In musical notation, the sharp, flat, and natural symbols, among others like double sharp or double flat, placed before a note are called accidentals.
Accidentals raise or lower a note pitch by a semitone or even by a tone.
But wait, what is a semitone, and what is a tone? A semitone is also called half step interval, and a tone is also called a whole step interval.
A semitone is the smallest distance between notes and traditional music.
If you take a piano keyboard, any key is a half step apart from each other.
You can't have a smaller distance between notes unless you are playing some contemporary music that uses even smaller intervals.
But in traditional music notation, the semitone is the smallest interval you can have.
A tone instead is composed of two semitones.
In a piano keyboard, you have a tone every two keys.
A tone is a second interval.
Two tones is a third interval, and so on up to one octave.
Now that you know what a tone and a semitone are, let's see what accidentals can do to a note.
As we said earlier, accidentals raise or lower a note pitch as follows.
A sharp symbol raises a note by one semitone or one half step.
A flat symbol lowers a note by one semitone or one half step.
And a natural symbol cancels any previously used sharp or flat indication so that the note gets back to its natural state as defined in the key signature.
And what else do we have? Oh yes, as I mentioned, we may also find a double sharp, which raises a note a whole tone, or a double flat, which lowers a note a whole tone.
As a general rule, accidentals are only applicable inside the bar where they appear.
If you find an accidental inside a bar and you don't find it again in the following bar, its effect is no longer applied.
Of course, that's not the case when accidentals are defined in the key signature. Accidentals, in fact, can also be placed at the beginning of the piece or subsequent section in order to have all subsequent corresponding notes altered accordingly, unless a different accidental is placed before them.
Accidentals are symbols that are placed in front of notes to alter their pitch. Any note can be raised or lowered by placing an accidental directly before it:
Here are a few examples:
As a general rule, accidentals are only applicable inside the bar in which they appear. If you find an accidental inside a bar and don’t find it again in the following bar, its effect is no longer applied. This is not the case when accidentals are defined as key signature. Accidentals can also be placed at the beginning of the piece or subsequent section in order to have all subsequent corresponding notes altered accordingly, unless a different accidental is placed before them:
What are intervals?
Intervals in music refer to the distance in pitch between two notes. They are fundamental to understanding melody, harmony, and scale structures in music.
A semitone (half step) is the smallest distance between notes in traditional music. If you take a piano keyboard, any key is a half step apart and therefore is a semitone. You can’t have a smaller distance between notes. On the other hand, a tone (whole step) is composed of two semitones. On a piano keyboard, you have a tone every two keys. One tone is a second interval, two tones are a third interval, and so on, up to one octave:
Practice test
Answer the questions below to verify your knowledge of what has been explained above:
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