Music Video Lesson: Why Is There No G-Sharp Major Scale?

Why is there no G-sharp major scale? This is a really good question. There are some others in here as well. Well, if you know your key signatures, then you understand that C major has no sharps or flats.

And you go up, G major with one sharp.

I can go through all of them, but you know the last one that has all seven notes or sharp is C-sharp major. C-sharp, D-sharp, E-sharp, F-sharp, G-sharp, A-sharp, B-sharp, C-sharp. First thing is to understand why the heck isn't it called F? C-sharp, D-sharp, F, F-sharp, G-flat, G-sharp, A-sharp, C, C-sharp. Well, if you were to see that on the page, it wouldn't even look like a scale. Scales always go from line to space diatomically without scaling. Skipping or repeating any. So that's why scales look that way and are written the way they are. So getting back to why isn't there a G-sharp major scale? Well, look what happens. If you start a G-sharp major scale, G-sharp, A-sharp, B-sharp, C-sharp, D-sharp, E-sharp, F-double-sharp, that's what would happen. G-sharp, because to build it diatomically so it looks like a scale on the page, line to space to line to space, you'd have to have a double-sharp. That could get crazy. Well, it can get crazier than that because if you went to a D-sharp major scale, it would have nine sharps. D-sharp, E-sharp, F-sharp, G-sharp, A-sharp, B-sharp, C-double-sharp. Where is the double? I thought there were two of them. D-sharp, E-sharp, F-double-sharp. There we go. Did I say that before? This is so unnatural you have no idea. My brain is like exploding.

G-sharp, A-sharp, B-sharp, C-double-sharp, D-sharp. Of course, these don't exist. This is so theoretical it's ridiculous. And I'm just showing you the folly of thinking of having these scales.

Finally, you could go with the E-sharp major with 11 sharps. Let's see if I can do this. I haven't done this before. I just had this crazy idea to demonstrate why these don't exist.

Okay, E-sharp, F-sharp, G-double-sharp, A-sharp, B-sharp, G-double-sharp.

I can almost not think of it. D-double-sharp, E-sharp. I'm done. Am I done? No, there's one more thing I want to show you. Just to show you, it's not just sharps. Although there's more theoretical sharps scales. I mean, without getting into double sharps, like G-double-sharp major or something totally crazy. But in flats, F-major of course has one flat, the B-flat. F, G, A, B-flat, C, D, E, F. So if it was F-flat major, what the heck would happen? You'd have a double flat.

F-flat, G-flat, A-flat, B-double-flat, C-flat, D-flat, E-flat, F-flat. Of course, this also doesn't exist. So once again, a recap. The scale with all seven flats, like the scale with all seven sharps, is C-flat major with seven flats and C-sharp major with seven sharps. And again, the reason for that, if you're out there going, why would they do that? Because it looks right on the page. For a scale to be every line to every space, to not be written that way, would actually be harder to digest visually because we're used to scales being spelled diatonically, every letter and order without skipping or repeating any. But it gets to a point of ridiculousness with double sharps and double flats, which is why there is no G-sharp major scale. I hope this answered this question, which maybe you never even asked yourself before. But now that you think about it, doesn't it make sense? Leave it in the comments here at livingpianos.com and YouTube. Love to hear from all of you. Thanks for joining me. I'm Robert Estrin. Bye.

Find the original source of this video at this link: https://livingpianos.com/why-is-there-no-g-sharp-major-scale/

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