Why do we have Sharps and Flats? 

Wow, you explained it so well that in the middle of the video I could see clearly where you were going with the whole "that's why sharps and flats matter" and that's coming from someone who always had a hard time understanding "why flats even exist?" so, really, thank you Michael!

After googling this for hours I finally found your video. This finally made several things click for me and I cannot thank you enough. Specifically a few sections. (1) when you talk about how using all 12 notes is analogous to mixing every color and ending up with an ugly gray blob, and how the whole step scale gives a similar feeling. And how some asymmetry gives the scale character. That really helped me understand the basic idea of a key in a way I hadn't before. (2) Starting from a place of solving the problem of how to create a scale starting from nothing is brilliant. Explaining how the scales we're taught are just trying to solve this more fundamental problem (and then going through the problem and why various solutions have pitfalls) really helped me build some more mental structure around music theory. (3) Having the difference between sharps and flats explained in terms of what they communicate about key changes was a little bit over my head. I think I need to play more music for this to really click. But at the very least I'm satisfied enough now I can go to sleep :) Thanks again.

Very well explained and demonstrated. As an engineer, I could put forward a case for a radical overhaul of music convention but I am resigned/accepting to the fact that tradition and history as well as convention will mean any such overhaul is very unlikely. No criticism is intended.

Thanks Michael. It took me a couple years to ask myself all these questions and figure out answers. You did it in 20 minutes! Highly recommended video!

I generally do not comment on tutorials, however, your tutorials are very special. Your methodical teaching approach, selection of topics, pace, quality of information everything is of a very high standard. I am learning a ton. Kudos to you~!!! Thanks~~~

I actually get that the reasoning behind it always was the concept of thinking in scales, but with a modern, tempered 12-note chromatic scale it is kind of a paradox that the piano layout and traditional notation somehow robs us of a more intuitive understanding of scales and chords. While impractical for obvious hand anatomy reasons, a piano with only white, equally spaced semi notes would instantly make scales, chords and chord progressions into easily recognizable, moveable patterns. Chords and scales would look the same in all keys.

this wasn't making much sense to me until you said at the end "like in the key of C#, where you end up with a Bbb." resolution :)

Your videos even on simple subjects like these are even great for intermediate and even advanced musicians. You are not teaching just for beginners. I'm seeing and hearing things that put a whole new fresh way of looking at music theory... Thank you!!!

Michael - thank you SO MUCH for this video. I don't know if it was a direct video-response to me and my question about this issue, or just a coincidence of timing, but thank you either way! You've answered the question more clearly than I've yet to encounter!!

I think it's to refer to whether going up or down. Going up would mean sharp and going down would mean flat. Suppose you are on G# and the next key to press is C# then if you need to play in the same octave i.e; go down then one would use flat and if you have to jump up then it would be called sharp. That is what I believe.

Michael New Thanks for making these videos. Your teaching style is easy to learn from and enjoyable! I'm wondering if you can make a video that demonstrates how to construct more advanced chord progressions to achieve a certain "musical emotions"?

Thank you so much! Your videos are amazing to watch, it's clear you have a strong grasp on music if you can explain these topics in a way that we can understand perfectly. Amazing work!

Thank you so much for these videos. Your explanations are incredibly clear and I love learning what you teach. Fantastic videos and please keep going! I'll try to figure out what the Patreon system is all about.

Hi Mike, I love your videos and how got explained them. Please don't stop making them.

This is by far the best video I've ever seen!

It's actually pretty simple, if you see this from the perspective of a natural trumpet. natural trumpet overtones go Do, Sol, Do, Mi, Sol, Do. if you transpose Do to sol, by making a shorter piped trumpet, overtones will be Sol, Re, Sol, Ti, Re, Sol. transpose one more time. Re, La, Re, Fa, La, Re. so by transposing just twice, you get complete Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do.

so what i understood is sharps and flats are used to make sure the key is pronounced in the music, for the musician to identify the change in key or change in scale

I've just discovered this channel and holy crap, I'm going to watch every video. This is great stuff.

Thanks. You've made this clearer to me than anyone before you.

I love your videos Michael, but I had one question. Is this the only way we have to organize all 12 pitches? Has anyone ever proposed a different system? Also, as a favor to my OCD brain, if you're playing a certain scale could you please refrain from holding the 7th for too long? Again I really love all of your content. Keep it up!

