G# is Evil

When Peter arrived for his first piano lesson, he noticed that one of the black keys was painted red. This intrigued him and made the keyboard less intimidating.

"This is Ab, never G#!" snapped the piano teacher.

She handed him a sheet on the cycle of fourths, with the cycle of fifths curiously blanked out.

"We recommend playing only in flat keys. If you ever have to play in the key of A major, E major or B major always avoid the red key. Fb major and Cb major are much nobler keys. Oh, and A harmonic minor--terrible scale. Leading tones drive me crazy!"

"What happens if I play G# by mistake?", Peter asks.

No one ever, ever plays G#!...ever!!

The moral: One can allow oneself to have certain beliefs simply by labeling or categorization or context when in essence they essentially are the same thing. "Enharmonic equivalent" is in some ways misleading because in some contexts they aren't equivalent. The actual frequencies are different, but essentially the same. We all want to operate on "essentials."