| Everybody's playing blues in this key | You grab THIS harp (This is the key that's stamped on the Harp) |
| E | A |
| F | B-Flat |
| F-sharp | B |
| G | C |
| A-flat | D-Flat |
| A | D |
| B-Flat | E-Flat |
| B | E |
| C | F |
| D-Flat | F-Sharp |
| D | G |
| E-Flat | A-Flat |
For thousands of years, man has commanded the use of writing. As we are marched forward to time's relentless drumbeat, our manuscript has evolved. Sometimes, however, it is instructive to take a step back and look at what has come before and how it has changed our world. Today, that step shall be our study of the long s, 'ſ' which is given in unicode by U+017F, and is used from HTML as ſ and ſ.
ſ is used inside words, before the end of the word. For example, 'Congreſs' versus 'Congress.' The important bit is that ſ's shape makes it ideal for ligatures. For this reason, it survives to this day, just not in English. For example, to use a modern ligature for ſs in Congress, I would use Congreß. ſ is purpose–built to ligature with other letters. You can write it in an easy upward flow, then descend into your ligatured character. Oh, by the way: to type ß, you can use several techniques. On the mac, type option-s. In Windows, it's Alt+0223 or Alt+225. In X windows, use compose-s-s. Og course, in HTML it's ß
So, next time you are writing, consider using ſ as a way to both beautify your writing as well as a way to speed it up. Ligatures are handwriting's shortcuts to speed.
