What Are Sharps And Flats?

Are you wondering what the little signs and symbols are in your music? You're not alone. What you are seeing may be sharps and flats. These symbols simply tell you to make the sound of a note higher or lower, depending on what symbol is being used.

Sharps

The purpose of a sharp sign is to raise the pitch of the note a half step. The actual note will sound higher.

Not sure what a half-step is? Take a look at the piano. Pick any white key to play. Now play the very next possible key up. That is a semitone or half-step. When playing sharps, you move to the very next key to the right on the piano making the pitch sound higher.

Flats

The little "b" symbol is called a flat. Think of a flat car tire. Everything sinks down and gets lower. That's what the flat does to the music note in a sense, the pitch sounds lower.

On the piano, you would play a half-step moving to the left when playing flats. The pitch should sound lower. Remember that a half-step is moving down to the very next possible key you can play. When starting on a white key, the very next key down may be a black key if it is available. If not, then a half-step down would be a white key.

Writing Sharps and Flats

On the music staff, sharps and flats are written to the left of the music note. For flats the little belly of the "b" symbol will be on the same line or space as the note it is attached to. The same is true for sharps. The center box of the sharp sign is centered on the same space or line as the note.

Now, here is what's different. When you write about flats and sharps on paper as language (Ab or G#), the symbol is placed to the right of the letter. Since this is "talking" about music, writing about it follows in the same way that you would speak about it.

To review, sharps raise the pitch of the note while flats lower the sound of the note. Flats are found a half-step to the left on the piano while the sharps move a half-step to the right. When writing music on the staff, the symbols are placed to the left of the note. In any other writing about music, the signs are placed to the right of the letter name just like how you would say it out loud.

See, those little symbols aren't too foreign after all. Sharps and flats are pretty easy to learn and understand. This is especially true if you have a piano handy to see it on the keyboard. Always be sure that you do hear the pitch being altered either higher or lower when playing flats or sharps to make sure you are on the right track. Be proud of yourself. You can now read these little symbols with ease.

Teresa Rose loves helping others learn music.  Visit her website for more tips on how to read flats and sharps.  Sign up for her free Learning About Music eCourse when you're there.

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