Quote:



About your last point, the last chord (what you called the fifth, which is the sixth?) with that Ab:

When you have two notes that sound the same, like G# and Ab, they are called enharmonic equivalents.

In this spelling, C, Eb, Ab, Bb, technically the #5 Alan refers to is indeed a G#, not an Ab. However, it would drive me crazy to read a chord notated C, Eb, G#, Bb. When writing sheet music, it is a good idea not to mix sharps and flats in the same chord if you can avoid it. Of course, it depends somewhat on what key you are in and what the other chords in the measure might be.



ooops, yes I was referring to the sixth chord, not the fifth chord.

That's right, the Ab should actually be called Gsharp ( my keyboard seem not to have the sign for 'sharp' , which adds to confusion)
but yes, mixing sharps and flats just to name correctly an enharmonic note, would be unnecessary...I am no jazz musician, but I imagine that especially in jazz, notation has to be kept as simple as possible so that the musicians can interpret and improvise things without getting bogged down too much with written paper stuff

anyways, sorry about the topic change. I just am always interested in music theory stuff and tend to mention things that I have learned so that I don't forget them