembering things is visualisation of the obscure. Perhaps the two black notes remind you of two guards standing side by side, and they are trapping someone you know whose name begins with D - the note name you need to remember (think Dan, Debbie etc.). What a tragic image for them. What a useful tool for you...

Experiment with the white notes and learn how to navigate around them, and when you feel fairly comfortable with the notes you can start to spell words that use letters A - G; Beef, Egg, Ace, Face, Bead etc. - try spelling out the words as quickly as you can (note this can also be a good exercise for working on your fingering and musicality a little later down the line. Don't feel you have to approach each note with one pointed finger - use the span of the hand to add some nice transition and legato to the 'words'). Don't be tempted even to stick in the same octave - try with two hands and alternate, jumping around the keyboard as you do. You'll begin to feel much more confident in aiming for the notes!

The Basics - Finding Sharps and Flats

The good news is that we're halfway there when it comes to finding sharps and flats! We should by now be comfortable with finding our natural notes (white notes) so now all we need to do is remember this simple rule:

• Sharp Notes are raised by a semitone

• Flat Notes are lowered by a semitone

Our understanding of a semitone in this case should be that it is simply one note - white or black. One note up or down to the note directly next to it - regardless of colour - is a semitone apart.

We only have five black notes that are repeated in patterns of two then three, so all we need to do now is to identify which one of two notes they could be. 'This' sharp or 'That' flat.

For example, the first black note in the group of two lies immediately next to C (one semitone higher) - therefore it is C sharp. It also lies one semitone lower that D. Therefore, we could also call it D flat. Harmonically these are, of course, interchangeable because it is literally the same note, however the reason for having two options is grounded in a more advanced music theory that I will briefly touch upon towards the end of this blog.

A Spanner in the Works...

Those eagle eyed readers who are doing lots of experimenting will, no doubt, have noted that with all this talk of semitones, there are in fact two repeated pairs of white notes that sit one semitone apart, no black note between them. These are B and C, and E and F.

So could this mean that - using the above logic - E could be F flat because it is one semitone lower than F? F could be E sharp? B could be C flat? C could be B sharp?

Yes, yes, yes and yes!

But don't panic!

This is also grounded in the same advanced music theory that I will touch upon towards the end of the blog. But for beginners, we just need to know them as their naturals.

Note Names on Printed Music

If you are learning to read music (as I - and most other teachers strongly encourage when learning piano), you will need to be able to find your way around the stave. This is the group of five lines of which most piano music has two (the right hand and the left hand).

You will almost always begin learning the right hand and the left hand in two different clefs. The right hands is always started out in the treble clef and the left hand in the bass clef.

Pictured above is the treble clef and the bass clef, respectively.

As an initial point of teaching, I like to show my pupils that Middle C is kind of a mirror image on the clefs. Where it lies below the stave on the treble clef is the same position that it lies above the stave on the bass clef.

Both of these notes are Middle C.

And if you think about it, this is a perfectly logical solution. Your left hand will descend down from Middle C and stay relatively in that area to accompany, whereas your right hand will usually work above Middle C to create a clear, distinctive melody. It just makes it far less messy to keep the bulk of the notes that you play within the five lines of the stave. Easier to write and easier to read!

But are there other ways we can identify the notes? Surely we can't be expected to count up or down from Middle C every time we want to know the next note?

Well...yes!

There are mnemonics that seem to have been taught for longer than music itself!

For the treble clef, the lines reading up from the bottom are E, G, B, D, F. The classic mnemonic is 'Every Good Boy Deserves Favour'.

Focusing now on the spaces, the spaces reading up from the bottom spell the word FACE!

Leaving us with the bass clef.

The spaces reading up from the bottom are A, C, E, G. The classic mnemonic is 'All Cows Eat Grass'.

A mnemonic used for the lines reading up from the bottom in the bass clef is 'Good Boys Do Fine Always', although I dare say this was one I was never taught (thanks Google for filling me in on that one).

As always, you can make up your own. Just make sure you remember which clef they belong to!

NB - be sure to learn where Middle C is on your piano and on both clefs. This will ensure that you don't play in the wrong part of the keyboard. For example, the 'Every' on the treble clef is the E above Middle C, whereas 'Cows' on the bass clef is the C below middle C (the distance between two of the same note are measured in octaves, so the 'Cows' representing C on the bass clef is one octave lower than Middle C).

To represent a sharp or a flat note, we put the corresponding symbol before the note to be sharpened or flattened (always on a level with the note i.e. on the same line / in the same space).

• A Sharp Symbol is resemblant of a hashtag sign: ♯

• A Flat Symbol is resemblant of a lower case B: ♭

The above shows an F sharp on the treble clef and a B flat on the bass clef, respectively.

Bear in mind that sharps and flats fall rule to the key signature of a piece, so you may need to play sharps and flats regularly that are not marked on each individual note, but at the beginning of the piece between the clef and time signature. See this post to refresh your knowledge of key signature.

The Advanced

Now we have refreshed our memory of note names for natural, sharp and flat notes, learnt where they are on the keyboard and also where they are on printed sheet music, we can look at some more advanced theory.