Hey there, Michael! I'm happy to say I've recently discovered your classes, and have been enjoying them a lot. They're very helpful, and I like the way you go from one topic to another, in a quite smooth, seamless way. You always ask for comments and questions, and my overall evaluation of your work is that you really seem to like what you are doing, which makes it very pleasing to watch the lessons. If I may, I would like to ask for a special lesson on *scale identification*. I've watched your lessons on how to build and identify chords, keys, accidents, alterations, time signatures, ... But if is there something I still feel a lot of difficulty is at pointing out the scale on which a piece is written. Should you guide us through a small set of examples on identifying the actual scale of musics, I think it would be quite a helping nudge. In one of the lessons, you emphasized that, to say in which key a music is written, one should go through the set of chords used in the piece; and then analyze how the "semantic dynamics" is created (function of notes/chords). But even then, I'm always having a hard time to do this. I must confess it is probably due to my lack of knowledge on the existing keys, yet I would be glad to see an actual "analysis" of a piece going on. One or two simple/small pieces would be more than helpful! And if you could also shed light on something with a little bit more of dissonances, that would be more than welcome as well! Say, for instance, Schumann's Melody, op. 68 no. 1: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ebCL8Ded5Lc.html And Prokofiev's Orientalia, op. 97 no. 6: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lXOPvvDVcu4.htmlm34s I mean, whatever pieces you think would be profitable in terms of what knowledge you could share with us. Most of the times I realize the climax/rest, but the notes/chords being played don't really fit what I'd expect. All in all, thank you very much, Michael! You've put up an impressively didactic set of lessons, which is indeed valuable for anyone interested in music. It's always great to see people with promptness towards helping others. Best regards and nice holidays!

Your videos are great, thanks a lot. It would be great a video about vocal melodies composition and what differences there are compared to instrument melodies.

You opened my eyes on sharps and flats thank you so much this is the answer that I'm searching you deserve a sub :)

This made my brain sore. You're damn music theory philosopher!

Brilliant explanation. Thank you!

Fantastic music theory lessons, I’m learning a lot from your videos, thank you 🙏

Hey I posted this same post on another video thread (of yours) .. I just wanted to make sure you saw it so I found your most recent video .. Greetings fellow music freaks! .. I am fairly new, (I assure no pun intended) to your channel Michael, but I like your style quite a bit; you have a gift good sir .. Well the reason I am posting is to ask if you could maybe do a video on sight reading, (actually specifically sight singin) I am heading off to study musical therapy and majoring in voice and hopefully eventually piano and guitar and violin as well, but I am concerned that I won't get in if I fail my sight reading/singing exam if you have any thoughts I would be indebted .. thank you for all that you do! Stay passionate for music!

YOU JUST CHANGED MY LIFE FOREVER

Love the way you teach. Theory lessons almost as a story. You do things step by step. That's a nice way to learn music theory.

totally helpful, and thank you! can you do a video on how to find the notes outside the chord progression or how to play off of another note? I'm trying to figure out how to create tension notes.

I’ve done quite a bit of music theory on top of my playing and still don’t fully understand something which I feel I should … What’s the point of multiple scales of a given type, like having 12 (say Major) Scales? I know the point of alternate scales like minor, blues, jazz, chromatic etc… each giving a different impression due to the unique construction of the scale. So, picking on Major, why not just have one scale (say C) and write all music in this key as opposed to other Major Keys? Given the vast majority of us don’t have absolute pitch, does it matter what the tonic is - the Major pattern WWHWWWH of C is the same as for any Major Key. So whilst one major key has more flats/sharps in than another, so what, if the listener does not have absolute pitch? I presume that’s why some music is transcribed into C to make it easier to play, in which case what’s the value/difference in keeping other, harder to play, major scales? The only answer I can think of is because music can shift key WITHIN a piece - but then why not just start every piece off in C and shift around that, thus playing most notes on the easier C scale? I hope this question make sense, as its bothering me and I don’t know how to google it!!:)

Hey Michael. You're videos are super amazing and I am learning so much, so first of all, thank you. I feel that I am struggling with using both hands at the same time, specifically the left hand. I can play stuff with either hand, but whenever I try to combine them, I struggle and have to move very slowly. Are there any routines or drills that you could recommend for me to practice with to improve my left-right hand coordination? Thanks so much!

Nice lesson, but you seemed to only talk about sharps in this video. So I wonder how you know if a note is for example a C flat instead of a B sharp?

I don't know music theory, and this was really intuitive!

