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I don't. It's sad I know, esp considering I just delivered a MIDI library unto the world.
Anyway, I have a question for a music nerd, and it has to do with key signatures.
Googling led me to some confusion.
Basically I'm getting my key signature back as an int and a bool together, where the int is range -7 to 7 and the bool indicates minor or major.
The int indicates the number of flats (int is negative) or the number of sharps (int is positive) or C if it's 0.
Regarding the int, I'm not sure if I'm translating it correctly in code.
const string FLATS = "FBEADGC";
const string SHARPS = "GDEABFC";
if (0 == scode)
return "C " + (IsMinor ? "minor" : "major");
if(0>scode)
return FLATS[((-scode)-1)].ToString() + "b " + (IsMinor ? "minor" : "major");
else
return SHARPS[(scode - 1)].ToString() + "# " + (IsMinor ? "minor" : "major");
scode is the aforementioned int.
Real programmers use butterflies
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The flat key signatures go F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb.
The sharp key signatures go G, D, A, E, B, F#, C#.
EDIT: That's major. No sharps/flats = C.
The minor flat key signatures go D, G, C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab.
The minor sharp key signatures go E, B, F#, C#, G#, D#, A#.
No sharps/flats = A.
But that's just major/minor. Then there's Dorian, Phrygian, and others. 
modified 10-Jul-20 14:58pm.
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thanks!
Real programmers use butterflies
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There is a strong tradition for denoting major scales with uppercase letters, and minor scales with lowercase letters. So,
The minor flat key signatures go d, g, c, f, bb, eb, ab.
The minor sharp key signatures go e, b, f#, c#, g#, d#, a#.
No sharps/flats = a.
Maybe this tradition is stronger in some musical styles than others. I have never seen guitar chord annotations where it is not followed.
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True. That's how I mark up scores, although the pop music charts I've seen use A and Am for major and minor chords, respectively.
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I don't recall seeing lowercase for minor. I've only seen key signatures like A and Am. Even with minor keys there are two variant - Harmonic and Melodic.
To quote Ella Fitzgerald: How strange the change from Major to Minor (actually it is by Noel Coward, but mostly known as sang by Ella Fitzgerald)
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I think it's fairly common on the Continent (edit: for classical music).
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I'll probably avoid that in my MIDI library because of things like "bb" looking confusing and my hesitancy to use a unicode flat character in the alternative that won't display on things like a console window. "Bb" is much clearer in my specific scenario, IMO, even if it defies convention.
Real programmers use butterflies
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Or learn German (or a related language, such as Norwegian): In the Germanic tradition, B is called H, and B flat is called B.
In any case, it will be less confusing if you use a true musical ♭ sign for the flats, rather than a plain lowercase b letter. B♭ and b♭ isn't that confusing.
Bonus joke: What could you get if you drop a piano down a mine shaft?
Answer: a♭
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I thought you'd get a fff!
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I guess that even a piano would turn into a forte, or forte fortissimo molto, so you for practical purposes you are right.
You could also point out the accelerando - close to 9.8 m/s2.
But we were talking scales, weren't we?
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Accelerando? 
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heh. I would use the flat sign but it doesn't render properly everywhere. I do not want to return it from ToString()
Real programmers use butterflies
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What could you get if you drop a piano down a mine shaft?
ab minor (miner)
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or to make it more explicit: A flat minor (/miner)
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I just realized this is probably regional. Maybe you do it that way in Norway.
I have some Le Orme sheet music, and those weird Italians don't write A minor as "a" or "Am". They actually write "La m" (La from do-re-mi... and m = minore). I rarely think in solfege. And if I do, it's relative: "la" = submediant (^6). But they use it absolutely: "la" = A, regardless of the key. Needless to say, I find their annotations useless.
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Accelerando - Conjugation of the infinite "Accelerare" in italian; In English, "to accelerate": The "Gerundio" (a form of the verb), is like the -ing in English.
Most of the musical notation currently used was invented in Italy many centuries ago (even the pentagram, for example). In Italy the musical notes are represented by syllables which traditionally are: DO, RE, MI, FA, SOL, LA, SI with LA to be the equivalent to A in international notation.
All words like crescendo, diminuendo, piano, pianissimo, etc. etc. they are Italian words used as an international jargon for the music.
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I wouldn't call it "international jargon for the music", but "established notational conventions".
You'll see acc. in all sorts of sheet music. It has been used for centuries.
We had a conductor that took pleasure in playing with such terms, like he could ask for an "accelerandissimo" - a small increase in the beat rate. Or "acelerando moltissimo", not a very strong accelerando (like an "accelerando molto") but above average.
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Member 7989122 wrote: acelerando moltissimo
Accelerando, not acelerando always put double 'c' the correct form in italian.
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Sure. A pure typo on my part!
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I think there's some potential for confusion here.
Regarding key signatures in scores: A score with one sharp is traditionally interpreted to be either G major or E minor. There is no other indication of whether or not the key signature implies G major or E minor unless it is included in the title such as "Polonaise in Ab Minor." (I say traditional because there are non-traditional scoring methods too.)
Regarding chords, there are a variety of ways to show chords in a score. For example, a C minor chord can be designated as Cm or C-. A G major 7 can be GMAJ or G^. And so on.
Now 7989122's comment about major/minor scales is interesting to me. I've never used a score that does it that way, but it makes sense on a certain level. I don't need that sort of notation in my arranging, but hey, maybe I've learned something new.
If you sign up with the Sonic Scores forum (no affiliation) you can ask questions and get a lot of helpful answers from professional musicians. They also know a lot about MIDI. There are other music notation apps that have active forums.
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Greg Utas wrote: Then there's Dorian, Phrygian, and others.
A true story related to that:
One of Norway's greatest modern folk singers, Lillebjørn Nilsen, tellsabout the first song he wrote: As a teenage schoolboy, he has an essay assignment, "Explain and anlyze one of your favorite poems". So he started out by writing the poem. Then he made up a tune for it, and performed it in a folk singer's club. In the audience was Geirr Tveitt, well known Norwegian composer. He went up to the young boy and remarked "Your have made a song very true to the traditions, and in a hypo-mixolydian scale!" To which Lillebjørn replied: "Huh? What's that?" At home, he looked up "hypo-mixolydian" in his music dictonary, to discover that Geirr Tveitt was right.
For the curious ones: You can hear the first verse and a half of this song in a Scottish translation (it can hardly be called "English"  ) at Adam McNaughtan: Dance Noo Laddie[^]. I like this version as much as the original!
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I think you may have a typo in the sharp key signatures. I think it should be G, D, A, E, B, F#, C#. That's the way the circle of fifths works. I'm definitely a novice at this stuff.
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