Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2013 September 30

= September 30 =

folk song
hi i am looking for a folk song of BRAZIL /it can be a tune or song with lyrics,lyrics lyrics can be about BRAZIL people ,culture,and song should not hav copyright issue,so i can use in my shows. thnx sunil kaushik 91 9324221088 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.89.48.237 (talk) 10:23, 30 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Have you read the Wikipedia article titled Music of Brazil. If you start there, and follow some links, you can likely find what you are looking for.  -- Jayron  32  13:43, 30 September 2013 (UTC)

Why some note symbols have # while others dont?
Musical newbie here. Why on the traditional tuning system, some letters like C, have the C#, while others dont?201.78.195.79 (talk) 13:30, 30 September 2013 (UTC)
 * # means sharp, e.g. C sharp. You might find our List of musical symbols helpful. --Viennese Waltz 13:33, 30 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Just to add a bit to that, sharp (♯) means to raise the note one semitone. Flat (♭) means to lower the note one semitone.  Natural (♮) means to return a note which had been raised or lowered to its original value.  -- Jayron  32  13:41, 30 September 2013 (UTC)

Yes, why I know its is sharp, I am asking why some have a sharp while others dont. Or to be specific, why we use 12 TET instead of 14 TET. And if 12 must be used because of some reason why we dont use letters from A to J without the sharps, or from A to F with the sharps.201.78.195.79 (talk) 14:23, 30 September 2013 (UTC)
 * I think what happened is that western music started out with the diatonic C major and A minor scales, the intervals of which were based on frequency ratios (the cycle of fifths) which were felt to be the most pleasing but which are not equally spaced between the octaves. As these were the only notes used, they were named in a continuous sequence, CDEFGABC (C major) or ABCDEFG (A minor). Then musicians found they got interesting tunes and harmonies by also occasionally using the notes in between, which were designated "sharp" for a semitone up and "flat" for a semitone down. But because the notes of the diatonic scale are not evenly spaced, there is only a semitone between E and F and between B and C, so there's no room for sharps or flats between them. Then they worked out equal temperament, dividing the octave into twelve equal semitones, which allowed them to transpose tunes into different keys. --Nicknack009 (talk) 14:52, 30 September 2013 (UTC)
 * The Wikipedia article titled Note has a section titled "History of note names" which may be of interest to this discussion. -- Jayron  32  18:39, 30 September 2013 (UTC)


 * Just to be clear, C♯ is as different from C as Barack Obama is from George W Bush. We never refer to Obama as "the president after Bush", but in music there are good historical reasons why the black keys are named by reference to the white ones either side rather than given a completely different letter.  (That, by the way, is not a prediction that the next US president will be white.)  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  19:59, 30 September 2013 (UTC)


 * I just finished watching Howard Goodall's The Story of Music. He shows graphically how some of the flats and sharps were merged as an artifact of equal temperament. I believe it is in episode 3 of 6. μηδείς (talk) 02:43, 2 October 2013 (UTC)