Question about major scales?

Question

I was looking into major scales, and I came across this.

C maj – 0 sharps

G maj – 1 sharp – F♯

D maj – 2 sharps – F♯, C♯

A maj – 3 sharps – F♯, C♯, G♯

E maj – 4 sharps – F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯

B maj – 5 sharps – F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯, A♯

F♯ maj – 6 sharps – F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯, A♯, E♯

C♯ maj – 7 sharps – F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯, A♯, E♯, B♯

What I want to know is, why are they saying E♯ instead of F, and B♯ instead of C? Or am I confused already?

Answer 1

No, that's right. To keep everything easily understandable, you are only supposed to use one letter for each note in the scale. If you have both an A and an A#, for instance, how do you refer to the right one? It makes more sense to have an A and a Bb. Do you see what I mean? One of the other conventions that we use to keep things simple is that we use either sharps or flats, not both (except in the case of accidentals or passing notes or altered notes in jazz chords and the like).

So yes, sometimes you would use B# or Cb instead of C or B... just not at the same time.

Saul