Learning to Read Music: Part 6

Learning About Accidentals 

Why does music have hash tags? And what are those other symbols? Western music is made up of "whole steps" and "half steps" (also called semi-tones). There are the seven note names that you know: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G, but there are actually 12 different notes because there are five additional pitches in between. Sharps (#) and flats (♭) are used to designate these additional notes. 

An easy way to visualize this is to think of a keyboard. The white keys are the pitches A through G, repeating up the keyboard. The black keys are the sharps and flats. Each black key has both a sharp key (#) and a flat key (♭) name, depending on from which direction it is approached. Sharps raise the pitch of a note and flats lower it. So the black key to the immediate right of G is G# and the black key just left of G is G♭. However, G# can also be called A♭ and G♭ can also be called F# depending on how the music is written. A fancy name for this is that they are enharmonic notes. 

In Western music, the smallest distance between any two consecutive notes is a half step. Two half steps make a whole step. 

But what about the places on the keyboard where there aren't black keys? Where are the half steps there? Even though there aren't black keys between E and F and from B to C, these are actually half steps. C♭ is the same as the note B and and F♭ is the same as an E. All other consecutive white keys have a whole step between them. 

Flats and sharps are collectively known as accidentals. Another common accidental is the natural sign (♮) which is used to cancel a previous flat or sharp. Flats and sharps marked in the music are only active in the measure in which they appear, unless they are part of the key signature. We'll learn more about key signatures next week!

Click here to watch a YouTube video from Music Discoveries Piano about sharps, flats, and natural signs.

Want to learn more about accidentals? Watch this video from RIAM (Royal Irish Academy of Music) or this one from Odd Quartet about sharps and flats.

Now it's your turn. Print this free worksheet from Color in My Piano to practice drawing sharps and flats.