It can be placed in key signatures, or on the same rules that apply to the sharp accidental apply to the flat accidental. It also changes a note by a half step, except this time the flat symbols lowers the note by a half step. It is another important part of music theory. The flat symbol looks like a lowercase b. Many chords use accidentals! The flat symbol One of the most common places we see sharp signs is when we start to look at harmony in music. What about the notes written in the second bar? The previous accidental does not apply to subsequent notes in the new bar. Many beginning piano students need to look accidentals definition music theory, so let’s look at another example: So once you are told to play a note that a sharp raises, the following C notes are the same key. When a note is affected by an accidental in a measure, the following note is affected as well, but not written. If the note following is still played with a sharp, it doesn’t need to be written on that note. The notes written afterward are still C#, but because composers used to have to write all of this music out by hand, they made a rule. This can look tricky but in fact it is not. What can be very tricky is when you have the same pitch being written after it. If you were playing the note C on your keyboard, and you saw this, you would play the black key one step higher than C. Most often it will change a white keys into black keys, but if the sharp symbol is applied to the note B or E it will move them up a half step, but not to a white key. It can be applied to any key on your piano keyboard. It is called a Sharp accidental, or a Sharp sign. This symbol looks like a number sign, but it actually is not. How is it that we can play the black keys on the piano? We use accidentals! The sharp symbol However, since we know there are only 7 piano note names, A B C D E F G, that is only the white keys. When composers write sheet music, they need to be able to play lots of different types of notes. No credit card details required Start your piano journey now! What are accidentals in music?

Piano sharp and flat symbol