Music notation glossary · Accidentals
Flat
a semitone lower
As a Unicode character — to paste into text, spreadsheets or chat. Whether it appears depends on the font.
In the score
What it means
Lowers the note by a semitone. In English the note keeps its letter and gains the word flat: B becomes B flat.
Accidentals
Lowers the note by a semitone, the counterpart to the sharp. In print it looks like a small letter b, which is exactly where its German name comes from. It stands in the key signature of flat keys and anywhere in the bar where a note is wanted a semitone lower.
First the note without a sign, then the same note with it
Related pages
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See AnotonaEvery note on this page is computed, not typed in — following the rule that also makes F# major spell its seventh degree E#, not F.