Writing Accidentals

I am a firm believer that ease of reading is an important qualification when determining which accidentals to write. I stacked a chord B Eb F# once in a horn quartet because the Eb was easier to read for the performer, rather than the D#. A conductor or analyst would freak about it, but I still stand confident in my decision.

Things like that... I just think that when it comes to hearing your music, you don't need them to jump through extra hoops so your C# major chord is diatonically correct.

On the other hand, if you go nuts with enharmonics and replace every D# with Eb, you might end up with a line going, say, E Eb C# in a B major tonality, and I would feel in that case that you're needlessly screwing with my brain. If the individual part has any internally obvious diatonicity or linearity, I'd prefer "hard" but sensible accidentals. That's me, though...

It's much easier for a performer to read notes that are written all as sharps or all as flats - So, like EldKatt says, if you're writing Eb's, Bb's etc., don't put in F#, write Gb.

...well, unless the next note is a G...

It's pointless to make hard-and-fast rules on this, it can be a very subjective determination on how to notate this.

Well yeah, there will always be exceptions...

my simple advice?

write it in a way that the harmony makes sense.

(of course, if its atonal then i guess its your choice....)

The accidental depends on the resolution. These usually correspond to the chromatic scale. If it resolves upward then its raised.

Of course it isn't always done that way since it can be hard to read(such as when double accidentals come into play) or in special cases when form comes into play(notable one is Beethoven's 7th symphony where its written as C# but he writes it as a Db intentionally because of what happens on the recapitulation IIRC).

For example, if you have a passing tone like C C#/Db D then you don't write C Db D since its obvious that the Db is moving upward and hence it is a C#.

Now its true that for fixed pitch instruments Db and C# are the same it is not true for non-fixed pitched instruments. In this case Db and C# are truly different and C C# D will sound different than C Db D(although most people cannot hear the difference). So in reality these are two different notes and hence have different functions. Hence we should retain this in fixed pitch instruments because they might be played on non-fixed pitch instruments.

Although there are theoretical reasons to notate them properly too. For example, If you have the progression Cmaj G7 Cmaj you obviously don't write the G7 as F##7 because its functioning as a G and not an F##7(assuming we are in the key of C).

If, say, you have a modulation from C to G then its the same thing... but in some cases, as has been pointed out, you might make a enharmonic modulation because it is easier to read. e.g., maybe modulating from E to C#m could be reinterpreted as E to Dbm and notated that way because, say, we might make end up wanting to modulate to C# later.

E.g., E-> Db#m -> Db or E -> C#m -> Db instead of E -> C#m -> C# both which hide whats really going on.

It's pointless to make hard-and-fast rules on this, it can be a very subjective determination on how to notate this.

That is basically it. Pretty much everyone here has been right. :-P

So you believe that there is no difference between an augmented 4th and diminished 5th? or that notating them the same accomplishes what?

Do you think a so called II7(dominant 7th) chord is the same as a V7/V as some people like to call it?

One thing you are not taking into account is context and thats what music is all about. F# != Gb even if out of context they have the same sound. Just cause you write it down which ever way you want doesn't change the fact of what you hear and only obscures what you are trying to express.

Sure in most cases it doesn't really matter but ultimately you are obscuring what you are trying to express. If you do it intentionally its ok but if you have no clue then its wrong.