Good video in an interesting topic! I use to think: imagine if a piano was made with only white keys, but same number of keys. Could anyone play on it? Yes, it would not be completely impossible. But not only the claviature had been wider, but there would be no reference on which key is which. It would therefore result in some problems and not be very usable, I think. But it would be a fun experiment...

Could you make a video on the pedal ?

Yet again, a fine explanation. Why don't teachers do this more often......or at all!!

What's the difference between calling a scale C# or Db?

Still holding out for the Phrygian Dominant scale.

So, why does someone choose to write a song in the key of C sharp instead of D flat? Does that imply something else?

Great videos man, I really appreciate!

I watch all your videos and your approach on subjects is awsome i can get it easily... What i would like to learn more is chord progression . I see alot of songs going from C to F and to G and back to C i know thats in the key of C but what if i wanted to go from C to D and F and.... you know other stuff ... I want to know more about how how people could hear a song and put chords in a song and sound like the song .Thanks

Damn, i wish you would have been my teacher back then:)) No finally the lights went on!

Does anyone even use the term C# major or do people just call it D flat? I only have basic musical training so I'm unsure about this.

you are awesome

What camera do you have? I have a AC adapter you can have if it is a Canon DSLR that uses the LP-E6.

I'd love to learn more about advanced rhythm

Why are sharps and flats confusing?

thank u

You still didn't explain WHY the semitones are placed at steps 3-4 and steps 7-8. I don't know either...

How do you read nuemes?

can you do a video on cadences?

I'm curious why "C" ends up being the scale with no sharps and flats. Why not label that scale "A" and work up from there. Also why are we taught to put our right thumbs on C when starting out? This so called "home position"? Finally, when do composers choose to put "accidentals" in the music (notes outside their key signature) does his mean they're temporarily in another key or is there some other explanation. Thank you so much for your videos but I've never even thought about the topic in this video so it opens more questions than answers for me. Cheers! Edit: For grammar and added a third question.

OK but why do we use the alphabet instead of numbers? Why not 1 through 7? It seems to me easier to subtract the numbers than remembering the letters. Example: doing the scales backwards seems hard to me and g - f - e often becomes g - e -f in my head. It seems to me that I can see the intervals in between better if they were numbers. Granted I am a novice but when looking at sheet music I see the intervals and play them that way intuitively, why not teach it that way... big fan been watching for three months.

This is a rather long explanation. The TLDR version seems to be that sharps and flats are how musicians/composers note edits in their sheet music.

Great lesson, thanks.

In your example in the end with G sharp harmonic minor, why not to call it A flat harm. min.? Then the 7th note will be just G

we would like to see you do a video where you bring a song that is popular today and breakdown the theory / rhythms / tension - resoluion and all that stuff. by the way thanks for the video

Are you planning on doing a video where you go more in depth on non-diatonic scales? So far I think you've only covered harmonic and melodic minor, and you've mentioned whole note and chromatic in passing. Half-diminished and diminished scales are popular in jazz, and I'm sure you know of a bunch more that would be interesting and useful.

I watch Michael's videos and I really like them, but I end up still not understanding anything. Am I that dumb, or is the system that convoluted? Not that both cases can't be true at the same time.

Still waiting for the second part on how to improvise FeelsBadMan

little hard to understund for me :/ have to watch it twice x)

A thru L bad. A thru F good. Because 12 is so much harder than 7. Apparently.

I don't buy it. The cons outweighs the pros, and you totally ignored the historical aspects that has led to the current messy system.

This guy is the best teacher when it comes to music theory!

Can you PLEASE do a video explaining the theory behind BORROWED CHORDS. as beginner i learned you could only play chords in a key and in music they sometimes play chords that don't correspond to the key so can you explain please?

