> Thats fine as long as you're in C Major. As soon as you depart from C Major it all starts going wonky. Why is C Major baked into the notation as if you'd never want to use anything else?
Actually, it works for every major scale and natural minor scale!
What are the notes in E major? E F# G# A B C# D# E.
It's still the same letters, E F G A B C D. Now, you may think that this is CHEATING because I've added sharps. But when you write it out on staff paper, the sharps get shoved off to the side on the far left in the key signature, and you basically forget that they are there. You really still just care about seven notes, so you still have seven letters, and seven spaces on the staff, they're just a different seven notes from the C major scale.
You have to know which key the song is in... but you have to do that anyway.
When I say that you basically forget that they are there... I mean it. This does not even require an especially advanced level of musical skill. People with even a passing interest in music theory should be able to breeze past it.
I'm saying that our music is largely diatonic, and it's better to base our notation and terminology on the diatonic rather than the chromatic scale.
The idea that you can number semitones 1-12 has some mathematical elegance to it, but it's a terrible system in practice. It turns out that mathematical elegance doesn't count for much, and domain knowledge is important here.
Actually, it works for every major scale and natural minor scale!
What are the notes in E major? E F# G# A B C# D# E.
It's still the same letters, E F G A B C D. Now, you may think that this is CHEATING because I've added sharps. But when you write it out on staff paper, the sharps get shoved off to the side on the far left in the key signature, and you basically forget that they are there. You really still just care about seven notes, so you still have seven letters, and seven spaces on the staff, they're just a different seven notes from the C major scale.
You have to know which key the song is in... but you have to do that anyway.
When I say that you basically forget that they are there... I mean it. This does not even require an especially advanced level of musical skill. People with even a passing interest in music theory should be able to breeze past it.