Could I have a B# followed by an E# please?

Today I learned why there is no B# or E#.

I'm playing some Rocksmith and trying to learn/teach myself to play guitar and the missing half-steps between the letters B & C and E & F have bugged me for weeks. Today I remembered to look it up.
The reason is... wait for it... wait for it...

Because.

Yup. That's right. It's just cuz. The notes are all a half step from each other, just those were named the way they were because the note-namers felt like it. They had to, kind of, because there's 12 notes in Western music and if they'd done the A, A#, B, B# thing they'd have wound up with A-F for notes and no G at all. Ab would have been the same as F# under the no-G notation.

The musical among you are saying, "Shut up Rich. That's obvious." But it wasn't obvious to me. I thought the letters were all whole steps from each other and couldn't figure out why I couldn't half-step between B-C and E-F. Would it create the brown note? Would I crap my pants if I ever managed to do it? Nope. They're just named wrong and it stuck. No biggie.

So, with a light heart, an enlightened head, and finger tips that are starting to callous finally, I go to bed. A great mystery solved.

If you're interested in learning guitar I heartily recommend JustinGuitar.com's Practical Music Theory.

Also, we went shooting today to celebrate a friend's birthday:

Neither of these are me, but the .22 in the foreground is mine.