I love your videos - best theory teacher ever - but from a wider perspective i sometimes feel how brainwashed traditional musicians are to this archaic system (the i suffered with archaic music theory, so you must too). In that, I feel ( and many others do) this system you are living in and trying to explain is a one of the worst archaic system that was poorly built up with bad choice bandaid fixes over 2000 years from an original system just meant for a vague 'few note' gregorian chanting readings for monks to the current equal-tempered 12 note system. You should have started by stating that sharps and flats were added as one of those bad choice bandaid fixes to get more notes in the notation system that was made without them. That is REALY where sharps and flats came from, a compromise when they realized the new 12 notes do not work on the old notation staff- a cheap lame fix to fit more notes in - how about just add symbols to the current letter names - that's the real history. IMHO in this system of bandaids music language, your great video helps us all and you explain it well ( but take a step back to how odd and long it is compared to other language systems we live by). SO IMAGINE a different language of the same music: our twelve notes are named 1 through 12 - so no letters, no sharps, no flats, no half step, ( how utterly historically ridiculous to call one full note to another a half step - as lame as the sharp and flat insertion), no scales to memorize ( other than their simple number sequence), no bs rules that frustrate all musicians (many quit music theory - in fact, all do at some level) adding 1000s hours of memorization and stop people from learning music. All key transposition would be simple math - no odd memorization and tricks, so than with this 1-12 names - all scales - say Mixolydian ( or any) would be just memorizing that subset of 12 notes that are in the sequence AND IT WORKS FOR EVERY KEY!. What you are calling the 4th and 5th in your old hodgepodge system would be the 6th and 8th cause that is actually where they are int he 12 notes (and it makes so much more sense because 6 and 8 are strong divisibles of 12 (3:2 and 4:3 of the octave) and the wave cycle of the 1 or 12 octaves). Your seven-note deal would be way way way easier if those 7 notes just had their 'correct' 1 thru 12 number labels where transposing works like simple math to any key/scale (never having to memory sharp/flats and other wired rules and names every again). And on and on - so yes major / minor, all the music theory we use would be there it would just be there in a new simpler language and system of rules ( simple math most of them now) and so much easier to navigate to the point where 100,000s of folks who thought they could not do it - now would adopt these theory ideas you teach so well ( do you know how many professional musicians with great ears - the damn Beatles for instance! could not deal with this lame hodgepodge complex system and lost out from the ideas of music theory - it is so odd with weird rules that they get dyslexia and give up - most of the people in the world do). if we just cleaned this historical hodgepodge all up with one of several rewrites to the language ( a simple one is something lie a notion of 2-2 where the first one is your scale start ( 2 would be today's D so you are starting there and the 2nd 2 is the note from one to 12 start from that D or 2 so today's E) and over course that 2nd number never changes it works in any scale and key - all this would bring music back to millions. So if you wanted to tell people like you do in your melody video of the power of the 5th it would be the 8th and that 8th would be in every key always - no memorizing bs. And no flat/sharps - all gone back to pure music. I challenge you ( as you know your stuff) to come up with what would be your dream system that would make it 10x or 20 x simpler than with today's full of holes and bandaided system most people give up on. My idea by the way if we all will be also using computers or at least color printed paper - is use numbers and colors - where the 5th ( which is 1/2 the wave cycle of the octave would be in a color representing its harmonic feel and of course with be number what it really is in the 12 notes - 8 - so a blue colored 8 - that you just "get" as the sound of the 5th and you know what it is (the 8th note) in any key.

The amount of extra steps that are shown to find the patterns don't showcase the actual theory that came from it. The diatonic scale happens because of the Greeks making modes out of two tetra chords, put together. All 7 notes are related in a cycle in the circle of 5ths. It's not about making patterns of wholesteps and halfsteps - that's an oversimplification. Greek Tetrachord method: Whole whole half + whole whole half, separated by a wholestep. That would be like C D E F, and G A B C. (F and G are separated by a whole step.) The other one is by circle of 5ths. If you start on F, you would get F C G D A E B if you go 7. These notes, arranged in order of pitch class, would give you C D E F G A B C (or any other diatonic mode). Once the diatonic scale was established, all accidentals are used to maintain the circle of 5ths. Equal temperament is used, of course, such that F# and Gb are tuned the same. But still, 'real' (Pythagorean) tuning names are still followed in traditional music, because C to say... G is a Perfect 5th and C to Fx is a doubly augmented 4th, which (in Pythagorean tuning) would sound RADICALLY different, even though in Equal Temperament they would sound identical. It all comes from the tradition of Pythagorean tuning.* Again - when using a diatonic scale, or anything based off of the order of notes found on the circle of 5ths (basically anything that is a natural mode off of Major - meaning Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian, Major, and natural minor scales, pentatonic scales and their modes (which are any 5 consecutive notes off the circle of 5ths), and then any other scale you can make from consecutive notes off the pentatonic scale, up to and including the chromatic scale) are all based on the circle of 5ths, not just arbitrarily making notes and patterns and 'finding the most common one by chance'. There's a reason. Final reference, the order of the notes on the circle of 5ths from double flat to double sharp are: Fbb Cbb Gbb Dbb Abb Ebb Bbb Fb Cb Gb Db Ab Eb Bb F C G D A E B F# C# G# D# A# E# B# Fx Cx Gx Dx Ax Ex Bx Exercise: Take any diatonic scale you know, and find the notes (underline/circle/point to them) on the order of notes on the Circle of 5ths I've provided. Please note this will not work for harmonic / melodic minors, whole tone scales, and many jazz/20th century inspired scales. Those were much more fabricated than the diatonic scales. Cheers~ *You'd think, after 400+ years of using Equal Temperament we'd update the system. But... what can you do?

