For example, instead of writing it is much easier to write. When played, these two measures would sound exactly the same. Even if there are other notes in the measure, the note that is preceded by a sharp or flat remains sharp or flat in that measure. The notes in the example below read B-flat, C, A, B-flat, even though the last note does not have the flat symbol before it. If the note is no longer supposed to sound sharp or flat, it will be preceded by a natural sign. The note in the following example is an E-natural.
Remember, accidentals only apply within the given measure. Measures are separated by bar lines, a thin, vertical straight line that passes through the four spaces of the staff, as pictured below.
Take a look at Example 2a below. Because there is a bar line separating the fourth note from the fifth note, the fifth note is actually a B-natural, not a B-flat.
This is a friendly reminder that the previous accidental no longer applies. Both examples 2a and 2b would sound exactly the same when played. In many cases, a composer or arranger may wish for certain notes to be flat or sharp throughout a whole piece, unless otherwise indicated by a natural sign or other accidentals, of course! They will communicate this in sheet music by utilizing a key signature.
A key signature defines the key of the music and thus what flats or sharps are supposed to be played throughout the piece. This helps reduce the need for accidentals i.
Now, there are some important rules to know about key signatures. A key signature is made up of sharps or flats, not a combination of the two. Flats and sharps are added in a particular order, as outlined below. Flats in the key signature lower the pitch of notes on the corresponding line or space by a half-step or semitone. This transfers to all octaves.
Different keys are defined by the number of flats or sharps in the key signature, starting with the leftmost and moving to the right. For example, if there is only one flat in the key signature, it will always be B-flat. If there are three flats, they will always be B-flat, E-flat and A-flat, and so on.
Sharps in the key signature raise the pitch of notes on the corresponding line or space by a half-step. Different keys are defined by the number of sharps or flats in the key signature, also proceeding from left to right.
For example, if you one sharp in the key signature, it will always be F-sharp. If you have four sharps, they will always be F-sharp, C-sharp, G-sharp and D-sharp, and so on. A helpful way to remember the order in which flats and sharps are added to a key signature is to recognize that they are the reverse of each other.
As you can see in the image below, flats are added to the notes from left to right and sharps are added to the notes from right to left. Many musicians often get their start playing the piano or keyboard. In fact, students who go on to study music in college are required to take a piano proficiency course. It is helpful to have an understanding of the piano keyboard, especially when we discuss scales, in the next section. This pattern repeats several times on a keyboard.
There is a half-step between every key on the piano, whether you are moving from a white key to a black key or a white key to a white key. Even though there is no black key between E and F or between B and C, each pair is still only a half-step apart.
Because there is a black between C and D, D and E, etc. Remember how we discussed earlier that a sharp raises the pitch of a note by a half-step and a flat lowers the pitch of a note by a half-step? The black keys perform this function on a piano. For example, the black key you see between C and D sounds a C-sharp or a D-flat. Visually, it makes complete sense because the black key is positioned above the C and below the D. The note between D and E is a D-sharp or an E-flat, and so on. The order in which flats or sharps are added to a key signature is so important because, in Western music, much of the melody and harmony of a piece is built using the notes of a single scale.
Scales are a set of notes ordered by a combination of whole steps and half steps. There are several types of scales in the musical language; this article will focus on major and minor scales. This particular scale has no sharps or flats.
It would also be played solely on the white keys of a keyboard. All major scales are comprised of the following pattern of tones: whole-step, whole-step, half-step, whole-step, whole-step, whole-step, half-step.
If you were to start the scale on a note other than C, you would need to add sharps or flats to maintain this pattern of tones. As you now know, there is a whole-step between A and B, but in a major scale, that distance needs to be a half-step. Therefore, we lower the pitch of the B by a half-step to B-flat. For the record, in a written scale, you never have two notes containing the same letter name.
In the F-major scale, you would never see the B-flat written as an A-sharp. The distance between the second and third notes of a major scale is a whole-step. Since there is only a half-step between E and F, we need to raise the F by a half-step to an F-sharp.
The same is true between the sixth and seventh notes of the scale, which is why there is a written C-sharp. Every major scale has a relative minor scale. A relative minor scale shares the same key signature as its major scale, but it begins on the sixth note of the major scale. For example, A is the sixth note of the C-major scale, which makes A-minor the relative minor scale of C-major.
Look at the F-major and D-major scales above? What is the relative minor scale for each of those major scales? Hint: find the sixth note of the scale. Because you are using the same key signature as a major scale, but starting on the sixth note, there is a different pattern of whole-steps and half-steps.
Take a look at the A-minor scale below. All natural minor scales are comprised of the following pattern of tones: whole-step, half-step, whole-step, whole-step, half-step, whole-step, whole-step. You may be wondering why this scale is called A-natural minor, and not simply A-minor.
That is because there are three types of minor scale. The natural minor scale makes no alteration to the notes in the indicated key signature; in other words, there are no accidentals. In the harmonic minor scale, the seventh note of the scale is raised by one half-step. In the A-harmonic minor scale, the G becomes a G-sharp. The third type of minor scale is the melodic minor scale. This one is a bit tricky, because it is different ascending than descending.
All scales discussed previously are the same ascending and descending. In the melodic minor scale, the sixth and seventh notes of the scale are raised by a half-step going up and return to their original pitch, as indicated by the key signature, on the way down.
An extremely helpful device to remember all of the different major and minor scales and their flats or sharps is called the Circle of Fifths.
This is the best friend of many students studying music theory. For demisemiquavers and hemidemisemiquavers we would just add an additional beam or two depending on how many tails the note has. When this is the case we can use a dotted note to extend the duration of the note. A tie is a sloped line that joins together two notes that are next to each other and have the same pitch.
When you see a tie it means that the time values of the notes are added together to create a longer note. Read more in my guide to tied notes here. You can read more about the different music rest symbols here. Musical ornaments are a shorthand way of writing more complicated musical devices but with a simple symbol. I cover a lot of the common ones in this post on musical ornaments here if you want to read more about them. Another type of musical note that you might see is a group of notes with a number three over the top.
These notes with a number three over them are a type of tuplet called triplets. To read more about them check out my in-depth guide to triplets where I go into more detail about how to draw them with loads of examples. You can also get another type of tuplet irregular time division called a duplet.
To read more about them check out our post on how to play musical duplets here. Most people will focus on memorising all the notes and think that they have to know them all before starting to play music. I find the best way to really learn how to read music and learn all the notes is to do it as much as possible.
If you want to keep learning, check out my other free music theory lessons here. Last updated 6th February Table of Contents. A quick guide to musical notes.
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