Music notation glossary · Accidentals
Natural
back to the plain note
As a Unicode character — to paste into text, spreadsheets or chat. Whether it appears depends on the font.
In the score
What it means
Cancels a sharp or a flat — the note applies without an accidental again. It works against the key signature just as it does against an accidental earlier in the same bar.
Accidentals
Takes an accidental back and restores the plain note. It is the only one of the five with no fixed interval: after a sharp it lowers by a semitone, after a double sharp by two. It works on whatever is in force — on the accidental in the bar as much as on the key signature.
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.