Why are there only 12 notes, and not 14?

Question

THere are seven tones, but only five semitones. where are E sharp and B sharp?

Answer 1

Well whenever you see an F flat in sheet music, it basically means play an E. One of the believed (not confirmed) reasons for keys being arranged the way they are on the piano/keyboard/organ/accordian/celests and any other keyboard-utilizing instruments is for navigation amongst the keys, which does make sense. But...as someone above said, no one really sat down and planned music.

Answer 2

The distinction between tones and semi-tones is really quite arbitrary, some just happened to be labled as flats/sharps and some weren't. Nobody actually sat down and planned out music as we know it.

The reason we have the white-key, black-key phenomenon is because the white-keys are based on the European music tradition and the black-keys on the Eastern music tradition (we take most of our percussion and rhythm from Africa)

Hooray for the International Language!

Answer 3

The scale referred to is called an "even tempered scale" which allows transposition from one key to another all throughout the scale .....as opposed to one called "mean tempered" which did not imply a bad disposition, but just that it had only a few different keys you could write it and safely keep the scale as patterned ....(ref. to Baroque keyboard instruments, some of ..)

E sharp is F
B sharp is C

Answer 4

No, the scale goes... A A# B C C# D D# E F F#
B# is C, and E# is F. Just the way the muses willed it...