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Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom

Robert Hutchinson

Section 1.4 Accidentals

There are five types of accidentals; accidentals are characters that can be placed before notes to raise or lower them.
  • The sharp symbol—♯—raises a pitch a half step.
  • The flat symbol—♭—lowers a pitch a half step.
  • The double sharp symbol—𝄪—raises a pitch two half steps, or a whole step.
  • The double flat symbol—𝄫—lowers a pitch two half steps, or a whole step.
  • The natural symbol—♮—cancels out any other accidentals that may have occurred earlier in a measure or in Major Key Signatures or Minor Key Signatures.
Example showing G-flat, G-natural, and G-sharp on the staff and on the piano
Figure 1.4.1.
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