What is the Difference Between Sharps and Flats? Video Lecture | The Ultimate Guitar Course: From Beginner to Advanced - Class 6

there's what happens all the time you're
gonna party you're just kicking it
whatever you're just jamming then
somebody comes up and he says oh hey bro
you play guitar
mind if I damn ya dude sure that's cool
oh cool I really appreciate it see I'm a
classically trained musician and I don't
have a lot of friends so I'd really love
to hang out oh yeah come on down
let's do it I really dig that
progression you were playing what were
those chords oh thanks a lot yet sighs
ass see you a sharp back to nap oh right
you mean you mean b-flat did I say B
flat right but but you meant to say
b-flat I'm pretty sure I meant a sharp
right but you meant a b-flat at this
point there are one of two ways that
this can go down option number one bro
down I personally would never condone
violence in any situation but hey you
got a douche grab you man option number
two which is the Shawn way be the bigger
man the classical musician hurts inside
and it's up to us to kind of meet them
halfway that being said it's good to
know what the difference between sharps
and flats are now if you look on the
internet there's like a lot of
information about what it is but there's
really not a good answer for it some of
the answers are well sharp so if you're
going up and flat sorry for going down
but call me old-fashioned I like to play
guitar in ways where I go up and down
now I kind of simple way of looking at
it is like iris this is a G third fret
there's a G and this is an A
and in between there's a note is it G
sharp or is it a flat now you can get
really specific as far as like the
tempered scale and microtones and stuff
like that I think for guitar this is a
good enough answer and it'll help you
99% of the questions and it's gonna make
a lot of sense so anyway guys we're
gonna start the difference between G
sharp and a flat there are 12 notes and
all of music if you start with an A it
goes a a sharp B C C sharp D d sharp e f
f-sharp G g-sharp and you're back to a a
now any of those sharps could easily be
flats from the note after it so this is
G sharp again it can be a G sharp or an
A flat now when is it a G sharp and when
is it a flat when am I not gonna be
embarrassed saying a sharp instead of G
flat B flat the best way that I can
answer this is to think of how music is
written now stop don't stop the video
I'm not gonna teach you or try to teach
you how to read music but if you think
of writing down music the way that they
do it is there are seven spots because
there are seven notes in any key so
there are seven different spots for a
note again in C major we've got C D
alright so if you're writing it down
every one of those would have a spot
that's a good place to start think of
every scale as having some kind of see
some kind of D whether it be D flat or D
sharp every one of those seven letters
of the alphabet is it gonna be
represented in some way so if we start
again with this G sharp a flat this is a
good way to do it so let's pretend that
it's a that it's G sharp okay so if we
go a whole step to make the major scale
we've got G sharp a sharp let another
whole step C so G sharp a sharp C well
there's no beat so there's no B being
represented therefore if you were to
start here it most likely be a flat now
you've got a flat to B flat to C D flat
E flat F
gee a flat so every single one of those
letters of the alphabet has represented
and that's gonna work out with any route
note that you start a major scale at
another one that's kind of confusing
would be like the key of F sharp right
so if we have an F sharp G sharp a sharp
C sharp d sharp now this right here is
an F right but in the case of F sharp
this would actually be an e sharp which
is kind of where to think about because
we're almost taught that there is no
such thing as the e sharp but has to be
represented so for playing the key of F
sharp there actually is an e sharp now
it's really an F for all intensive
purposes this is where you know if you
say I'm playing in a sharp and someone
corrects you to a b-flat it's like come
on like seriously who cares you know
this stuff as a guitar player it doesn't
really matter it's the same thing but I
just wanted to kind of shed a little bit
of light on why there is a difference
between sharps and flats in
communication standpoint so hopefully
this will make a lot of sense and you
won't end up fighting a classical
musician but if you do I understand