Enharmonics?

Hi,

Is there a way to have the Circle of Fifths displayed in Flats rather than Sharps?

For example, if a Patten opens on C Major 7, but the next two chords are F-7 and Bb7, Scaler is displaying the Bb7 as A#7 and I’m having trouble making it display as Bb7.

I can’t find a reference on this in the Operations Manual.

In general, I prefer Flat Keys.

Thanks.

Hi @1stInversion Cick on the scale identifier in the scale explorer to swap between sharps and flats then go to chord edit mode and you will see the enharmonic equivalents. See below
Oct-23-2020 06-27-16

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Thank you! That makes life so much easier.

Hi,

For David or any other forum readers. A general question on Enharmonic.

I’d like to learn more about how Enharmonics are handled in computer programs. There seems to be a preference for Sharp Notes. Both Cubase and Scaler display the Circle of Fifths in Sharp Notes.

Cubase has made improvements to its Cord Track system for better handling of Flats and Sharps, but is not perfect. Scaler has its own “under-the-hood” logic for this, too. It works for me. I’d like an option for a Circle of Fifths in Flats, but, as with Cubase, I’ve adapted to what’s available.

Any thoughts, or references on the underlying logic in programming that prefers Sharps would be of interest. Nothing urgent here. I’d just like to learn a little more how it all works.

Thanks for any thoughts or references.

I like that scaler CO5ths only really shows C# and F# and the rest of the major scales show as flats as they are the only keys where sharp outweigh or equal the flats in numbers.
In terms of what we should use well there is no real logic to follow given our users will always work differently so enabling the display of sharps or flats according to user preferences in the scale selector is a good solution.
As a side note I was always taught that the flexibility is there so you don’t have the same notes on a chord progression: 'a progression of G#, Gb, G looks more complicated than Ab, F#, G"
The other thing I was always taught was:
Don’t be ♯, don’t be ♭, be ♮
:wink:

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On using flats (b) instead of sharps (#):
It should depend on the number of # or b. The enharmonies always add up to 12 (there are 12 semitones in the scale). So it happens that B major has 5 sharps and is enharmonic of Cb major that has 7 flats (5 + 7 = 12). F # major (6 #) is enharmonic of Gb (6b) (6 + 6 = 12) etc.
What I mean is that it would not be logical to put a key with less than 6 flats in sharps (and vice versa). For example, if we put the key of F major in sharps, we would have to play (and consequently think while playing) in “11 sharps”, and all so as not to think of a single flat.
Without going to such an extreme case: let’s put the key of Ab in sharps (4 flats); it would be G # (with 8 sharps). That is, the 7 sharps, but with the double F sharp

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