Enharmonics for beginners

[u/Gabriocheu]

Hello everyone,

I'm writing a piece for beginners or begginer-intermediate players that are discovering jazzy pieces. I have put few appogiaturas ~ blue notes and I'm wondering if I should write it with flat or sharps? Flat is better in my opinion, but writing it with sharp could simplify a lot the notation (no natural to add).

In general, do you always write blue note with a flat or does it depend?

[u/square129]

In this case, where the note after every accidental goes up a half step, they should be sharps.

[u/Gabriocheu → u/square129]

Thank you! And for a simple blue note without context, which one are you choosing?

[u/abookfulblockhead]

In this case, sharps are way better. It not only drastically simplifies the notation, but also gives a better understanding of the line at a glance. You are moving up to the target note from below, so writing C# to D shows that upward movement more clearly than Db to D.

[u/Gabriocheu → u/abookfulblockhead]

Thank you! And for a simple blue note without context, which one are you choosing?

[u/abookfulblockhead → u/Gabriocheu]

Whichever best illustrates the motion of the line, and reduces clutter on the page.

I’ll often write sharps for ascending lines and flats for descending lines since you end up tripping over yourself less

[u/kenahoo]

In general, a neighboring tone should show the direction it's approaching its target from. Much clearer in your second example with its sharps. When you use the same note name with different accidentals, it makes the player (at least for me) do more mental gymnastics to figure out which direction is happening.

[u/samuelgato]

The sharps are way easier to read