Don't be tempted to learn the following without being absolutely confident with your playing up to now - including all the above theory - and don't worry if it doesn't sink in. Discuss it with your piano teacher and if they feel you are at a level to learn more then they will be more than happy to go over it with you...

Degrees of a Scale

When we learn our scales, we learn them either by using note names (C,D,E,F,G etc.), numbers (i, ii, iii etc.) or occasionally by using certain beginner's technical terms (such as root note for the first note).

However, major and harmonic minor scales are made up of very distinctive names for their degrees. It's useful to get to know these terms as when you start to learn more about the order and structure of music and musical harmony in particular, you will be able to reference or understand more readily any references made to the following;

Here they are (using C major as an example).

1. Tonic (C)

2. Supertonic (D)

3. Mediant (E)

4. Subdominant (F)

5. Dominant (G)

6. Submediant (A)

7. Leading (B)

The labelling of scale degrees using C major as an example.

There are some things to bear in mind:

• The dominant is a perfect fifth above the tonic (e.g. C to G).. The subdominant is a perfect fourth above the tonic (e.g. C to F). However, If instead of moving up to these notes we move down to them, the interval reverses. So if we move from C down to F, that interval is now a perfect fifth. Therefore, its potentially equal distance away from the tonic is why the fourth degree is called the subdominant.
  

• The mediant is so called because of its midway point between the tonic and the dominant. Similarly to above, the submediant lies between the subdominant and the tonic when we have worked down from the tonic to the submediant (working down from C to F, A would be the midway point).
  

• The leading note is always a semitone below the tonic it resolves to (B is a semitone below C) which is why the explanation of the leading note works best for majors and harmonic minor scales - not natural minor or descending melodic minor scales. Make sure you are subscribed to my blog for an up and coming post to learn more about the different minor scales!

Double Sharps and Double Flats

All white notes on the keyboard can also be known by at least one other name - 'this' double sharp and / or 'that' double flat. When we sharpen a note, we raised it by one semitone, whereas when we double sharpen a note we raise it two semitones (or a whole tone).

Similarly, to double flatten a note we lower the pitch by two semitones.

If we take the note we recognise as D, we can refer to that as either a C double sharp or an E double flat. This is something that you will be much more accustomed to seeing in printed music:

Double Sharps and Double Flats in Printed Music

• The Double Sharp symbol looks like a cross: 𝄪

• The Double Flat symbol is two consecutive flat signs: 𝄫

The symbols work exactly the same way as their sharp and flat counterparts; before the note and on the same line / in the same space.

The above shows an F double sharp (harmonically the same as a G natural) on the treble clef and a B double flat (harmonically the same as A natural) on the bass clef, respectively.

But the question is, why do we need them?

It's all to do with key signature. In a key that is heavily made up of sharps or flats already, it is very common to see composers utilise the double sharp / flat symbol to acknowledge a note as being an a harmonically natural note without having to mark it as such. For example, a piece in the key of F# major already has F#, G# and A#, so you may see an F double sharp written when they wish you to play the white note you would recognise as G, just to avoid having to add unnecessary accidental naturals that deviate from they key signature. This is especially true if this need to play that note happens multiple times in the piece.

Sharp or Flat Notes?

...and to conclude my blog in a grand epilogue. The finale you've all been waiting for: the explanation as to why we need to know whether notes are sometimes referred to as sharp and sometimes flat.

It's all to do with key signatures. A single key signature has to have either sharps or flats as its rule - never a mixture - and one such way - and the way we will now use - to find out which sharps or flats are in a key is to use the corresponding scale.

For this, I'll use the key of F major as an example and use the scale first of all to find any sharps or flats:

F - G - A - A# / Bb - C - D- E

We have one! But is it A sharp or B flat?

Well, the rule of a scale is that you may only use each note name once.

Therefore - in this instance - it has to be Bb because our first three notes (F-G-A) already used the A.

To exemplify further, if we took the scale for B major: B - C# - D# - E - F# - G# - A#, we can see that each note, again is used once.

But could we rethink that scale, knowing - as we established earlier - that B is harmonically the same as Cb?

Yes - but it would affect every note. Because we've already had the flats given to us in our root note (Cb), we need to assume that any accidentals will be flat. So, the Cb major scale will be;

Cb - Db - Eb - Fb - Gb - Ab - Bb

They are exactly the same notes harmonically as the B major scale, but context gives them a new name.

And that is the answer! Individually you can call them whatever you wish - natural, sharp, flat, double sharp, double flat etc.,

However, in the context of a key signature you have to be mindful of the note names and keep them consistent with the rules of that key.

But, you may ask, what is the purpose of having such a thing as sharps and flats? Can't we just have one and have done?

Allow me to demonstrate by showing you the nightmarish situation of cancelling all use of flats and transforming the otherwise very straightforward F major scale - with its one flat note - into the harmonically identical but theoretically infinitely more complex (and never, ever used thanks to...the F major scale!)...E sharp major scale!:

E# - F𝄪 - G𝄪 - A# - B# - C𝄪 - D𝄪

Here we have unnecessarily turned every single note into an accidental - and not only that, four of those accidentals are double sharps, which are not the easiest things to get into the mindset of. We never use E# major as a key signature - we never mark double sharps or flats in a key.

So I once again give as my answer: context!

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