I think this is a maybe a bit harder to understand because it is so easy to conflating two different concepts. And maybe I'm taking this deeper than is appropriate for this forum, but . . .
There are only 12 tones in a chromatic scale. Those 12 tones have a multitude of names. That is to say they can be NOTATED in many different names.
The tone is what is heard, the note is what it is called.
So you can play the open second string in standard tuning, and the tone you hear is most commonly the tone we notate as the 'B' notated as the note 2 notes above high G on a standard clef (guitar music is actually transposed relative to the tone as played on a standard clef.)
No matter what we call that tone, it doesn't change. But we can call that tone A##, B, Cb, Dbb, and so on.
There is absolutely a Cb and an E#. It is true that this type of notation is almost never, ever used. But those are still valid note names.
By separating the concept of tone from the concept of notation can make theory much, much easier. Because the same tones are called different things depending on context. This is true of chords (a collection of tones) as well. The collection of tones C E and A can be C major, A minor, Fmaj7, and many other names depending on context and what the other instruments might be playing.
When speaking about theory, we're speaking about notation 99% of the time. What something is called is dependent upon context. What something sounds like is dependent upon what is played. We don't play theory, we play music. Theory is a post-hoc attempt to explain and describe what we play.
Instead of saying that B# only exists in special circumstances, it strikes me as a bit clearer to delineate between what we hear (which relates to where we play it on the fretboard) and what we call it.
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This post has been edited by kingpatzer: Nov 10 2009, 07:55 PM