Amazing lesson. Makes a lot of sense. Thanks for clarifying what seemed impossible to understand.

I'd love to see you write a song sometime. The theory alone is great, but I'd like to see some of the ways it can be applied in the songwriting process.

Do not try to conviniece anybody this is logical. It is just legacy. People first discovered 7 main notes as perfect ratios of the main note and assigned letters to them. Then they found there are gaps and filled them, but instead of assigning letters out of order or reassigning letrers for all notes they came up with this trade off in names.

I love the Eb major and E major keys because it sounds like tears of joy.

i just want to say thanks for the awsome vids. I got my keyboard out for the first time and after studying your theory i managed to get a really good fullon psy trance lead in about 3 mins. Yes i did go of scale a note here and there but it was 145 bpm and no muscle memory with both hands but i wouldnt of been able to do it without your awsome lessons.... For my next song im gone to start in a harder key with more blacks in the scales.

So in a scale we have to use every note (A, B, C, D, E, F, G)? We can't skip to G without suing F for example? I'm basing this on minor and major scales btw.

So how do you say the notes of an A minor chord will it be A C E or A C#flat E ?

this is the khan academy of music, congrats you're such a good teacher & musician

Where are you buddy? I need some more music theory to feed my brain. I recently bought the book 'Music Theory: The Essential Guide' by Julia Winterson which is a really useful little guide, but I like hearing your explanations.

i really like your tutorials,your teaching is easy to understand.. Though it would be very nice with a tutorial on passing notes\chords and counterpoints? just a suggestion..

this was a great video, congratulations. It would be interesting to explain this from a historical perspective: "why where Sharps and Flats created in the first place?". I think it would be a more difficult question to answer, but I'm curious about that. I read that is something related to Guido D'Arezzo way of constructing hexacords...but I couldn't comprehend.

Hey Michael! Great video, as always. I'd like to see a video on forming chord progressions, and why some chords lead into certain chords better than other chords. For instance, why a V chord leads into a I chord, and what choice would be the best to lead into the V chord. Keep up the great work!

Michael, thankyou so much for demystifying this for us. I've wondered for a long time why the sharps/flats system is the way it is, but people seem to never be able to explain it properly. You made it perfectly clear in this video. You're excellent at explaining things, and clearly have a good grasp of music theory. -Are 'double-sharps' only used in harmonic-minor scales, or are there other scales which use it? -Is there such thing as 'double-flats'? If so - where are they used? -If I was playing a Csus2 chord, would the sus2 note (2nd note of the scale) be considered a 'D', or would it be an 'E-double-flat'? -Does what you've shown in this video directly apply to modes other than Ionian and Aolian? -If I momentarily played a chromatic scale over any given key, would we still use sharps/flats in the manner shown in this video? -Would you recommend people to master C-major and A-minor keys before mastering the other 10 keys? Someone told me that Beethoven always based compositions on C-major and A-minor, then transposed those as necessary. I have a request for a future tutorial if you feel like doing it (inside the following curly-braces)... { How jazz progressions relate to classical music progressions, specifically the differences between the two, particularly keeping in mind someone who has a moderate understanding of classical composition and modal playing, but a very limited understanding of Jazz-specific composition. Also keep in mind someone who has never received proper structured music-theory training, but is self-taught through unguided research and study. I know things like using the 2-5-1 progression for use in helping key changes resolve better, but I can hear many things going on in jazz, which I cannot decode into some form of non-strict rule-set or guideline. I'm also well aware of using chord-voicings and chord-inversions to tighten up the sound and help the music not jump around all over the place. Could you please also incorporate into the video, how we can use the circle of fifths to create jazz progressions, if it is applicable. Studying existing jazz songs (the real book) is not helping me to grasp the specifics which make jazz different from classical music, because I just end up getting confused. } Michael - thanks again for this video, you're a scholar and a champ. Much MUCH respect to you.

Quick question, would you ever want to refer to the key of C sharp major, as opposed to D flat major?

