Let's explore sharps and flats and how to play them on guitar!
View the full lesson at Sharps And Flats | JustinGuitar
Alternative memory aid for the pairs of notes that have no sharp/flats between them: “Being Careful Eliminates Flats”. (To me it makes more sense than the, “big cats eat frogs” memory aid).
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Yet another mnemonic: “Best Chums” and “Extra Friendly.” In both cases, they’re so close and friendly that they don’t have a flat/sharp between them.
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Some fretboard diagrams show the 3rd note on the third fret as B flat, yet some label it as A sharp. Are there circumstances where one name is preferred over the other?
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Choosing which enharmonic equivalent to use when naming notes is dependent on context.
Examples … if discussing a scale that has sharp notes it would be necessary to use A sharp whereas if discussing a scale with flat notes then B flat would be the choice. Similarly if it was a note within a certain chord. The context determines the choice.
Without context there is no better / best name. One or both can be used at will.
I hope that helps.
Cheers 
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide, Approved Teacher & Moderator
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Ah, so the F Major scale would use B flat and the B major scale would use A sharp.
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Dana @jonesdch
I am sure Richard will correct me if I am wrong, but you are correct as you have to keep the alphabetical sequence going in the major scale, you can not have A followed by A# it has to become the enharmonic equivalent Bb.
Michael 
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Bingo.
Two perfect examples.
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Another example is if the note is the 3rd or 7th interval. To make it minor you flatten it. Unless it’s an F or C you’d use E and B as the flatten note.
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You can use the famous Beatles song “Let It BE” if that helps.
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Sorry, I don’t know where these come from:
Bad Cowboys Eat Faeces
As in, non competent and eat dirt and die, I don’t want to know what you were thinking.
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One thing I didn’t understand: Between B and C or between E and F, is there a semitone, or a tone of distance? Since we don’t have sharp and flat between those 2 notes.
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A semitone for both pairs. However, depending on the context, they are referred to by their enharmonic equivalents:
B = Cb
C = B#
E = Fb
F = E#
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Hey Timothy,
From what I understand, there are various historical/ mathematical reasons that lead to the 12 note sysytem in Western music. So I believe there is some method in the madness. Lots of interesting stuff on the web to read about it.
Cheers, Shane
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But naming is just a convention, you could call the notes anything. Tuning methods are more important:
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The diatonic scale was the first scale standardized by the Greeks but it started with 4 notes with the first and last note being a ratio of 4/3. Because a Lyre at the time had 4 strings. The 7 note diatonic scale gradually became the standard by trying to find the best way to tune the middle 2 strings to the outer 2 string. Then the ratio of 3/2 was used which is the root to the perfect 5th and so on. There are books written on the subject if you are interested in how over a couple thousand year western music was broken into 12 interval to make up the chromatic
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If interested piqued by this then you could do a lot worse than watching Howard Goodall’s two series The Story of Music (BBC Howard Goodall's Story of Music 1of6 The Age of Discovery - YouTube) and Big Bangs (Howard Goodall's Big Bangs. Part1: Notation - YouTube).
As a bonus, he is a big fan of The Beatles (me not nearly as much) so this may also be good (but I’ve not watched it) The Beatles: a musical appreciation and analysis by composer, Howard Goodall CBE - YouTube
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Big Cats Eat Fish, not Frogs! 
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Big Cats Eat First
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Not bad, mmontri. I always knew it as Big Cats Eat Fish. Eat Frogs is a bit bizarre.
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