European H... What is the American equivalent?

[suppaenitetere]

I know its been discussed on here which note H represents for us silly Americans(or you silly europeans for using H!) but i cant remember what it was. Someone out there help me out? Which note is H equivalent to?

[Josh Redstone]

In North America its B and in Europe its H.

[suppaenitetere]

Thanks a bundle.

[GuitarMonky55]

SILLY EUROPEANS!!!!
it goes alphabetically!
a-b-c-d-e-f-g

does the european alphabet go
a-h-c-d-e-f-g?

NO

[Josh Redstone]

Does anyone know how the H thing came about?

[SwampDonkey]

I don't know for sure, but maybe it has something to do with the fact that b is used to signify a flat note. Forgive me if this is totally wrong, I'm a little intoxicated at the moment :D

[Josh Redstone]

Yeah, its not really a b, it looks more like a heart cut in half with a stick on it. :)

[Andrew]

Yeah, the 'H' note came about because the 'b' note was easily confused with the flat sign.(even though they are slightly different)

We still call it B in the UK. Actually, I have a feeling that it's only Germany and Austria that uses H, but im not sure.

[jaytee]

discussion from several months ago:

http://www.guitarlodge.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=289&highlight=european

[JiMi=GoD]

Nah im from uk and never heard of H beein used!

U confused me then!

[Josh Redstone]

Yeah, I think its like Andrew said, just a few countries use it, not all of Europe or anything.

[I_cant_play]

I'm from former yugoslavia and I had an argument with a friend of mine recently about that. I had never heard of the H until he told me about it and I couldn't believe it. I guess in our country they use an H but I like the B better. hehe I made so much fun of him cause of that...I thought it was ridiculous...he made me eat my words...:(

[Aginor]

hehe thats really weird. Well i'm from Ireland and we definitely don'u use H here

[eische]

Originally posted by GuitarMonky55
SILLY EUROPEANS!!!!
it goes alphabetically!
a-b-c-d-e-f-g

does the european alphabet go
a-h-c-d-e-f-g?

NO


hehehehe, it's there to differentiate the musical alphabet from the litteral one...

...nah, it's just like it is: Bb is just b, B ist H over here. There's no real explanation, you just learn it like that and that's it... I don't think it's so confusing, well only if talking to others, where it's different :p

[Hannu]

suppaenitetere, haven't you seen my signature? It's all there ;)

SwampDonkey, that's what i thought but when this matter came up last time (the time when I fed up telling everybody why I accidentaly use h insted of b here ;)) somebody explaied that a composer... i think it was J.S. Bach wanted to change it for special reson... I can't remeber what it was now... hmm...

[Josh Redstone]

Maybe he was crazy.

[Hannu]

Josh, neva' eva' mess with the Dude (Bach)!


:)

[Josh Redstone]

Just kidding. I'm actually a fan of a lot of those classical composers. But I'm not that familiar with Bach so if I say anything stupid about him just chalk it up to my nonsensical uninformed babblings. :)

[eische]

actually, no it wasn't Bach who changed it, but if it wasn't for the existance of the H, he couldn't have played his name out - it would have been Bbacb, hooo?!? - and composed/improvised over it...