And he didn't mention the obvious corollary... B# (aka C). (and Cb, Fb)
The dude's mind is going to be blown when he learns about double sharps and flats.
The dude's mind is going to be blown when he learns about double sharps and flats.
When I looked it up, I saw that it's just another name for G.
https://www.basicmusictheory.com/a-double-flat-note
The fact that the same thing has 2 names, but then the same name (e.g. C) can mean 3 different things (note, chord, key) really confuses me. I'm a beginner (can't play any instrument), so this is just about trying to cover the basics and generate a machine learning dataset. If I weren't so confused already, I might try to learn an instrument. It seems to be really time-consuming to practice though, and I'd need a teacher to listen and correct my mistakes. I wouldn't notice when I get it wrong if I try to teach myself.
As for which whistle to buy, get one in the key of D. A Walton's little black should be about $6, one of their slightly better brass whistles around $11, and a Generation nickel D is about $12. If you really want to splurge Susato makes a very nice high D for $50 (their Kildare S series), but it's quite loud and more for if you are playing before an audience. The most expensive whistles around are probably Burke's, at $230 for a high D. So even if you end up collecting Burke whistles obsessively and getting one in every key he makes you'll still be out less money than buying some high-end guitars!
The one disadvantage is that they're diatonic instruments. That means you can play in one key, and only one key, without cross-fingering the whistle.
For tuning, I recommend either an electronic tuner or the program Flutini[2], assuming you get a tunable whistle (the cheap ones aren't and it probably won't matter much).
[1] https://thesession.org/ [2] http://www.novasession.org/Flutini/
That said, Abb isn't another name for G - it's a distinct thing which, when played on typical musical instruments, is played the same way as a G. Basically note names to note frequencies is a many-to-one mapping.
If you want to understand the hairy details start by googling just vs equal temperament. But I went down that rabbit hole, and it hasn't made my procedural music any better, so I wouldn't really recommend it.
- A pitch standard, like A440, which anchors one arbitrarily chosen note to a specific frequency.
- A tuning system, which defines the frequency ratios between notes.
Almost all modern music assumes _A440_ and _12-tone equal temperament_. In 12TET, adjacent flats and sharps map to the same frequency. It's said that they are _enharmonic_. But there are many other systems where this isn't true. In _just intonation_, notes are defined by simple frequency ratios, and there is no enharmonicity at all. Every number of sharps and flats map to different frequencies.
For string or wind instruments playing without keyboards, there is no temperament. Each note represents a range of possible pitches, and what pitch you choose depends on the notes around it. For example, if you are repeating or holding a note, you don't want it to change pitch. But if the harmony around that note is changing, it may be in tune at one point in time, then out of tune at a later one. String quartet playing involves a great deal of working out compromises about what pitch each note should have.
Knowing a little about how instruments work and learning some music theory can help tremendously, but you can actually just start poking around in a MIDI roll or tracker and go a long way.
Unless you're really into a specific instrument, starting off with any modestly priced keyboard with pressure sensitivity and MIDI out (USB-based if it's modern) will let you have fun with synths and sampled instruments you'd probably never be able to afford.
If you really want to learn a physical instrument that's easy to pick up, you can get a $20 plastic ocarina and find lots of tutorials on YouTube.