Why does HookTheory use F♯-Major instead of G♭-Major?

I am wondering why TheoryTab, Hookpad, etc. prefer F♯-Major instead of G♭-Major. G-flat major has six flats and F-sharp major has seven sharps. Wouldn’t it make more sense to use the one with less accidentals?

One interesting thing is that there IS a G-flat major cheat sheet, but for some reason there is no info and the piano plays in F-major: Gb Major Cheat Sheet: Scale, Chords, Midi Files

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F# major has 6 sharps. F C G D A E

As Quentin already pointed out, F# and Gb have the same amount of accidentals. I would say the advantage of F# over Gb is that you’re unlikely to introduce more accidentals when borrowing chords from parallel modes, as Lydian is the only diatonic mode brighter than Ionian. On the other hand you’re still going to end up with double sharps when introducing secondary dominants, so I guess there’s no real winner here.

What the hell is going on with that Cheat Sheet though? Every damn example on that page is in F major. People with perfect pitch are going to go crazy when hearing those examples :joy: :joy: :joy:

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Yes, I guess we just had to make a decision and favor one of the two versions.

Are you sure your Cheat Sheet is in Fmajor? Mine seems to be alright. Perhaps there is some wrong sample rate conversion somewhere at your end?

Regards!
Dennis

This is what I hear on latest Chrome: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f99R6cSMWzU

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Ah, but Gb-Major is only accessible by tweaking the url, right?

I’ll talk with the other devs if we want to prevent people from producing glitches by tweaking the url.

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That is correct, and you can also put nonsensical keys like “X Major” as reported here

you can search gb and cb and it pops up on google search

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Oh yes. I just noticed it, too. Thanks for pointing that out.
We’ll talk it through tonight and try to find a solution.