Accidentals: music symbols explained

10 symbols and terms, each explained in a sentence or two — the same dictionary the free Artform score reader uses when you tap a marking on a real score.

♯Sharp

Raises the note a semitone, to the very next key on the piano, and stays in force for the rest of the bar.

♭Flat

Lowers the note a semitone. Same rule: it holds until the bar line.

♮Natural

Cancels a sharp or a flat, whether it came from the key signature or from earlier in the bar.

𝄪Double sharp

Raises the note two semitones. It looks like a mistake and is not: in a sharp key it keeps the letter names of a scale in order.

Key signature

The sharps or flats printed after the clef. They apply to every octave of those letters, all the way through, so the page never repeats them.

Double flat

Lowers the note two semitones. Like the double sharp, it exists to keep letter names in order rather than to be difficult.

Courtesy accidental

An accidental in brackets, reminding you that the last bar's sharp has expired. It changes nothing and prevents an argument.

Order of sharps

F C G D A E B. Every key signature adds them in that order, which is why one sharp is always F sharp.

Order of flats

B E A D G C F: the sharps backwards. One flat is always B flat.

Accidental duration

An accidental holds for the rest of that bar, in that octave, on that line or space, and then it is gone.

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