This piece is in C# minor, which means that it has 4 sharps, F#, C#, G# and D#. While practising, I came across this note: F double sharp. It seems like an obvious answer at first: I should play G. However, I have two music teachers, both of whom are professionally trained musicians. Let them be teachers A and B. A told me to play G#, while B told me to play G. Teacher A said that I should play G# due to the F# in the key signature, while B told me that I should ignore the key signature in front while playing this. Who should I listen to? And what note should I play?
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2Also, fire teacher A – Todd Wilcox Oct 22 '20 at 15:15
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Agreed, fire teacher A. – Pyromonk Oct 22 '20 at 15:33
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Please at very least show this Q&A to teacher A. – Tim Oct 22 '20 at 15:42
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So, if i play with 1 sharp, and the composer deceded to add a single sharp in front of an F as a mnemonic, teacher A would play a G instead? – ThisIsMe Oct 22 '20 at 15:58
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Teacher A may be a decent, kind person with a rich and complex emotional life, who has maintained a cheerful disposition whilst struggling selflessly through remorseless adversities any one of which might have turned you and me into vindictive beasts baying for his or her dismissal over a semitone. A semitone! – Old Brixtonian Oct 22 '20 at 16:20
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@OldBrixtonian Uhhh? Teacher A is probably better suited to teaching beginners who are not working on pieces with double-sharps, also teacher A seems to not be qualified to teach piano if they don't even know how to read a double sharp, and finally one student probably only makes up 1/20th of teacher A's income at the most, so it's not like we're advocating teacher A be made destitute or something. And teacher B (and all the other qualified teachers out there) deserve the income from teacher A's students because they know what a double sharp is! – Todd Wilcox Oct 22 '20 at 21:31
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@Todd Wilcox I know, Todd. My comment was not to be taken seriously. – Old Brixtonian Oct 23 '20 at 03:25
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You should play an F doublesharp, which is enharmonically equivalent to a G.
This is because accidentals are not cumulative; the doublesharp does not raise the F♯ by two half steps, but rather it replaces the single sharp already present on the F. Thus you should play F raised by two half steps, which is enharmonic to G.
And as it turns out, this F doublesharp will likely end up resolving to a succeeding G♯, so playing the F doublesharp as a G♯ will ruin this chromatic effect.
Richard
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Two TEACHERS? One of them shouldn't really be teaching!
Key signatures and accidentals aren't cumulative. Fx is two semitones above F, whether the key signature includes F sharps, F naturals or F flats (it COULD happen! Just...)
Sometimes it's convenient to spell Fx as G. Usually, this will do no practical harm to the music. Though, paradoxically, it might make the score harder to read!
Laurence
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Your one teacher's logic says since it's become a G, and that's sharp in the key sig. it needs to be played as G♯. That teacher needs to find a teacher! Possibly listening to the suggestion being played is enough to prove him wrong!
The other says play a G. That's not strictly correct either. You're playing Fx (F♯♯), which happens to live where G lives, but it's never going to be a G. It'll always, in that piece, be some sort of F.
Any accidental is what it is - telling what the next note actually is, overriding anything before, including the key signature, along with any other same pitch notes in that bar. Sounds like a good opportunity to consider unusual accidentals - double flats, why C♭ is the same place as B, etc.
Tim
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2"not strictly correct," true, but it is nonetheless a useful if imprecise way of saying "F-double-sharp is enharmonically equivalent to G." – phoog Oct 22 '20 at 15:27
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2Point taken, but I still maintain that "play G" is not all bad. It's certainly better than "play G♯." – phoog Oct 22 '20 at 15:32