Thank you so much for this! This is the best video ive found that really helped me understand why we use seven letters and sharps and flats. Thanks so much for making this

If it was up to me, I'd name all the notes from A to L instead of A to G with sharps and flats. You'd still have the same major and minor keys that would only use 7 of the notes, but the note names within each key would be different. Music notation would be a lot easier to understand.

19:16 “Some keys are super awkward, like C# Major […]” If I write a song in the C# major scale, why would I call the scale C# not D flat? That would at least avoid the E# confusion, no? I mean if I’m starting on one of the black keys, then I get to pick how I name it, correct? So why would I choose to introduce the E# issue by calling that scale C# instead of D flat?

Here’s how I took care of confusion surrounding sharps and flats, trying to remember which Key has what stupid acronym phrase, which white keys to use, which can’t, which black keys to use, which can’t, what note name to use for the SAME piano key, etc... Simply transpose your music into the Key of C Major or A Minor and you’ll never ever have to worry about this nonsense again. No sharps, No flats. Best of all, these 2 Keys of music make up about a billion songs on their own. The relatively few songs not in these most popular Keys, a simple transposition app will put any song on planet earth ever made into the Key of C Major or A Minor with a simple click of a button. Problem solved, BOOM.

Total confusion... What is he talking about! Until 15:00 then it clicked. Watched the second time it made much more sense. Thank you.

Wouldn't renaming the key from C# to Db or G# to Ab fix the issues of double sharp and renaming white keys (e.g. F->E#)? Why not always do that?

i just wanted to say thank you so much for this amazing content, your videos are the fucking shit, u helped me so much

Amazing as always. Complicated matters explained not simply, but very clear to grasp.

A beginner should really just Ignore the whole sharp/flats thing - it's just confusing and irrelevant. All you need to know is that an octave (i.e C - to-C) has 13 notes - with equal spacing between each note. and that scales or modes are simply a pattern that includes some notes and excludes others, And depending on which mode/scale you choose for a piece will give it a different vibe/flavour.

This may sound cheesy but you really are a awesome human being. You seem so nice and generous with your knowledge

You asked for comments so I will share a recent thought. 7 is a very special number. There are 7 continents, 7 seas, 7 colors in the rainbow, 7 days in the week, and in the book of Revelation in the Bible, it speaks of the 7 spirits of God. Christ said, “I am the Beginning and the End.” That is actually evidenced in the scale. We call it an “octave,” but in actuality...whatever note we begin on we also end on. And correspondingly, 12 is a significant number in the Bible. 12 tribes of Israel, 12 months in a year, and Christ was 12 when He told His parents, “I must be about my Father’s business.” And lo and behold, with the added sharps and flats we have 12 tones. -Just some interesting thoughts that have come to my mind as I have been learning about music.

At about 3:35 you said you would explain why 7 (of 12) notes are usually used. But can you explain why interpolate an octave with 12 notes? (as opposed to 10 or 15)? Oh I see your description now, that you are leaving the explanation of 12 divisions for another video. Thanks for these videos.

I think you've already got this question a gazillion times, but I'm gonna ask anyway: Michael, what kind of whiteboard do you use? I've never come across this type before. It's clearly not a regular whiteboard: shadows that notes cast indicate that it's some kind of transparent material (looks like plexiglass) with sheet of white material (maybe an actual whiteboard) behind it.

The raised black keys were invented to help navigate. Imagine if all keys were level and the same colour! Imagine how wide it would be let alone finding g5! With black raised keys you can quickly find a g or b etc because of the black and white pattern. They were *never* meant to indicate ♯ or ♭. C maj should *never* be taught first for keyboards, it ruins young minds.

If you look at Turkish / Arabic _scales,_ each note has a different *'name'* for like 4 octaves!! Not letters but names! Dozens of them! Think yourself lucky :-)

I am being dense, but may I ask a question about A minor and C major? WHY do all theory books claim that A minor has no sharps or flats, just like C, when it clearly needs them to sound correct? I know that C and A minor use the same set of keys (per one of your video lessons), but A minor seems to me to need sharps, so I'm not sure why the theory books claim what they do.

Enharmonic spellings are a byproduct of the equal temperament tuning system. In other tuning systems, they are actually different notes. Edit: This is also why many keyboard instruments that use other tuning systems have split sharp/flat keys.

Micheal New... but does he... know? Interesting video, although I find it a bit interesting that you basically said a Whole Tone scale isn't "right" or that it "suffers" from its symmetry. I love symmetrical sounds, man, and so did many of my favorite composers (Debussy being one of the most well known users of the Whole Tone set)! I get why you did it though. Cheers!